Guest Blogger: Mimi

Today’s blog post involves a close look at one of my favorite shows, The Biggest Loser, and brought to you by Mimi, author of a great blog that provides tons of tips like “personal training on a budget” and delicious snack and meal ideas.  Go check her blog out and say hi!

Hello potpies! I am very grateful for the chance to be a guest blogger on For the Love of Oats. Who am I? Just a college girl trying to live a healthy lifestyle. If you’re super curious, my blog is Damn the Freshman 15.

With the new season just kicking off, I thought I would discuss one of my favorite shows, The Biggest Loser.

Wow, Season 7… how many seasons does this show pull off a year? It’s crazy! Despite America’s obesity epidemic, it seems clear that many people want to change. Or maybe the show just attracts sadists who like seeing Jillian Michaels threaten to eat peoples’ ovaries.

Still, I believe the show’s behemothic ratings do come from people who feel inspired. Many people want to change. How else would those colon cleanses and miracle drugs stay in business? Why is America still tottering on cankles? This question answers the former–people want to change, but only if a genie flies up and grants them a svelte figure.

I can see why. The magical entity, whether it is hoodia or lemonade, takes responsibility for the weight loss. Just pop a pill, drink an extra glass of water, and wait for the weight to melt off. If the product doesn’t work, then obviously it’s defective. Sherry and Rosa looked hot in their After photos!

Developing healthy eating habits and an exercise regiment requires self discipline. It requires hard work, willpower, and fewer trips to Wendy’s. If Little Todd tries this method and it fails…well, there is no one to blame but Little Todd. And that stings. It stings so bad that the only cream for it comes in a freezer.

The Biggest Loser offers a crossroad. Yeah, the poor tubby makes the decision to be on the show, runs himself ragged for months, and at the end loses 100 pounds. But who drives him on? Bob or Jillian. It’s Jillian threatening to castrate him for hours every day. It’s Bob giving inspirational speeches. Just listen to Bob and Jillian, use your allotted calories, and BAM, magical, sweaty, eventual sexy. Losing 15 pounds in a week–that’s the kind of results Little Todd wants to see. And the burn that comes from 8 hours of daily working out? It is a warm little fire makes it seem like Little Todd really did do it all by himself.

But most people are not on The Biggest Loser. And therefore, weight loss is forever a chasm away. Little Todd merely sprawls on his chair and ottoman every Tuesday, pint of Dreyer’s Double Churned (because that’s the healthy kind, right?) in hand, and watches infinitely luckier people have the time of their lives as they vomit all over a treadmill.

Little Todd does not understand The Biggest Loser. He’s not alone.

Many people who have lost weight or specialize in the health field despise The Biggest Loser with all the burning passion of Jack-In-the-Box’s love for trans fats. The Biggest Loser demonstrates unattainable goals–people do not lose 20 pounds in a week on their own (or personal trainer assisted) weight loss plans. The show keeps Little Todds as Little Todds: dreamers who think they can only lose weight if they went to the Ranch, and therefore all is hopeless. Some people, like Season 1′s Ryan, are later shown to have gained all their weight back. Because weight loss comes with a lifetime guarantee, duh.

Lastly, there’s the sheer physical trauma that the contestants undergo each day, the only way their bodies can lose that much weight. 8 hours of cardio, weights, machines, and random obstacle courses. That’s not safe in the real world. All of this is why I disagree with some of the health field.

The Biggest Loser, by virtual of being reality television, is not reality.

Reality television is life through a glass darkly. It has to show extremes, from crazy families to 12-week insane weight loss. It’s a television show with writers, producers, and a crew of people who need to get paid. The contestants are very real, as is their weight loss, but their world is not–at least to our eyes. The challenge of reality television is the balancing act of keeping the action real to the audience but artificial enough to produce what the audience loves.

Let’s start with the jackrabbit weight loss. First, these people are not your average office chubbies. These people are morbidly obese. The more you have to lose, the faster you lose it, until your numbers start to resemble one who is merely overweight. As well, these numbers do not come from the more common regime of 30 minutes of daily cardio. The contestants do 8 hours of gym work a day. There is no way for the weight to stay on. They burn such a massive amount of calories that they will lose weight, no question. You want another program designed to say “screw it” to the body’s nature methods and force it to change? The U.S. Army’s Basic Training.

