The Biggest Loser: ‘Reality’ Television?

First off, I want to make it clear that I am a fan of the show and have watched almost every season thus far. The show does an excellent job of teaching people how to make a change in your life and inspires confidence. Bob and Jillian are both phenomenal trainers and are a huge asset to the program.

There are, however, a number of issues I have with The Biggest Loser:

• The contestants are in a fantasy setting where everything they do, 24 hours a day, is optimized for weight loss.
• Their only ‘job’ is to lose weight. This is wonderful in the short-term, but is completely unrealistic in the real world.
• Many of these folks are used to eating 3,000 or more calories per day. On the show, they are given 1,500. Dramatic drops in caloric intake will harm, rather than help, their metabolism.
• The contestants are exercising between 4 and 5 hours each day. It’s unrealistic. Nobody has time to exercise that much when they get back home, nor is it safe to do so.
• Most health professionals suggest a weight loss of 1-3 pounds per week at the most. It’s not uncommon for contestants to lose 15 to 25 pounds in a week. Where do you think this weight comes from?
• Rebound weight is imminent. Many former contestants have gained a large portion of their pre-contest weight back.

An article in TIME Magazine featured Season 1 winner, Ryan Benson, who was asked about his strategy for winning. Ryan was quoted as saying ” I wanted to win so bad that the last ten days before the final weigh-in I didn’t eat one piece of solid food (READ: crash diet)! If you’ve heard of ’The Master Cleanse’, that’s what I did. It’s basically drinking lemonade made with water, fresh squeezed lemon juice, pure maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. The rules of the show said we couldn’t use any weight-loss drugs, well I didn’t take any drugs, I just starved myself. Twenty-four hours before the final weigh-in I stopped putting ANYTHING in my body, liquid or solid, then I started using some old high school wrestling tricks. I wore a rubber suit while jogging on the treadmill, and then spent a lot of time in the steam room (READ: dehydration). In the final 24 hours I probably dropped 10-13 pounds in just pure water weight. By the time of the final weigh-in, I was peeing blood.”

As a side note, Ryan, who had lost 122 pounds on the show, has gained 90 pounds back and actually gained 32 pounds in the first 5 days after the show by drinking water! Ryan also became depressed after the weight started coming back on, which I fear is probably quite prevalent among these contestants.

Of course, these tactics were used solely to win the $250,000 prize and most people would probably do the same. It is, of course, very unhealthy and kinda gross (peeing blood would freak me out!). The show does have testing procedures in place to uncover ’cheats’ such as these, but no violations have yet been found.

Another former contestant, Kelly Minner, has apparently managed to keep most of her weight off. However, it seems that she exercises 1 to 4 hours every day, 6 days per week. This is great if your lifestyle affords you that kind of time, but how many of us can actually do that?

The show has also received critisism from nutrition and weight-loss experts such as Kathleen Zelman, RD, who is the director of nutrition for WebMD and the WebMD Weight Loss Clinic. She writes ” The Biggest Loser competition might indeed result in big losses, but it defies all the professional wisdom about safe and effective weight loss. That’s because the contestants are not addressing lifestyle behaviors and eating habits that they need to change permanently, not just during a nine-week race. This approach is similar to a fad diet: You can lose weight on just about any diet, but when it’s over you gain the weight back-unless you’ve changed your behaviors.”

According the the National Weight Control Regisrty, “only 20% of dieters with a history of obesity sustain a loss of 10% of their body weight for a year or more.”

With all that said, this show has done great things for thousands of people. It’s inspired and motivated people all across the country to adopt a healthier lifestyle and/or begin exercising. There are certainly many contestants who have completely changed their lifestyle and have not had negative repercussions from the show.