NYT on the "Biggest Loser"

Found this in the Style section but it really belongs under
the Health section. The NYT is usually a good read, but if
you don't like the paper in general, then at least check out
the Tuesday edition for the Science/Health section.

===================
October 18, 2007
Big Losers, but Can Viewers Keep the Pace? By ELIZABETH WEIL

AS if all the thin people on television weren’t bad enough,
now dieters must contend with the jealously inspired by
contestants on “The Biggest Loser,” the hit NBC reality
series. The 18 obese Americans lucky enough to have been
picked are sequestered on the show’s campus, work out with a
trainer up to five hours a day, vote people off their teams
and participate in challenges like who can run faster than a
kindergartner.

Such stunts may be embarrassing, but the 24-7 focus on
weight loss leads to major reductions, which are tallied
when contestants step on an enormous scale. And that’s when
the show may inspire a bout of self-loathing for viewers
trying to lose weight at home: Jerry Lisenby, 62, from
Peoria, Ill., dropped 31 pounds in his first week on “The
Biggest Loser.” Erik Chopin, 37, from West Islip, N.Y., was
the winner last season, losing 213 pounds, dropping to 194
from 407 in eight months.

“I find myself in the beginning of every season raring to
go,” said Renee Peters, 35, a serial dieter and computer
programmer in Atlanta, who is the host of the online
weight-loss forum the Fatfighters. “But then they’ve lost 70
pounds and I’ve only lost 5 in the same time frame, and I
find myself eating ice cream.”

The show, in its fourth season, has attracted seven million
viewers this fall. “The Biggest Loser” has also built a
multimillion-dollar franchise selling goods and services to
viewers hoping to lose weight. The show’s first two books
were best sellers, as were two workout DVDs.

Ms. Peters is not alone in finding the show’s weight-loss
formula undermining, or worse. Some former contestants have
cautioned home dieters to stop comparing themselves to what
they see. Kai Hibbard, 29, from Eagle River, Alaska, lost
118 pounds last season. She recently wrote on a blog that in
the two weeks before the finale she severely dehydrated
herself using asparagus (a diuretic), colonics and six-hour
stretches of hopping in and out of a sauna. She lost 19
pounds, which as she joked, rebounded to her rear end
“almost immediately.”

Rob Cooper, 39, from Edmonton, Alberta, who dropped to 187
pounds from 475 pounds on his own, said that the show can be
counterproductive. According to his logic, if you’re losing
two pounds a week and you’re watching “The Biggest Loser,”
you probably think your diet is going horribly. If you lose
two pounds a week and you’re not watching the show, you
probably think your diet is going great.

Mr. Cooper, who is now a motivational coach, lost his weight
over three years, first by introducing whole foods to his
diet, then adding exercise. In his view, drastic weight loss
depends on a deep motivation to take care of oneself, plus a
sense of accomplishment as the pounds slip off.

The television show “can actually depress a lot of people,”
Mr. Cooper said, especially when their steady weight loss
cannot compare to the double-digit zingers on the screen.
“That’s the opposite of what you want,” he said.

In that case, Ms. Hibbard’s recent advice to fans should
delight dieters. “You should only be losing half a pound to
a pound a week,” she wrote on MySpace. “If so, you are doing
an amazing job.”

Most medical professionals say dieters should lose weight
slowly. Not only are they more likely to keep it off that
way, but shedding more than 10 pounds weekly, as some
contestants routinely do, is dangerous.

“Whether it’s gallbladder disease, hair falling out, skin
getting dry,” said Karen Kovach, the chief scientific
officer at Weight Watchers, “the more rapid the weight loss,
the greater the risk.” She added: “You get above a kilogram
a week, the risk really shoots up.”

“The Biggest Loser” takes precautions to be safe: The show
promotes weight loss through exercise and healthy eating,
and employs four doctors, including a psychiatrist.

But a responsible viewer who wanted to engage in a
weight-loss blitz under medical supervision would be hard
pressed to find a doctor willing to sign on. “What would I
advise someone who wants to engage in a program associated
with increased risks of gallstones, cardiac arrhythmias and
electrolyte abnormalities, and that has been shown to be
less likely to lead to long-term success in maintenance of a
reduced body weight than losing weight more slowly?” asks
Dr. Michael Rosenbaum, a doctor at Columbia University who
has spent over 20 years studying the physiology of weight
loss. “I would advise them not to do it.”

Adding to the frustration for viewers, much of the radical
weight loss seen on “The Biggest Loser” is a natural
consequence of the contestants’ conditions; many start out
morbidly obese. The sheer size of their bodies increases the
number of calories required each day, so restricting their
calorie intake has a more pronounced effect.

“The bigger you are, the greater your energy expenditure,”
said Dr. Stephen O’Rahilly, an obesity researcher at the
University of Cambridge.

A pound of fat is roughly equal to 3,500 calories, Dr.
O’Rahilly said. So if obese people have an energy
requirement of 4,000 calories a day, and they go on a
1,000-calorie-a-day diet, they “will have to burn over a
pound a day to make up for that energy gap.”

