RawrGirl likes the show. She likes Jillian. She likes how much the trainers care and the snippets of when they get to the core of why a person is overweight. It's also very motivational because RawrGirl always lifts weights when she watches, so it's a longer workout on those days, lol.
I stopped watching after a few seasons, because it started to feel like the main message was becoming "fat people are lazy, crazy, worthless pieces of $#@T, that deserve to be treated like subhuman garbage, because that's what they are - and only severe mental and physical abuse AND steady weight losses of 15 lbs a week can possibly redeem them."
I've been away from the show for five years or more, and when I saw this thread, I thought maybe I had overreacted, or that maybe the show had changed for the better (or at least had stopped getting more dangerous and brutal every season).
Then I read the article in the OP, and am thinking, I've not nearly been opposed enough. I mean, come on, contestants peeing blood? How is that admirable in any way, except in a culture where obesity is so villified, that anything: physical abuse, mental torture, and even death and self-maiming, is considered an acceptable cost in the pursuit of slimness.
Totally agree, its a competition first and foremost though so you need to look at it like that rather than as a weight loss show. We have our own weight loss show here, no one gets voted off, everyone stays at home doing their own thing for the duration and no one is expected to be ultra slim by the end. That is the way it should be done.
I've always felt that when you have these people regularly posting 6, 8, even 12 lbs lost each week, it gives people an unrealistic view of what they can expect. I was a on a very low calorie, medically supervised diet, and exercising and I still only lost 2-3 lbs a week.
See, this is exactly why it gives people the wrong idea about a good speed of weight loss - 2-3 lb/week is actually very fast weight loss! There's no "only" about it! I lost a lot of weight a few years ago at a rate of 1 lb/week, and thought that was about an average speed. I remember reading that average speed is actually more like 1/2 lb/week. Slow weight loss is easier to carry out, which means that it's easier to stick with and messes with your head less. The more we tell people that it's only worth doing if it's massive amounts of weight lost each week, the likelier they are to give up when that doesn't happen, and to feel miserable about the whole business.
I am not a big fan. I agree that it gives unrealistic expectations of how much you can lose per week. I also think they are demeaning to the people on the show.
Totally agree, its a competition first and foremost though so you need to look at it like that rather than as a weight loss show. We have our own weight loss show here, no one gets voted off, everyone stays at home doing their own thing for the duration and no one is expected to be ultra slim by the end. That is the way it should be done.
Catching up with this thread. Love the way you see it, aryastark.
