I nearly cried when I read the news.
NBC’s weight loss competition show, The Biggest Loser, is coming back to television. Yup. Here come the tears.
The show will air in 2020 on USA Network with a ten-episode run and some pretty “exciting” changes. According to USA & SyFy Network’s president, Chris McCumber, the show will focus on a heath, or rather, wellness, as a whole. “We’re re-imagining The Biggest Loser for today’s audiences, providing a new holistic, 360-degree look at wellness, while retaining the franchise’s competition format and legendary jaw-dropping moments.”
This REALLY should not happen. Since they left, many former contestants have come forward to expose the truth about what it was like to be on the show. According to a report by The New York Times, health truly took a “back seat” on The Biggest Loser. The program demanded severe caloric restriction, in addition to six plus hours a day of intense exercise. This caused contestants to lose more than 15 pounds a week.
That is appalling. No, it’s scary. Doctors warn that you shouldn’t lose more than 2-3 pounds a week. When weight loss occurs too quickly, it weakens the heart, causes an irregular heartbeat, and depletes the body’s storage of potassium and other electrolytes.
One contestant admitted that producers encouraged participants to use dangerous weight-loss techniques such as self-induced dehydration and illegal drugs. Another contestant reported that the show led her to develop an eating disorder. Read that again. The show led her to develop an eating disorder. It’s a bit ironic that a show meant to improve a person’s health actually sent multiple contestants to the hospital.
But this time, the show is going to focus on overall wellness, so it must be okay, right? Wrong. Evidence has proven again and again that diets do not work. Your body simply does not know the difference between a famine and your diet’s calorie deficit. It literally perceives dieting as starvation and launches into action to keep your body alive.
The show, as almost all others do, relies on sensationalism. In the quote above, USA & SyFy Network’s president President McCumber said that the show will retain the “legendary jaw-dropping moments.” This probably means weigh-ins during which the contestants lose an unhealthy number of pounds per week.
USA described the show as follows:
“TBL will feature a dynamic new team of experts determined to dramatically improve America’s lifespans and waistlines. The revamped version of the iconic NBC hit competition series will feature people competing not only to lose weight, but also improve their overall wellbeing.”
Here are some problems with this description. According to Linda Bacon- PhD, researcher and author of Body Respect and Health at Every Size, it’s a total myth that weight loss prolongs life. In fact, physiologist Glenn Gaesser identified 15 studies published between 1983 and 1993 which proved that weight loss actually increases the risk of dying early. On the other hand, no studies have indicated an association between weight loss and increased life span (source: Health at Every Size).
Another problem is the phrase, “determined to dramatically improve America’s…waistlines.” Hun, your waistline is simply not an indicator of health. There are fat people who are extremely healthy and thin people who are extremely unhealthy. This is just an ignorant and misleading statement. I guess they are trying to imply that a smaller waistline fits the ideal beauty standard, which is ridiculous because who even gets to establish the beauty standard? The fashion industry? The weight loss industry? Why do they get to pick, huh? Who made them king of the world?
The Biggest Loser is coming back, and I don’t think there is much we can do to stop it. But, this doesn’t mean you have to watch it. In fact, I insist that you don’t. The show promotes weight loss as a means of increased health, which is an outright lie. It fact, it will probably do the contestants more harm than good.
Image via The Biggest Loser
Great. Thanks for sharing