Not so for the modestly overweight. If they require 2,500
calories a day, and they eat a mere 1,000 calories, you’ll
“only lose a pound every two or three days,” he said.

Finally, and perhaps most unfortunately for viewers tuning
in to the show for inspiration as they pursue their own
diets, the most significant factor in the contestants’ big
weight losses is probably the fact of participating on a
reality show. The losers are all living in what one of the
show’s producers, J. D. Roth, calls “a biodome” — a hothouse
of emotional and physical intensity with no children to pick
up at school, or bosses to please, or houses to clean. The
only obligation, besides getting to hair and makeup, is
losing weight.

What’s more, contestants on “The Biggest Loser” who work to
shed pounds at home after being voted off the show, have an
advantage over the viewer. Former contestants receive
regular checkups from the show’s doctors and trainers and
are also kept in check when strangers buttonhole them about
their weight. Plus, stepping on that scale for “the live
finale in front of millions keeps motivation strong,” Mr.
Roth said.

For those still living on the show’s campus, female team
members eat 1,100 to 1,500 calories a day, and male
contestants eat 1,500 to 2,300 calories a day, with meals
like salmon and wild rice. And everybody spends an hour or
two on weight or resistance training, an hour on a
high-intensity cardiovascular exercise, and up to three
hours walking on the treadmill, using the elliptical trainer
or riding a stationary bike. The low-intensity cardio
exercise is left out when each diet week is edited to fit a
90-minute segment.

“Most of what goes on while a person is losing weight is
incredibly boring,” Mr. Roth said. “It’s like watching paint
dry.”

Yet contestants and trainers say it’s those dull hours of
low-intensity activity that make the difference. For this
season, 250,000 obese Americans sent audition tapes; only 18
made the show. “You watch it because you want to know the
secret,” said Ms. Peters, who writes a blog about her
attempt to drop 70 pounds. “But the reality is, you can’t.
So why bother? Everybody in the real world seems to have the
same consensus: nobody has that much time to dedicate to
losing weight.”


--
Rudy - Remove the Z from my address to respond.

"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!"
-Emiliano Zapata

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I really, really don't like such shows. No wonder the viewers feel so badly
about themselves...these shows seem to only encourage the rapid, fast,
extreme methods of weight loss.

Also, why are "we" making such a big deal over people losing weight under
such extreme circumstances? This is entertainment. However, health is
serious. And they way the contestants go on about or at each other is really
sad. Is such drama real or invented for TV?

I assume someone is tracking these "big losers" after their big losses,
right? Are they keeping it off or does it just "creep" back on just like the
stats say?

"RRzVRR" wrote

Found this in the Style section but it really belongs under the Health
section. The NYT is usually a good read, but if you don't like the paper
in general, then at least check out the Tuesday edition for the
Science/Health section.

===================
October 18, 2007
Big Losers, but Can Viewers Keep the Pace? By ELIZABETH WEIL

AS if all the thin people on television weren’t bad enough, now dieters
must contend with the jealously inspired by contestants on “The Biggest
Loser,” the hit NBC reality series. The 18 obese Americans lucky enough to
have been picked are sequestered on the show’s campus, work out with a
trainer up to five hours a day, vote people off their teams and
participate in challenges like who can run faster than a kindergartner.

This sounds somewhat similar to the endless magazine articles on one way
after another for people to successfully drop 4 thousand pounds of ugly
cellulite rippled fat in just 3 weeks with this weeks or this months
magic diet.

Endlessly, the cycle of "big losers" is paraded before the eyes of these
magazine readers.

The possible fall-out is that the readers end up feeling that it is
their fault for not being able to do ANY of these methods with such good
results. But that's speculation.

Anyway, it just seems mentally unhealthy to be exposed to that sort of
stuff on a regular basis..... also speculation.



Roger Zoul wrote:
I really, really don't like such shows. No wonder the viewers feel so badly
about themselves...these shows seem to only encourage the rapid, fast,
extreme methods of weight loss.

Also, why are "we" making such a big deal over people losing weight under
such extreme circumstances? This is entertainment. However, health is
serious. And they way the contestants go on about or at each other is really
sad. Is such drama real or invented for TV?

I assume someone is tracking these "big losers" after their big losses,
right? Are they keeping it off or does it just "creep" back on just like the
stats say?

"RRzVRR" wrote


Found this in the Style section but it really belongs under the Health
section. The NYT is usually a good read, but if you don't like the paper
in general, then at least check out the Tuesday edition for the
Science/Health section.

===================
October 18, 2007
Big Losers, but Can Viewers Keep the Pace? By ELIZABETH WEIL

AS if all the thin people on television weren’t bad enough, now dieters
must contend with the jealously inspired by contestants on “The Biggest
Loser,” the hit NBC reality series. The 18 obese Americans lucky enough to
have been picked are sequestered on the show’s campus, work out with a
trainer up to five hours a day, vote people off their teams and
participate in challenges like who can run faster than a kindergartner.

Roger Zoul wrote:
I really, really don't like such shows. No wonder the viewers feel so badly
about themselves...these shows seem to only encourage the rapid, fast,
extreme methods of weight loss.

