Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Biggest Loser

I get sucked into the occasional reality show. There's something wonderfully perverse about watching people make fools of themselves or self-destruct on tv. I figure that in about 20 years everyone in the US will have been on a reality show. Except me. NEVER! I don't watch a lot of tv and don't have cable so most of my reality tv viewing is limited to that which gets enough of a buzz that I've actually heard of it or that I've seen at a friend's house or at a hotel.

A few weeks ago I got home from work after my late shift and was totally wired - not tired, not sleepy, not anywhere near thinking about bedtime. I turned on the tv and discovered The Biggest Loser. That's right. The Biggest Loser. Have you heard of this show? They take a group of morbidly obese men and women, sequester them at a ranch in Simi Valley and have them do whatever it takes to lose the weight - learn to eat healthy, massive amounts of exercise, etc. Each episode there is a challenge where a team or person wins immunity or an advantage at the weigh in. Yes, there's a weigh-in. The majority of the show seems to focus on the over dramatized weigh-in where the person with the lowest percentage of weight loss is up for elimination.

Fascinating, fascinating, fascinating. First, the people on this show are massively overweight. 300lbs, 400lbs, etc. This season there were two friends who at age 18, were already weighed about 450lbs (at 5'7")!! At age 18!! Some had been thin-ish before, some gave up, some had been overweight since birth. I really feel for these people. They are desperate to lose weight and turn their lives around but don't know how or have lost hope. It can't be easy to live at such a high weight.

Not much really happens in the show. Any drama seems like it was created by the show. Basically they work out with their trainers, do the challenge and do the weigh in. The trainers, Bob and Jillian, are a mis-matched pair. Bob is motivational and supportive. I would want Bob on my side. Jillian is abrasive and shouts a lot of abuse at her charges. Her voice is scratchy and makes her sound even nastier than she it. Different people respond to and need different things for motivation. This week the group had a challenge and re-organized the teams so that most of them were with a new trainer. Such tears! Such crises! I get it - they had gotten this far with their trainer that it must have been a crises of faith to switch. The workouts are insane. I am used to distance - running, biking and swimming. Their workouts put mine to shame. They do massive amounts of strength training, power lifting, sprints on the treadmill and bike, and other indescribable, nutty things that I can't explain.

The first weigh in I watched was shocking. The contestants take off their shirts and get on the scale. I don't have a lot of experience seeing morbidly obese people - the communal shower at the pool was full of the thin to average set. One contestant (who is on the show with his 18 year old son) has lost enough weight that his skin is literally layered around his torso, hanging off in ripples. They lose massive amounts of weight each week - 5lbs! 10lbs! 15lbs! Standard weight loss rules say that a weight loss of 1-2lbs per week is healthy. I suppose if you have 200lbs to lose than a 10lbs weight loss is ok? The guy who was voted off this week (Dane?) set a show record by losing 100lbs in 8 weeks. I am at once happy for the guy and worried that he'll slip back into old habits and re-gain. After someone is voted off they show a video of the person in the future so you can see how much more they lost after leaving the show. I think a video of the person a year later would be more telling than a few months.

The contestants all seem to really care about one another. When it's decision time to determine who will be eliminated they think in terms of "who will be most supported at home" instead of "who's the biggest threat to me". I really feel for all of them. I Often think I am fat and would like to eliminate certain areas from my body, but these people really are FAT. It's really awesome to watch them perform and lose weight and feel good about themselves. I root for them on the show and hope they have the strength to keep the wight off and continue on a positive momentum.

What does this all mean?? I don't know. First it puts my own body and weight issues in perspective. Feeling a little icky in the thigh area is nothing to these people. Secondly I will admit that I am a fat-ist and often judge people who are overweight (like morbidly overweight) and wonder "does it bother you??" I am lucky to have good genetics and actually enjoy exercise so I am really a judgemental jerk for thinking this. Third, I think about someone in my own family who is overweight. I worry A LOT about this person and wonder if they're happy and if they want to change. It's clear from The Biggest Loser that like anything else, you have to want to change. Maybe my family member doesn't want to change or maybe they don't know how. I wish I could be like the trainer Bob and be supportive and encouraging to them and let them know how worried I am and actually help. Or maybe it's just a silly reality show with an interesting premise that I shouldn't take so seriously?

3 comments:

  1. ron's stomach is a result of stomach surgery gone bad. he's on my nerves at the moment. :( but i love, love, love the show. inspirational for sure.

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  2. I just learned about the surgury this week! I had no idea. He's totally on my nerves too - it's funny that they never show him working his butt off . . . I am rooting for the cousins and Tara (but not Laura).

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  3. okay, at first, i couldn't stand Tara, but now I love her and she looks amazing!!! Laura is just strange. And I don't think Jillian was mean to her--sorry. I'd of done the same thing...:) ron needs to gooooooooo...

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