Comments on: The Biggest Loser Backfires https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/ Wed, 23 Mar 2011 02:38:39 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499708 Wed, 23 Mar 2011 02:38:39 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499708 Q. E. D.

Or, as they say in Arabic and/or KiSwahili: “Basi!”

]]> By: quietmarc https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499707 Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:54:04 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499707 I agree that there are some…interesting?…moral questions on a show like this. From my understanding, though, contestants who are eliminated still get some form of support while they are at home (I haven’t checked, but I think they get personal trainers, gym access, and some support with meal planning and nutrition beyond what we see televised), and they are still in contention for a prize awarded to the person who loses the biggest percentage of weight at home.

What I find interesting is how flexible this game-style actually is, depending on the context that’s built around it. Survivor is cut-throat and encourages deceit, dirty-tricks, etc, but on Biggest Loser the producers have, in some ways, discouraged that aspect of it. Players seem to have more motivation to work as a team, and season-to-season there’s often a culture that promotes honesty and “good play”.

]]> By: David https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499706 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:31:34 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499706 Actually this is the first reality show which I would disagree is first place or nothing. Throughout the show the various competitors are extremely supportive of each other. Watching the previous season, I was actually surprised just how much this was the case. In fact, half way through last season, I watched two contestants throw a race so that the 3rd place person would win a car, since he actually needed the car far more than either of them did. It was really a breath of fresh air in reality TV.

Beyond that, if you don’t have a game (send people home), then you don’t have a show (unless you think watching a dozen obese people being driven by trainers is going to draw an audience; pretty sure it won’t), and nobody gets helped. Do the people who get voted off lose as much weight as they would if they stayed? Probably not (though as Webs pointed out, they do continue to follow the weight loss of those at home), but they certainly lose more than if they weren’t on the show at all. And even the people who gained this season for the sake of the game ended up losing 70+ pounds between their time on the show and the final post show weigh in.

The two brothers who intentionally gained weight to leave the show:
Don – started at 309; left the show at 286; post show weight 222
Dan – started at 287; left the show at 272; post show weight 215

So clearly it is doing good in getting the individuals who make it onto the show to lose weight, even after they leave.

]]> By: Gray Falcon https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499705 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:12:59 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499705 @Timberwoof

Don’t you realize? There’s only so much weight loss to go around, just as there’s a finite amount of marriage, religious tolerance, and kindness?

Sorry, should probably keep the political statements out of this, but it’s still the same attitude, it seems.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499704 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:58:31 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499704 Albatros: I didn’t call you a moron, I called you ignorant. One can be cured, the other cannot.

What? You’re not going to tell me which one can be cured? Crap.

]]> By: Timberwoof https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499703 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:49:03 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499703 I have two problems with this particular so-called-reality show. Only one person can be the winner and it has elements of a zero-sum game. IMHO the US is too focused on the One Winner. Only #1 counts; anything else is not worth remembering. Only the person who lost the most weight is important; anyone else who attempts but fails is tossed aside. Worse yet, given the behavior of some contestants, it seems as though the amount of weight lost has been limited, and some must gain unhealthy weight so others may lose it. Madness!

The nation is not in a race to see who lose the most weight; it ought to be in one to encourage everyone to attain a healthy weight. Of course, this is not about losing weight, it’s about making good televisionâ??defined as how many viewers the producers can sell to the advertisers. Who wants to watch a program about a fat farm where people get up early in the morning, forget breakfast, hitch up the oxen and drag a plow across some dirt so maybe they can eat next fall?

]]> By: Albatross https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499702 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:52:42 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499702 I didn’t call you a moron, I called you ignorant. One can be cured, the other cannot.

]]> By: Scarface https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499701 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:25:52 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499701 So you are saying the people who “sacrifice” themselves for others by adding weight so they get kicked off the diet show are being less than honest with their motivations, or at least, are mixed. I thought the same thing. On Surviver and other shows there are those who obviously get kicked off on purpose and later we learn that is what happened verifying it. On the diet show there is way more of that or the people who make the chow have chosen to highlight or even enhance it.

]]> By: Rick Pikul https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499700 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:12:43 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499700 It seems to me that if you’re going to do a ‘kick them off’ reality show about losing weight, you should do it like most of the “Worst Driver” shows:

You don’t want to be the guy still around at the end of the show, it’s the one who is doing the best that gets to leave.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499699 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:16:19 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/02/22/the-biggest-loser-backfires/#comment-499699 … and either one of you is more than welcome to contribute a guest post on the topic.

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