Regardless of the setting, working yourself into dehyration, pissing blood and puking is not healthy. Football and wrestling coaches look the other way when their players do dangerous things to lose weight or just to make the team, and quite often, these athletes die as a result. The military at least has the excuse that soldiers will face harsh conditions for which they must be fit (and, since they own your ass in the military, they will take some precautions to protect their investment); football, wrestling and The Biggest Loser are all just for our amusement.

Oh, and the messenger at Marathon? Died after delivering his message.

This statement is problematic because it implies that being fat is a symptom of an underlying problem. Some people are healthy, whole, active – and also fat. Humans naturally and healthfully come in all shapes and sizes. To imply that being “of size” is an outward sign of being psycholigcally broken is insulting.

Watching it, I have wondered about the high number of pounds the contestants lose each week. The conventional medical wisdom (which I accept) is that it is not healthy to lose more than one or two pounds a week; yet the contests generally lose between five and fifteen pounds a week. I had assumed (perhaps incorrectly?) that the medical rules are different for people who are as heavy as the contestants on the show and who are under medical supervision. But I was disturbed that there is not an adequate disclaimer advising viewers to take weight loss more slowly at home.

I was also disturbed that that this season began with a one mile race. As a runner, I know that it is not a good idea to have people who are not used to exercising run that far without training for it. That is a distance you work up to gradually over time — and to make it a race was just asking for trouble. It wasn’t exactly a shocker to me when a contestant collapsed. But I note that the consulting doctor admitted in the New York Times story that the race was a mistake.

On the other hand, I am not sure it is fair to blame the show for unhealthy practices like contestants dehydrating themselves. The Times story claims that the show tests and disqualifies contestants who show signs of dehydration or the use of diuretics. Moreover, having been involved in competitive sports much of my life, I know competitors often go to extremes to lose weight even when such is strongly discouraged by coaches.

Of course, this begs the question of whether, weight loss should ever be considered be made into a competition, especially on national television, where the pressure must seem enormous. I think this is a judgment call and may depend on the individuals involved. For many, the element of competition may be an important motivating factor. But the element of competition may drive others off the deep end.

I strongly disagree with the contention that the show presents weight as a moral issue with the contestants as moral failures. I think a really strong aspect of the show is that it presents the contestants’ starting weight in context and also very much humanizes the contestants. The show repeatedly points out that the contestants gained their weight in a world where we are constantly surrounded by huge portions of unhealthy foods, starting as early as the school cafeteria. It is also made clear that individual factors leading to weight gain have nothing to do with lack of virtue. Rather, it is often a response to stressors — like being everyone’s caretaker, experiencing personal tragedy or a dysfunctional upbringing, or dealing with a very demanding schedule. Peer pressure and family pressure also play a role. I actually think the show does a good job of fully humanizing the contestants and establishing that obesity is not a product of laziness and lack of willpower. It also shows contestants coming up with solutions to their obstacles — like incorporating one children’s into one’s exercise routine so as to juggle demands of both parenthood and healthy living.

Viewers enjoy the show because we all struggle with how hard it can be to eat healthfully and exercise regularly. We see ourselves in the contestants and find some inspiration in their successes. I don’t think there is any vibe of, “Ha ha, look at the fat people.”

Meh, the show is not that outrageous if one has ever played football (some people are pukers), cut weight for wrestling or gone to boot camp/officer candidate school.

I find it shocking. Yeah, people puking is a non-issue to me but I have dieted extremely and saunaed down to fight weight (kickboxing) but at the end of the day people doing that are already slim and extremely fit.

That is a different beast altogether from people who are obese, may be completely sedentary, and certainly are not in a good condition to be dehydrating themselves down – for what reason? The point of the show is to get slimmer, losing water-weight gets you points but ultimately is counterproductive for losing fat long-term.

Oh and I’ve never known any fighters or bodybuilders who pissed blood due to getting cut. I mean seriously?

And I really hope the “up to 6 hours a day” is not every day, because that would just be stupid. Rest is as important as exercise for muscle growth and fat loss, if they’re training that much every day it’s entirely counterproductive.

Yup, it’s a disgusting farce so people like the awful trainer referenced above can laugh at fat people and feel superior. Sure, it makes money, but I don’t have to like it – and if it has to exist, they could make it slightly more realistic.

The one thing I disagree with here is that I don’t believe the Biggest Loser portrays fat people as moral failures or suggests that people are fat simply because they are lazy. The trainers actually work with the contestants to help them figure out why they are overweight. The ones that keep it off are the ones that figure out their underlying issues.

I definitely have a love/hate relationship with the show. I wrote a post about it here: http://finallyfiguringitout.blogspot.com/2009/09/biggest-loser-season-8.html

Weight is a serious issue these days (especially with all this talk of health care) and makers of the show know that and saw a chance to profit from it. I get enough flack about being fat that I don’t have to voluntarily tune in to watch fat men worked to unhealthey extremes for entertainment.

Sadly I think Tonya is right its going to take someone dying on that show to put that show under a serious microscope.

The most transparent falsehood of the series is the notion that the contestants have “failed” before this to be healthy. If you had a six-week vacation with access to personal trainers and quite literally had nothing else to do but exercise, yes, you too would lose weight. But that’s not a realistic standard, and everyone knows it. Like most ‘reality’ television, it is utterly unreal and unrealistic. It’s heavily edited with clear narratives established through selective editing, and while the contestants aren’t professional actors, they are aware of the cameras, give interviews, and are acting.