The Biggest Loser

I was dissapointed with the new finale format and for the at - home winner. I enjoyed the old show watching each person weigh in, seeing what they lost and giving each person one last time to shine. It makes me feel like the ones not in the top three didn't even need to bother to show up. And the setting? No formal stage and theater. No big audience. Just some folding chairs set up in the weigh -in room for family members. It's like having the academy awards at your backyard barbeque.

Before listing the numerous bad points I have to say there is one point about this show that is so amazingly good it almost makes up for the bad ones: it demonstrates with no doubt whatsoever that nearly ANYONE CAN BE ACTIVE no matter what their weight. A good deal more active than most people believe is possible. This is so important. It shows that change is possible. It also shows how people who do eat well and exercise can accomplish amazing things well before they reach their goal weights, that there are rewards for changing your lifestyle throughout the journey, not just when you reach that magical number you've been striving for on the scale.

Among the bad points are the cheap psychoanalyzing that goes on, which appears to be more for making drama moments than actually accomplishing anything constructive, product placements (especially for products one strongly doubts the trainers actually encourage the contestants to use), the necessity for some contestants to lose more weight than is healthy in order to win, and raising unrealistic notions of what constitutes an appropriate rate of weight loss or level of intensity of exercise would be safe for viewers at home without strict medical supervision.

Fat people are basically the last group in America but it's safe to demonize, and it's really hard to watch Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper gleefully abuse these people. But the worst part about this show is how blatantly unhealthy it is, not just because of the abuse, but because these "extreme workouts" and insane diets (contestants subsisting on sugar-free Jell-O and diuretics, trainers giving contestants amphetamines) permanently damaged the contestants' metabolism, and for what? They gained all the weight back as soon as the show ended because they never learned anything about proper nutrition, healthy eating and living, or how to lose weight safely and sustainably. In the end, only Bob, Jillian, and NBC benefited from this show. I hope they never bring it back.

Hey! Let's watch and see who gets voted off this week!

VOTED OFF???

The format of this "new" show demonstrates the inability, or at least unwillingness, of TV show creators to move beyond established paradigms and old modes of thinking. Why is it that all so-called reality shows have to vote someone off? For this show, the old "Survivor model" just doesn't work and is, indeed, quite out of place.

This whole show, while it has some appeal to the TV watching population who empathize with the need to shed pounds, has some serious challenges which are not addressed. The participants have been split into teams and the team who loses the least total weight is forced to vote a member off. The number of pounds lost, in itself, in a given week is a poor indicator of overall weight management. Weight control is a longer process than a single week and should be measured over a longer time. There also is the fact that losing weight too quickly is NOT necessarily the most healthy way to lose it and often losing weight too quickly tends to result in temporary results! Lastly, I will mention that in a health program, a person may lose fat but gain muscle which results in a lower NET weight loss. Focusing solely on pounds lost is a recipe for poor health.

Most importantly, any dieter will tell you that the challenge is NEVER to shed pounds but to KEEP them off! While this show talks about "healthy lifestyles", the only measure of success in the team competition is pounds lost. The single biggest challenge to weight loss, keeping weight off, becomes an afterthought.

Participants should not be voted off. A new format was needed here. They all should have remained until the final weeks of the show where their overall results and HEALTH, based on medical indicators, fitness and other factors is measured. There could be athletic competitions as well in the final weeks when you finally begin to eliminate those whose overall health has not improved as much. You can never tell each week whose overall success will be greatest in the long run. Also it would be ideal if the finale of the show could have been filmed months after the completion of the initial program to help measure how well people have kept it off.

As it stands, this show only reinforces the notion of crash dieting and scale watching to temporarily lose the greatest pounds without regard for true health or permanent results. An abomination of a show, considering.

What has reality TV come to these days with shows from Real World to Apprentice picking stereotyped characters to appear on them week after week and season after season. The Biggest Loser, however, is a different make-up entirely, featuring normal yet overweight contestants to compete to see who can lose the most weight and be...THE BIGGEST LOSER.

Two teams train and face-off each week in different challenges. Some of the challenges focus around their improvement, such as seeing how far one can ride an exercise bike for a set number of hours. Other challenges focus on the contestants' weaknesses, such as having them build a tall tower out of sugary food. It sounds cheesy, but it's fun to watch as the two teams try their best each week in the competitions. Host Caroline Rhea and trainers Bill and Jillian also provide a nice distraction from the contest and contestants. Caroline even has exciting lines such as "It's time to...CUT THE FAT!" Where do these writers come from...?

After the competition (and watching the winning team with their prize), we then have the weigh-off where each team member sees how much weight they have lost that week. Sometimes inspirational, other times boring, the weigh-in is one of the best moments of reality TV for me. Each week I get to watch as each team member works to try and lose weight and the real payoff comes in these moments. Afterwards, the team that loses the least weight has to vote a team member off, Survivor style. It can be somewhat cheezily intense.

Sometimes the game seems a little unfair...it appears that every week, whoever wins the challenge for that week gets some cushy prize. The team that loses the challenge stays home and gets extra workout time. Does this seem like cheating to anyone else? It always seems to be that the team that wins the challenge loses the weigh-in. Hopefully if this show sees a second season (which I hope), this problem will be addressed.

While some have complained that the show should focus more on maintaining a low weight instead of just shedding the pounds, the fine print at the end of each episode says that they trainers and show mentors DO address this! As well, each contestant, as least as far as I can tell, is dangerously overweight and needed to shed that many pounds, so I don't know where some reviewers on here get off saying that the contestants should be focusing less on rapid weight loss. Rapid weight loss is dangerous for people of AVERAGE body weight. As well, each contestant has been medically consulted.

Lastly, it is important to note that the show is also inspirational in many aspects. It shows that people who are overweight can still achieve things they would not have normally thought were possible. Each and every contestant has stated this, and I feel it is important to reinforce on here. The Biggest Loser shows how much can be achieved in diet, exercise, and self-image, which is important to an overweight America. I highly suggest tuning in!