Shame on “The Biggest Loser”
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A post by "J. Mal" To see more posts click here |
This morning I saw an ad on NBC promoting the show “The Biggest Loser“. For those that don’t know anything about it, the show is a contest where contestants, who are extremely overweight, compete to see who can shed the most pounds. It has become a popular show as the emotion and drastic results can be gripping to watch at times. My office even has it’s own version of the contest that it runs every winter. The office winner gets a free year membership to a local gym. During the TV show’s season the hard work and dedication are highlighted as each contestant struggles to change their lifestyle habits in order to create a stronger self image and healthier body. I’m all for this type of life-style change because I believe how you treat your body has a huge impact on your quality of life. If you overeat, don’t exercise, as well as partake in any number of additional bad habits, chances are you won’t live a happy or high quality life.
I have one main problem with this show however. It unfairly casts a discriminatory light on people who are overweight as being the most unhealthy type of people. This show reinforces the mind set in America that being fat makes you inferior. That in order to be happy and healthy you have to be skinny. While I agree that being overweight can lead to many health problems, I am willing to bet there are just as many skinny and non-obese people who are less healthy and have an equally, if not more destructive self image, compared to the contestants on the show.
In my opinion, there needs to be an emphasis about the need for people of all shapes and sizes to work hard and improve their lifestyles. Eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes. From gluttony to anorexia. If you ask me, the real losers are the people who are in denial that only fat people need to change the way they live their lives.
Everyone, including myself, could learn how to treat their bodies better and get into better shape. So instead of just sitting around, eating pizza, and drinking soda,
why not try eating more fruits and vegetables, control your serving sizes but eat more than 1000 calories a day (for you anorexics out there), make sure you get enough protein, stick with real food instead of edible food-like substances, and finally, get some exercise. Changing the way you live your life is not an easy thing to do, as demonstrated by the show. It takes hard work, dedication, intense emotion, education, inspiration, motivation, support, and much more.
This is a call to action for people of all shapes and sizes to realize that the easiest way to make your life better is to take care of your own body. Eat healthy no matter how fat or skinny you are. Exercise even if you don’t look like you need to. It’s time that we started to take our health seriously, so that we don’t need to rely on things like health insurance or doctors for anything other than an emergency.
So again, instead of just being lazy, doing drugs, or eating food all day… why not start the new year off right by taking your health seriously. A good way to start after you finish that 3rd slice of cake is to make sure that…
…UDoTheDishes
P.S. If you have the time and want to hear an interesting perspective on diet and the food we eat, check out the clip below. It’s long, but the beginning is informative for those with just a few minutes.
Fitting post for those looking to their “New Year’s Resolutions” for fortitude. As you eluded to rather than making resolutions maybe we should make lifestyle changes instead. One of the things that keeps me going is looking around at all my friends, male and female and seeing how fit they are and have become – and thinking that I don’t want to be the slouch in my crew or in my social circle. If doing it for YOU isn’t enough impetus than doing it to keep up might be.
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Great post, John! It brings up a really good point that I think many people don’t take the time to realize. While someone may look amazing on the outside, their insides can be total garbage. And, it doesn’t take much to make little changes here and there to get yourself on to a path of healthy living.
Not, of course, that everyone has to live a healthy lifestyle. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. But that brings in all kinds of things like me having to pay for the fact that you need 20 doctors to help you not die of all the bad things your body is going through because you chose to smoke a pack a day, drink beer every night and chase a whole pizza with half a gallon on brownie fudge chunk ice cream. But that’s a topic for another time.
I never thought about it that way. Great insight! Thanks!
I don’t understand the message expressed by this opinion at all, and I cannot imagine the thought process that led to this post even being written in the first place. Per common knowledge I understand eating disorders (based on choice, not necessity) come in two varieties: eating too much and not eating enough, neither is good for the body while both attempt to mask underlying psychological imbalances. This article attempts, without any factual backing, to show similarities in the two. Part of being a writer is to offer insight into a particular topic, not just opinions without merit, and at no point does the author offer definitive numbers, he just speculates for misinformation. That is grossly irresponsible.
The author starts off by saying that the struggle with food is inherent to many body types, and elaborates (albeit briefly) that skinny might not be the way to go as you still could have health problems, self esteem issues, etc., however he never elaborates on any of these “issues”, he just ends with speculation. Without having any numbers or names of disease that effect the “skinny”, such as the perceived common knowledge that obesity leads to heart disease, kidney failure, diabetes, etc. then what makes that argument valid? You can show images of TV stars, however all that adds is more speculation. So Mischa Barton is skinny. Where is the caption that says if she has health problems? Where is any documentation of her health? All you have done is implied that you can diagnose health conditions based on physical appearance, which seems to be just as naive as people who ridicule the overweight for being overweight.
To make matters worse, the author ends the article with a 180 degree turn. He explains that eating healthy and exercising will improve someone’s lifestyle. From my understanding, what The Biggest Loser attempts to do is encourage contestants to lose weight through healthy means of a balanced diet and lots of exercise with a team based strategic contest as the veil. This seemingly self-serving articles first paragraphs criticize the show’s message and execution, while concluding that these methods are something we all should live by.
