uuuuuuhhhg. I HATE THIS SHOW. It encourages the members on the show and people at home to lose CRAZY amounts of weight in a short period of time. This is definitely NOT HEALTHY and encourages yo-yo dieting and makes people even more unhealthy than when they started. But I suppose slow and steady healthy changes do not make for good ratings. I'm sorry- once I again- I HATE THIS SHOW!!!!

. . .not quite done. It exploits fat people, it encourages eating disorders and eating disordered behavior, and just encourages our national obsession with fat, all the while making the situation worse. ok, I need to go chill out now. . .

I watched this show once and never again. It's completely unrealistic.

You want real world? A woman at my last gym lost 120 pounds in 9 months through extreme exercise and semi-starving herself. The result of such a rapid weight loss? Huge and I mean HUGE folds of unabsorbed skin. Lose weight too fast and your body can't re-absorb the skin.

On her stomach she had the equivalent of a kangaroo pouch of loose skin. The skin from her upper arms not only flapped, it hung down over her elbows. Skin from her thighs hung over her knees. I won't go on, but it was a scary sight and she didn't have the tens of thousands of dollars needed for the plastic surgery to deal with this skin.

It took me three years to shed 60 pounds. I lost 16 inches from my waist, 14 inches from my hips. Even though I was post menopause, at a point in my life where my skin lost major elasticity, because the loss was slow but sure, my body took back the skin.

I've kept it off for two years now because the slow but sure changes are now habits, sustainable habits.

It's very, very hard to change your life radically. But if you gradually shift to a diet of less processed food, if you squeeze out three times a week for exercise, the payback is fabulous.

It's not just about how you look. It's how you feel. Energy. You'll be stunned by how much energy you have.

Everyone says that when you change the packaging you don't change the person inside, but that's not exactly true. My own experience has been that eating properly and exercising has had a major impact on my life long fight with depression.

I'm the granddaughter, daughter and sister of suicides. The women in my family all fight depression. But even you know what? A healthier diet and exercise have really turned things around for me. I get sad from time to time, like everyone else, but I don't descend into those black pits I once knew.

Being a 5'9" and a size 8 is fun. Being in my 50's and having the bone density of a woman in her 20's is great. Being able to squat my body weight and do a pull-up? I feel powerful.

But all of it pales beside the joy of living my life free from depression.

Slow but sure. Incremental changes. Habits you can sustain. It's boring, it takes time, but oh, man, the pay-off. Totally worth it.

I'm with Marn on the slow and steady and the free-from-depression stuff. But slow and steady and healthy doesn't make good telly. It's wrong wrong wrong and it makes me sad coz there's never going to be a shortage of willing contestants either...

I've wondered a lot about the excess skin issue with the Biggest Loser contestants and that we really haven't ever seen it be a "problem". And it's not like the contestants are uniformly young or anything...

I agree with the other commenters that slow and steady is what works for most people over the long term and is healthiest, but at the same time I enjoy watching these shows. I guess I just accept that TV is not real life, and I'm not going to run out and do what they're doing since it's not getting at the fundamental problems, which for me was changing lifelong bad habits.

So no, I don't compare my success or failure to people under extreme circumstances who are being filmed for entertainment purposes, and then having their stories heavily edited to maximize drama.

You make a good point though, as some people who just don't recognize the difference between reality TV and reality are left with false perceptions of healthy weight loss. But then you could also argue that "I Love New York" leaves us with a false perception of romance and foreplay.

I used to really enjoy this show, but I find I no longer do. By adding the competition factor to weight loss, they're encouraging the type of unhealthy behaviours you mentioned to drop lots of pounds, rather than having people learn how to eat healthy foods instead of junk, exercise properly so as not to injure or kill themselves, and perhaps, through all that, lose weight. Honestly, I don't know how some of those people don't just drop dead with all the intense exercise they get. Most of these people had never exercised before, or exercised very little, and now they're working out at an insane level for five or six hours a day? My heart would've blown up the first day. And the whole thing about being mortified at losing ONLY 2 pounds a week? That's bullshit. No one should be made to feel bad about losing a couple pounds, except maybe an anorexic. And having men compete against women? Utter bullshit. We all know men can lose weight quicker than women, so it's just completely unfair.

