Biggest Loser NBC\'s Hit Reality

¶ … Biggest Loser

NBC's hit reality show, the Biggest Loser is going into its tenth season this fall. The show focuses on obese people who are struggling with their weight (sometimes their entires lives) and desperate to finally lose it. These people are more than just a little bit overweight -- some are more than 200 pounds overweight. Anywhere from twelve to 20 contestants start at the beginning of the show and one contestant is sent home every week. The biggest loser at the end of the season gets a cash prize of $250,000. The show is filled with the normal reality television drama and quite a bit of emotion as these people come to terms with their lives and how to turn them around.

The Biggest Loser shines the light on a growing epidemic in America. Obesity is on the rise and what makes that assertion more disheartening is the fact that it is on the rise among children. According to Jan Bennet, almost 135 million adults in the country are either overweight or obese with 14 million "morbidly obese" and one million "mega-obese" (Bennet). A person is considered overweight if their body mass index is between of 25.0 to 29.9. A body mass greater than 40 or more is morbidly obese and 70 or greater is mega-obese. These numbers are real and they literally come to life on the show as we watch 400-pound people make their way up to the scale for the first time. It is shocking.

One aspect of the show is encouraging contestants to figure out their relationship with food. While the physicians and trainers can give them all of the tools necessary to lose weight, the deeper issues of what is going on emotionally usually need to be confronted. Trainers push contestants to a "breaking point" where they are finally able to face what is that drives them to overeat. We often think of eating disorders related to skinny girls who refuse to eat but the truth is many fat people have eating disorders, too. They are equally dangerous because of the health risks involved. One condition associated with obesity is binge-eating disorder (BED) and this disease is "typically seen in people who are morbidly obese" (Bennet). The disorder is marked by "recurrent binge-eating without purging and often carries distorted attitudes about eating, shape, weight, and mood symptoms including depression and personality disorder" (Bennet). Some people who are terribly obese have "isolated themselves in their homes for extended periods without social contact or have been demoralized or mistreated by family, the public, or healthcare personnel" (Bennet). Feelings of incompetence or not fitting in cause people to turn to food for comfort and people eat because they are scared, alone, unhappy or depressed.

The show also speaks about American society in regard to its ratings. Last year with Season 9, the show set records. This popularity demonstrates the show has moved from being cultish to being a part of the culture. People are watching the show to be inspired, to see transformation, to root for the underdog and see a big winner. Many people in the audience are living vicariously through the contestants as they watch them slim down every week. The Biggest Loser, while it is a game show and reality television, is a dream of millions of Americans. The dream of losing weight is a big one because losing weight is one of the most difficult things a person can do. Even on a ranch with nothing to worry about but losing weight, we see every week just how difficult it is. The capacity of the human is pushed to the limits and what everyone realizes is that they are capable of more than they know. This is one notion the trainers have drilled into the heads of every contestant who has graced the ranch. Too many times people are told to take it too easy and they push contestants to do 30 seconds more because they can.

Not all can be the biggest loser and, as mentioned earlier, the show is a game. The contestants who prove to be lacking in motivation are often eliminated from teams because everyone on teams must work together to have the greatest weight loss at the end of the week. Too little weight loss will send you home. This creates tension along with the game-playing of some contestants. Many are at the ranch for the fame rather than the ultimate goal of weight loss and they are generally there long enough to stir up trouble before they are sent home. Teams are often switched up at some point during the season to add even more tension to the game. The drama eventually takes a back seat to the sheer effort it takes to stay committed to weight loss.