Thoughts of a Big Loser on "The Biggest Loser"

As I'm sure many people of the fat persuasion have done, I've watched a couple episodes of this season's Biggest Loser. I watched probably two episodes over the entire course of the series. But this year, seeing as I've joined WW and all, and I'm in a 'try and watch as many success stories/cautionary tales about obesity as possible to help keep me on track' phase, I had a bit more of an interest.

I'm pretty sure any interest I had in it has been stepped on and flattened by the banality of the show. Bottom line, it's crap reality programming, plain and simple.

(Let me take a moment to apologize to anyone reading this who likes the show...I mean no offense; I watch my own fair share of less than stellar programming, America's Funniest Home Videos for one, so I'd never judge another person by what they're watching; if you like it, watch away)

I have a lot of problems with this show. I have more problems with it than I can fit in one blog entry (and expect anyone to actually read it). So I'll try and be brief about them.

1. They rarely, if ever, show people eating food. One episode had the contestants cooking, with the help of Rocco Dispiritoroony or whatever his name is. And that's great, because I don't know about you guys, but stuff like that happens to me every week. They had a 'challenge' that involved guessing calories of fattening foods, and the punishment for failing to come the closest was having to eat the food itself. Would they do that to an alcoholic? "Oh, sorry buddy, you'll have to finish off that fifth of scotch. But it'll sure help those shakes!"

Occasionally they show them eating something, I'm assuming they're having a meal together. But I have no idea how the food got there, what it is, how often or how much they're eating. Now, maybe the general public doesn't realize this, but there's one reason why I am as big as I am. I eat too much. My problem is, has always been, and unfortunately always will be, with food. Sure, exercising isn't my favorite thing to do, but for me, my lack of movement followed my addition of weight. I would not have a weight problem if not for food. So, why don't they talk about it? Why don't they try and discuss these people's relationships with food, how to deal with them, and how to live a life of positive, healthy eating? And it's not like anything is so incredibly entertaining that they had to make room by bumping off anything related to food.

2. Another thing I find absolutely ridiculous are these workouts they go through. Where do I begin here? Really. They are taking people who haven't exercised, who don't exercise, and forcing them to do ridiculous workouts so they lose weight. They need trainers to help with FOOD. The exercise? Trainers are great. Exercise is key to weight loss. I get it. But this completely fabricated, phony atmosphere, with trainers like boot camp sergeants, and who I keep expecting to look at the camera and wink, because it's SO obvious they're performing, is just so far out of the realm of reality that I have a really hard time watching.

3. Another thing that gets me is the attitude toward the actual losing of the weight. I know it's a game show (because it really is, isn't it...just a really long game show) where they award the person who loses the most weight. But isn't the person who loses the least weight the one who needs help? And yet, that's the one (or in this case, the pair) who get sent home. Sure, they have their biggest loser program to follow and they keep losing weight and they get their 15 minutes of fame. But what exactly are we rewarding here?

A really sad thing is that some of these people feel bad, are downright crestfallen, because their weight loss didn't meet their expectations. So, someone who lost 7 pounds in a week feels bad because they lost less than their competitors. 7 pounds. Where the hell am I exactly? They're crying. They berate themselves. They get angry.

I've gotten angry over not losing what I'd hoped. But i remind myself, a loss is a loss.

4. A whole other reason I don't care for it is that it's just not very good. Goodly parts of it are downright boring. The challenges are boring. The people are, frankly, boring. On the last episode a father/daughter pair had to choose between them who would go home. The conversation between the father and daughter was endless, and I think it was supposed to be suspenseful, but I just felt like telling them to shut the hell up and decide already.

So, I don't think I'll be watching much anymore. Or at all. Maybe if it's on and I'm flipping around I'll....

Oh for crying out loud, who am I kidding. I'll never watch it again.