The Biggest Loser was a disgusting TV show

[AnxiousApocalypse]

Just been watching Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser on Netflix. Why do people hate fat people like me so much? Someone nearly died while doing the show. Obese people get so much hate and ridicule in society and the people behind The Biggest Loser took advantage of the contestants' desperation. It was just another chance for people to make fun of fat people and profit off of fat-shaming.

Is that the one where 2 teams sat on either side of a see saw? Abhorrent.

I will look out for that on Netflix.

it is really interesting how weight loss/health shows have changed over the last 20 years. Especially the last 5 years or so where they’ve discovered set point and the underlying issues with the upf diet.

the attitudes are changing but the calories in/caloties out you’re lazy and weak minded mindset has been ingrained for so long it will take a long time to really change.

I find so many reality shows are inherently vicious and sadistic. I will never understand the appeal of Love Island - it's been called a 'theatre of cruelty' and 'misuse of the vulnerable' - I quite agree. Same goes for the Biggest Loser.

I have that on my list to watch. I never saw The Biggest Loser but I remember lots of reality TV shows that really shame people.

I don't know the programme but the documentary looks interesting so I will be watching

In general I'm slightly surprised that reality programmes still exist now everyone knows how to play the game and it's largely choreographed and or fake

Yes they’ve come so far from that first series of big brother, there was an innocence and genuine realism about it. But even then ‘nasty nick’ worked out beforehand it was a game.

As an obese person I used to watch The Biggest Loser regularly and wish that I had that opportunity to lose weight

In hindsight watching the documentary the series was humiliating and awful and at one point proven not to work long term.

YANBU OP it probably contributed to feelings of shame and low self esteem for me.

I also remember that on the UK version of The Biggest Loser, one of the trainers was telling the contestants on their team to starve themselves in order to lose more before the weigh-in.

I think The Biggest Loser played on the ‘contestants’ vulnerabilities and quite possibly made them feel worse about themselves. I’m sure I read somewhere that once the ‘support’ from the show ended the results didn’t last.
I think you must feel pretty desperate to go on a show like that but it was presented as a great opportunity to lose weight and get fit.

YANBU but there is so much reality TV I look back on from the last 20 or so years in horror. And many of them feature a certain Simon Cowell too, like this one from X Factor where the whole nation used to sit and watch young women getting torn to pieces for entertainment
.

My guilty pleasure is an occasional wander into the comments section of the Daily Mail. Every time there’s an article about mounjaro, there’s hundreds of comments referring to ‘lazy fat people’ or the snide, ‘just eat less, move more fatties’. I’m amazed that in today’s world it’s ok for smokers to use nicotine patches or for drug addicts to take methadone (both just tools to help them combat cravings) but if you’re overweight, no, you must do it ‘the hard way’.

I’ve struggled with my weight since I was a child and have been extremes at both ends. I’ve probably wrecked my metabolism with every weird diet out there so these days to lose weight, I can only eat about 1000 cals a day. Consequently I stuck it out for about 4 days and soon find myself obsessing about food again. Without MJ I’d be a starving, hangry mess and with it, I’m finally losing weight and at the same time, creating some new food loves and habits around protein and fresh venerable.

But the point is, it’s been a lifelong struggle to keep my weight at a normal level and I am neither lazy or thick. And yet the uneducated masses apparently think I am! No one thinks a smoker is ‘thick’ because they struggle to give up cigs, do they?

I actually used to enjoy watching shows like these as they weirdly gave me hope - it WAS possible to lose weight. Of course looking back now, the shows seemed to be based around the idea that fat people just sit around stuffing their faces all day and have never picked up a book.

You only have to look at the threads on Mumsnet in the weight loss injections section, talking about the recent news of big price hikes for weight loss injections, to see a whole array of nasty vindictive comments from spiteful people who hate fat people, revelling in the price hike news. I feel sorry for those people for their hate filled personalities, it must suck being them.

And yes , biggest loser was a hideous show

There's a reason I won't watch reality TV. It's just preying on the vulnerable, it's vile.

It was part of a whole pretty horrible genre. There was at least one where they actually gave people cosmetic dentistry and plastic surgery. Something about Ugly Ducking to Swan’. Trinny & Susannah and Gok Wan were milder than that but there was a lot of shaming people about their appearance even if the preferred solution was usually shape wear

I have a lot of ridiculous body image and appearance hang ups despite not being overweight and I wish I had not internalised all those messages that people (mainly women) are only acceptable if they look a certain way. Reality TV these days does seem to be a bit kinder. I don’t suspect anyone will have lasting damage from Bake Off or Sewing Bee. Even modelling shows have more diversity of looks now.

Christ. Absolutely dreadful. Adele wouldn't have been allowed in.

Yes it would be unpleasant for anybody to take delight in the fact that the price increase means that some people will not be able to continue with the wli. That is precisely why it would be prudent to look into the reasons why some people overeat, and if it is something to do with trauma, that it is acknowledged and help is sought for it, eg therapy etc. It is going to affect a lot of people, this price hike.

@ThePure it's strange that you mentioned Trinny and Susannah as I used to love WNTW because it never felt mean and seemed like they really wanted to help people feel and look better. But I fell over an episode on YouTube last night and bloody hell it was eye opening.

Fashion was/is obviously important to them but they ransacked this woman's wardrobe, threw out lots of her clothes that she loved and then made her buy new ones that they approved off. She didn't like wearing skirts but they made her because she had "good legs", wanted to wear a pink top with black trousers but not allowed because black is never worn with colour apparently. She was obviously so uncomfortable with it and I just couldn't believe how this was once acceptable telly.

They were criticised at the time for being bullies.

Yes I’m afraid WNTW might not have been so blatant as Biggest Loser (I mean honestly even the title) but there was a lot of shaming about covering body parts that were not considered good enough in the show.

I have never worn a bikini ever because I never considered my tummy was flat enough to be acceptable and I find it really hard to wrap my head around that younger people don’t think like that and find a much wider variety of body types attractive. I think it’s a good thing but it’s very counter cultural to people brought up on a constant stream of body shaming content on TV magazines etc

Programmes like this are the modern equivalent of Roman areas, except we watch to get people virtually torn apart rather than really torn apart . Or possibly old circus freak show acts
Horrible and people who enjoy it are pretty awful too and just want to feel better about themselves by laughing at others

I caught a clip of a “dieting programme” recently where an overweight and skinny person eat each other’s meals for the day. They both end up shocked at what the other eats with clear judgement on their respective faces. What is the point - is it for viewers to judge the 2 meals?

peple watch these shows therefore with a bit of research and common sense they go on these shows with eyes wide open although I do think the likes of love island should be cancelled they cancelled jeremy Kyle for less then the nonsense happens with love island

Oh were they? I can kind of remember then being mocked for being posh and annoying but it's all a bit hazy.

What shocked me too was that they woman they were making over hadn't even applied to go on, her family did it behind her back. So she was happily living her life, wearing clothes she liked and got kidnapped by T&S and forced to wear dresses and heels.

I was planning on starting to take Mounjaro privately, but due to this price hike I won't be able to afford it. How awful that people are gleeful about the price hike.

I remember a celeb version of this, Ann Widdecombe was in it. And a guy called Tommy who used to do programmes with Alan Titchmarch. He’d drink a pint of Baileys of an evening.

Ever since seeing it, I’ve dreamed of a pint of Baileys. I bloody love Baileys. Never done it, as obviously it’s insanely unhealthy.

The programme where they did teeth and all that was Ten Years Younger. The women got spruced up and strangers in the street the production staff’s friends had to pass judgement on them. Hateful stuff.