Then there is the argument that The Biggest Loser is massively unhealthy. Yeah, to attempt to replicate The Biggest Loser in your living room is stupid and unhealthy. But the audience sees only the façade. Behind the scenes, there are vigilant doctors and specialists. Remember when Jerry went down? A medic was instantly there. NBC knows there would be massive lawsuits and public outrage if the contestants came to real harm. In any other setting, the realities of The Biggest Loser would be self-destructive. But imagine the show taking place in a glass box, carefully monitored from all sides.

Now, we get to why I like The Biggest Loser.

The real inspiration. Anyone who thinks last season’s winner, Michelle, did not break herself, rebuild, and rise, is an idiot. You do not lose 110 pounds by magic. Was being screamed at by Jillian a frolic in daffodils? Of course not. Though it’s on an exaggerated scale, Michelle and many other contestants prove that hard work pays off.

You can lose weight without the show. Michelle and Alli are inspirations. But look at a couple from Season 6, Stacey and Adam. They were voted off on the 1st episode. However, we got to see a “Where are They Now” segment. Where are Stacey and Adam? Tons thinner. They eat healthy, go jogging together, and keep their kids on an active lifestyle. Jillian was not flying over every night to run their shins off. They did it together, no cameras, nothing to prove but their own resolution to get healthy. To me, Stacey and Adam are just as much of an inspiration as Michelle. I’m excited to see how this season’s at-home contestants fare. Let’s just say I was doing a happy dance when Jerry and Estella’s segment came on!

The need for internal change. The contestants who succeed–both during and after the show–have to change their outlooks. Jillian and Bob stress this requirement. People do not become obese from just eating too many French fries. These constants all have mental and emotional issues that contribute to their present state. To lose weight permanently, one must get to the bottom of that dark and nasty pit that is one’s psyche. Why does Jillian howl at her team, “Why are you fat?!” It’s not just drama; she’s trying to make them confront their true reasons for being heavy and never doing anything about it.

No quick fixes. These quicksilver results do not come instantly. Even with the accelerated nature of the show, the contestants have to work to reshape their bodies. When someone tries to “cheat,” the results show. Take the winner of Season 1, Ryan. Ryan wanted to win. So what did Ryan do? He did the Master Cleanse, a celebrity crash diet intended for very short term weightloss. Who’s gained back 90 pounds? Our dearest Ryan. The Biggest Loser wisely had a contestant reunion, exposing to America who made legitimate change and who backslid.

Stresses a healthy lifestyle. Once you get over the adorableness of Rocco, you’ll realize he’s an awesome chef in terms of cooking healthy, appetizing meals. “Eating healthy” does not mean living off salads. For the Thanksgiving episode, Rocco taught the contestants how to make a far healthier but still delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone still had turkey and apple pie, just lightened up. Simple exchanges–turkey bacon for pork bacon, PAM instead of butter for greasing a pan, all contributes to a healthy lifestyle. By extension, we are shown these alternatives. A healthy lifestyle goes beyond Diet Coke.

A scientific look at obesity. The most disturbing part of the show is when the contestants meet with a doctor and are shown 3D representations of their bodies. The results are scary. Beyond getting mocked by the drunken hobo or having to shop at Torrid, obesity carries lethal health concerns. Many people like to imagine that there are pills for everything. Relying on blood pressure and cholesterol medication may help, but there is no magical pill to heal a fat-encrusted liver. The Biggest Loser puts these realities in the bluntest way possible.

The benefits of a personal trainer. Many people dream of Jillian Michaels molding them into sleek, improved versions of their former selves. Sorry, Jillian’s busy, but surely the thousands of gyms in America have a couple of decent trainers. Chiefly, most people have no idea what to do upon joining a gym. A trainer will create an effective, safe workout. A trainer cannot make you lose weight, but he or she can show you the way and provide encouragement. Trainers are expensive and sometimes used as crutches, but properly utilizing one can provide innumerable help on the quest for weight loss.

I like The Biggest Loser, but I do not for one second take it as reality. Instead, I see it as a funhouse mirror of America, sometimes sinister, sometimes inspiring. On screen one can see what statistics cannot show. In the beginning there is a room of sick, dying people. By the end there is a room of healthy, changed people. I hope Little Todd sees what I do.