I have a real problem with "Biggest Loser." I find it at
best unrealistic and at worst irresponsible... and far from
entertaining. Instead of encouraging people to lose excess
bodyfat and live a healthier lifestyle it seems to
discouraging most people who can't alter their lives in the
same extreme way the contestants have been enabled (not
working, not taking care of families, working with trainers
3+hours a day, etc.).

I use to enjoy Discovery's Health channel's body challenge,
but its been awhile since I've seen it. That seemed to show
how the real 'challenge' was the day-in, day-out maintenance
of a healthy routine until you see the pay-off.

Also, why are "we" making such a big deal over people losing weight under
such extreme circumstances? This is entertainment. However, health is
serious. And they way the contestants go on about or at each other is really
sad. Is such drama real or invented for TV?

I assume someone is tracking these "big losers" after their big losses,
right? Are they keeping it off or does it just "creep" back on just like the
stats say?

"RRzVRR" wrote

Found this in the Style section but it really belongs under the Health
section. The NYT is usually a good read, but if you don't like the paper
in general, then at least check out the Tuesday edition for the
Science/Health section.

===================
October 18, 2007
Big Losers, but Can Viewers Keep the Pace? By ELIZABETH WEIL

AS if all the thin people on television weren’t bad enough, now dieters
must contend with the jealously inspired by contestants on “The Biggest
Loser,” the hit NBC reality series. The 18 obese Americans lucky enough to
have been picked are sequestered on the show’s campus, work out with a
trainer up to five hours a day, vote people off their teams and
participate in challenges like who can run faster than a kindergartner.




--
Rudy - Remove the Z from my address to respond.

"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!"
-Emiliano Zapata

Check out the a.s.d.l-c FAQ at:
http://www.grossweb.com/asdlc/faq.htm

"RRzVRR" wrote in message
...
Roger Zoul wrote:
I really, really don't like such shows. No wonder the viewers feel so
badly about themselves...these shows seem to only encourage the rapid,
fast, extreme methods of weight loss.

I have a real problem with "Biggest Loser." I find it at best unrealistic
and at worst irresponsible... and far from entertaining. Instead of
encouraging people to lose excess bodyfat and live a healthier lifestyle
it seems to discouraging most people who can't alter their lives in the
same extreme way the contestants have been enabled (not working, not
taking care of families, working with trainers 3+hours a day, etc.).


I see it like this: If these morbidly obese folks can lose the weight
WITHOUT surgery by busting there butts and eating right then anyone can do
it. You CAN'T do it in 6 weeks but over time you will get to the same result
with the same things: Diet & Excercise.

I think that should inspire people.

"nanner" wrote in message
...
"RRzVRR" wrote in message
...
Roger Zoul wrote:
I really, really don't like such shows. No wonder the viewers feel so
badly about themselves...these shows seem to only encourage the rapid,
fast, extreme methods of weight loss.

I have a real problem with "Biggest Loser." I find it at best
unrealistic and at worst irresponsible... and far from entertaining.
Instead of encouraging people to lose excess bodyfat and live a healthier
lifestyle it seems to discouraging most people who can't alter their
lives in the same extreme way the contestants have been enabled (not
working, not taking care of families, working with trainers 3+hours a
day, etc.).


I see it like this: If these morbidly obese folks can lose the weight
WITHOUT surgery by busting there butts and eating right then anyone can do
it. You CAN'T do it in 6 weeks but over time you will get to the same
result with the same things: Diet & Excercise.

I think that should inspire people.

Right. How many inspired people do you see in the general population who
have done the same thing?

nanner wrote:
"RRzVRR" wrote in message
...
Roger Zoul wrote:
I really, really don't like such shows. No wonder the viewers feel so
badly about themselves...these shows seem to only encourage the rapid,
fast, extreme methods of weight loss.
I have a real problem with "Biggest Loser." I find it at best unrealistic
and at worst irresponsible... and far from entertaining. Instead of
encouraging people to lose excess bodyfat and live a healthier lifestyle
it seems to discouraging most people who can't alter their lives in the
same extreme way the contestants have been enabled (not working, not
taking care of families, working with trainers 3+hours a day, etc.).


I see it like this: If these morbidly obese folks can lose the weight
WITHOUT surgery by busting there butts and eating right then anyone can do
it. You CAN'T do it in 6 weeks but over time you will get to the same result
with the same things: Diet & Excercise.

I think that should inspire people.


Unfortunately it gives people unrealistic expectations, that
quickly leads disappointment, and that turns to failure.
Although most intelligent people realize they can't do it in
6 weeks they may instead think they could do it in 24, and
that is also often unrealistic.

It also doesn't show them a real way that they can achieve
success safely and effectively. It doesn't show some of the
risk that most unfit overweight people can face is they do
too much too soon. I don't follow the show, but it would
surprise me if given the number of people and the amount
they are overweight, they didn't have a fair number of
avoidable injuries.

--
Rudy - Remove the Z from my address to respond.

"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!"
-Emiliano Zapata

Check out the a.s.d.l-c FAQ at:
http://www.grossweb.com/asdlc/faq.htm