"Biggest Loser" considered harmful

If you ask any weight loss expert, they will tell you that a swift and dramatic weight loss is the worst way to go. It's more difficult on your body than losing weight gradually and slowly on a sane weight loss program. And it's unsustainable, meaning that you will most likely gain all that weight back.

This is common knowledge, and yet "The Biggest Loser" continues to be a thing. And guess what? Almost no one who has been on the show has ever managed to successfully keep the weight off. Worse than that, studies have shown that people who watch the show are actually less likely to engage in physical activity than they were before. The show makes working out seem so unpleasant and horrible that it's a turn-off to the audience.

It should be obvious to anyone watching the show that the participants won't be able to keep the weight off. They spend the entire season training, all day, every day. The show foots the bill for all of their living expenses. I'd look pretty svelte, too, if I could work out all day instead of, you know, working!

But once the contestants go back to their regular lives, they discover that it's a lot more difficult to integrate eating right and exercising regularly into your normal routine. As anyone who has tried to do those things knows. You also can't discount the element of stage fright. It's probably easier to make good eating choices when you have a camera crew filming your every move to broadcast to the entire nation.

The long-term results are so depressing that it kinda makes you wonder why anyone would continue to make the show. From the network executives that approve it, down to the personal trainers who participate in it. Given the evidence before their eyes, it seems disingenuous to continue participating, to say the least.

Image copyright NBC, courtesy Wikimedia Commons