This article should have appeared in the comments section of another blog.
Thanks for the comments, even if they are critical. I will work harder in the future to provide readers with viable statistics and strong empirical evidence to support my POV.
And, if you choose to re-read the article, you will see that at no point do I ever say anything bad about the show.
The first paragraph not once criticizes the show’s method, it simply describes it.
Quote: “I’m all for this type of life-style change because I believe how you treat your body has a huge impact on your quality of life. If you overeat, don’t exercise, as well as partake in any number of additional bad habits, chances are you won’t live a happy or high quality life.”
And then the next sentence states the main point of the whole piece
“I have one main problem with this show however. It unfairly casts a discriminatory light on people who are overweight as being the most unhealthy type of people. ”
My issue is with the public perception that follows from shows like this, and the lack of any alternative health focused shows which highlight people of all walks of life instead of “JUST” fat people.
opinion –
I don’t think you’re all that familiar with the site, because pretty much everything written here is opinion and perspective writing. Nobody here is a journalist by trade nor does anyone ever claim to be. While I think a lot of the counter points you raise are valid, you certainly could have made them tactfully without coming off as a pedantic douche.
This is a blog, it’s not the New Yorker.
Yet you used the word pedantic to describe someone… So much is to be gained from so little introspection. **end snarkiness (honestly, I don’t think there is anymore needling in the rest of the comment).
John, thanks for the clarification, I think I overlooked certain aspects of the writing without completely taking in the words you had written. I apologize.
S- Dott, you are also correct in wondering whether I spend much time on this site, as no, I do not. I came to this site through a link, and I was simply responding to a post, whose context was a single thought on a single page. I did not know prior knowledge of the site was required and I apologize for that, as well. I did think that my comments were relatively warranted, and were a decent lesson in writing more clearly for future opinions.
In what will most likely be my last thought posted on this site, I do think it is a shame to excuse poor writing (just in general, not this post), by saying it’s a blog. I think if you are going to attempt to do something, you might as well go the extra mile. My goal was not to “hate” or just to criticize John, I thought each comment I made had a remedy so John could correct his errors; and I realize that this site does not expect itself to be taken seriously (I saw the Rock Cartwright interview), but I think there is a duty to at least attempt to create a better product. If the goal is not to be the best, then why do this at all?
all douches: we dont claim to be journalists, but we write our opinions on a blog site, try to achieve a higher volume of traffic for people to read our opinions and then respond to the majority of people that read our opinions. i know we all act like we’re not trying to be who we’re not, but we do want respect, views, comments, suggestions and at some point, advertisers. anytime anyone criticizes the content or the writing style of our blogs, we get easily offended. I remember when I posted a comment on this site one time, I got a full blog about my criticism “We don’t care what you think” from Blake! Ok, Blake, then why did I just get a shout-out in your post???
Now I’ve known Blake for a very long time so I knew he had jab me a little because that’s Blake, but for a (loosely worded) “fan” who comments, I think we have to also have some tact in our responses.
Again, we’re not professionals and don’t claim to be, but dammit we put our opinions on the world wide web and then get our panties in a bunch if someone criticizes what we say. I agree with the douche that if we are going to write, we might as well try and write the best we can and hope people read it, comment on it, good or bad and move on to our next greatest post.
To the douche: your points were valid and you did have a douche way of bringing them up, but I’m just glad you got on here and posted a comment, that’s all!
That is why as the author of this post, instead of jumping down his throat, I simply thanked him for his comments and took heed to his advice.
But, in a forum to debate ideas and put forth opinions, sometimes comment wars are very appropriate and even fun to partake in.
Ever read Huffington Post? I think it’s very appropriate to attack in the comments as long as the writer doesn’t get involved becuase they had their chance to put forth their thoughts to begin with.
Word. I got you and in all honesty, this post made a lot of sense to me.
Comment wars are great because we all have opinions and we always think we’re right. When the dust clears and you actually read the other persons point, there is inevitably something to learn from it, a take-away. That’s important to each now and in the future.
I think that “opinion” poster took more time critiquing the other then the topic. As the other people have mentioned, blogging is not journalism. However, I fully support blogging as a new-age way to communicate on a mass lever and to spread knowledge without the necessity for a major or corporate platform. As a Journalism major, I have taken many classes that have analyzed the role of blogging in the world of journalism, and my professional opinion is that JMal’s article fits perfectly into the blogging world. If you are looking for a source driven and factually based article, then don’t visit blog sites. If your are looking for refreshing opinions and perspective and you have an open mind to learning how people around you think, then I doubt you would have a problem with what was said here. “Opinion” appeared to be annoyed with the style of journalism, which is his/her own mistake for looking for milk from a chicken…But beside this completely ridiculous critique, my opinion on this article is Right on!! Every girl out there knows what I’m talking about when I say “skinny-fat”. Matter of fact, this morning the Today Show presented a full segment on health and obesity and how skinny people are just as “obese” as fat people.. Check it out. Its Called Skinny Fat masks obesity
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/35181451#35181451