I do watch the biggest loser, though honestly, I'm not sure why. I don't find it particularly motivating and I agree that the rapid weight loss is at least unrealistic and perhaps unhealthy. I don't watch any other reality show competitions, so it's not even that. I really wonder why I watch? (this is my first year watching, but I haven't missed an episode).

my thoughts?
- someone tell Gillian to stand up straight! That tough girl crap is just poor posture.
- I love that Bob talks about "my little girl", "my big girls", "my big boy", etc.
- I hate that every episode someone refers to someone and says that "this is the first time s/he's doing somthing for herself or himself" or "this is a life-saving opportunity"
- In the challenge where the trainers were all offered cupcakes to get something for the team and they were all so disdainful and "we don't need that crap" and "it's junk" and "i'm setting a good example", and Bob really really wanted to eat one, I really really wish someone had pointed out that cupcakes are tasty, cupcakes are not immoral, and the trainers are all young, fit, healthy, super-metabolizers. Seriously. Their bodies would metabolize that measly little 200 calories with no thought at all. That pissed me off.

I watch this show. I guess I already knew that losing incredible amounts of weights wasn't going to happen to me because I'm not up in the ranch/campus 24/7 working out and being in the bubble that they are in. I know that many of them regain weight but from what I can tell, a majority seem to be at least smaller than their original pre-TBL weight. So in that sense, they are successful.

I also know that for some of these people, their starting weight was so high, they WILL have good results with weight loss on a regimen like TBL's.

The two best examples of this season that inspire me is: a) Trainer Bob tells a woman to say out loud that she deserves it, she is worthy and she struggles to say it and b) one girl says that Jillian is crazy to think that she can run 10 mph for 30 seconds and Jillian gets in her face and asks her why is it crazy for Jillian to believe in this woman's capacities.

So watching these people see and realize that they can do many of these things is pretty inspirational. It's not that they're doing the exercises that's inspirational but that they discover some truths about themselves.

I agree with KC about the cupcakes; it would have been a good way to say, yes, you can have some treats once in a while. And I do love Bob too. I sense he really cares about his people. (I think Jillian does too -- they're just different.)

I read that same article too and I was surprised that the exercise wasn't as horrible as it's edited on tv to look.

I was thinking about this just last night while watching (hangs head in shame) I wanna look like a high school cheerleader again. I don't understand these shows that say they want to make people look better and be healthier and then penalize them for not losing "enough" weight. This show in particular seems to be horrible. Each girl must weigh themselves and the one who loses the less weight is kicked off. They don't even preface this by saying muscle is heavier and by lifting weights all week, some of these women are sure to have bulked up in their muscles. It's just heinous.

if you look back at the article, that guy rob actually lost 282 lbs. It's wild. Go him.

I have to say, that yes, you need to take the show with like 6 grains of salt, but overall I find it inspiring. Those are real people making real changes. Not all of them are safe, which is one of the grains of salt. But alot of them are learning the right way to do things and I always feel inspired.

I have to admit I love watching The Biggest Loser. I am inspired by their weight loss and usually watch it while on the treadmill.

I admire the contestants for their courage to stand on that scale for all the world to see. I haven't even been able to post my weight/photos on my blog yet.

Jillian is so hard core. I know she would make me cry but would love to have Bob for a trainer. I loved the episode where Bob made Patty say she was "worth it." We're all worth it.

The show obviously doesn't come close to what we do in real life. It would be great if they modified the format of the show or created a spin off where they work with people in the real world, in real time, where contestants would be applauded for their 2 lbs. per week loss.

It makes me sad when the participants hang their heads if they don't lose at least 5+ lbs. every week. They should be celebrating every pound - every loss is a good loss.

I admit it--I watched and I actually auditioned to be on last year's show. Unfortunately, they felt that I had too many medical issues (read two bad knees).That and I was also too overweight.

TOO overweight? WTF is THAT all about? I weighed much less than some that were chosen to be on the show. I completely believe it is because of my knees and that I would not have been able to participate in their dog-and-pony-show-challenges.

I was bitter about that for a long time until I read about how the contestants were actually losing weight. I figured my guardian angel was looking out for me by keeping me off the show!!!!

Yeah I hate that show. It's taken me 22 months to lose 62 pounds but I've kept it off. Slow and steady wins the race.

And yeah celebrities who have lost a ton of weight like Oprah et. al. have. Well of COURSE they did. Their full time job was to lose the weight. And they had a trained team of professionals behind them making sure that happened.

I do enjoy watching The Biggest Loser, however, I also have a few problems with the show.

I think it's inspirational to see these folks learn to take better care of themselves, but I feel sad that they have to kick one of them off every week.

I get seriously annoyed with their product placements (i.e. Jennie O turkey, Extra gum, etc.) I know they gotta pay the bills, but I lose a little respect for trainers who have to stop and do a little commercial for gum during the show. (I also don't consider sugar-free Jello to be a great diet food, there's no nutritional value!)

I think the weight loss is realistic considering that these people are working out all day long and eating low-cal foods. In the real world, most of us can only get an hour half-hour of exercise in on an average day, so our weight loss will be slower. I do wonder about that excess skin a lot as I watch, as I can already tell some of the contestants are going to need surgery to fix that.

I also feel sorry for the contestants that are ashamed if they only lose 3 lbs in a week. I'd be thrilled if I lost 3 that fast! This is a game show, however, so the heat is on. Initially, the contestants always lose a large amount of weight because they have so much to lose. When their bodies start to get used to the exercise and get smaller, they'll lose less per week, which is true for anyone.

I think women tend to have it the hardest on the show, as we have to deal with things like hormones and bloating every month, regardless of how healthy we eat.

I'll get off my soapbox now. :)

I love the Biggest Loser, and I'm not going to feel guilty about liking to watch it. I've recently lost thirty pounds myself, and I've got another ten or fifteen to go. I know the huge losses each week aren't realistic for normal people. The contestants workout most of the day and are on a very restricted diet. I watch it for the emotional "high" of seeing people work hard and succeed at weight loss. My least favorite part of the show is the vote off. The trainers (other than Kim, I don't like her) don't bother me. In fact, I love Jillian and Bob's different "styles" in different ways. I sometimes need a drill sergeant, and sometimes I need a studly man puff. My favorite part of the show is the finale, when we see how the contestants did when they had to go home. Although several have discussed the scary ways they try to lose those last few pounds (through dehydration) to win, and how those pounds come right back, overall, I think the "losers" have been mostly successful in keeping the majority of their weight off. It's a reality tv show, and I take it with that grain of salt.

Hi, just wanted to correct the amount of weight that I lost prior to you quoting me in your post.

It was 288 pounds I dropped

the NY Times never did give an amount, just that I went from 475 down to 187.

As I had said in the NY Times article, the show is not based in reality. Yes it is possible to do that, but it's not realistic for the average person

slow and steady, just like everyone else, 1 to 3 pounds a week is fantastic, realistic and do-able.

With so many posts and comments with so many errors it is probably a good ideal to actually get educated on what happens on the show and why we are yelled at etc (or read Lori W's comment).

While I cannot correct all the errors I will ask this question that I posted at another blog.

Why is losing weight quickly and keeping it off unhealthy?

If you can't give SPECIFIC conditions (which I can) then please stop repeating this mindless drivel. It reminds me of the old adage that ulcers come from stress. No evidence to support it, just uneducated people repeating it.

When some super-obese people go in for weight loss surgery some are actually put on HIGHLY restrictive diets to help them lose weight before the surgery and then the surgery causes them to - guess what - lose weight quickly. Hmmmm. I thought it was unhealthy?

So many errors, so little time - women don't lose as fast as men (look at percentages not pounds and it is very close) / the speed of the weight loss determines loose skin (it does not - it has more to do with HOW you lost your weight and if the skin's elasticity has already been broken) / etc etc etc

I will have re-start my blog I see.

http://Flickr.com/photos/winningman/sets/

I watch it, but I'm with the "6 giant grains of salt" person above. It is unrealistic.
But most TV shows are, ya know?
A couple of the ladies this season are losing relistic amounts each week, and that's kinda nice to see on the 'ole telly.

I guess I know I'm not on a TV show and therefore don't compare my workouts and eating habits and results or lack thereof to these contestants.

I try not to set myself up for disappointment, therefore I don't go into Victorias Secret expecting to have a bod like Giselle once I put on my new bra and undies.

Its a TV show. Sometimes it motivates me. Sometimes I eat popcicles while I watch.