I've always enjoyed the program but it is just a TV show. I enjoy seeing people benefit by weight loss but have no illusions that their experiences there are necessarily lasting or sustainable in their future. However, I have no sympathy for them, really, if they feel unhappy with their experience. The show has been around and widely discussed & publicized for 14 seasons, including the experiences of disgruntled contestants. In my opinion, the contestants are employees in a sense who know full well what kind of experience they are signing on for and regardless of contracts or whatever they can (and have) always bail out in the middle. I do think some of BL's practices having to do with timing and production and what probably goes on emotionally between people behind the scenes tend to present a somewhat too rosy picture to the viewing public but it certainly is discussed a lot on social media, past contestants have certainly spoken out, and neither the viewing public nor the contestants are idiots so everyone knows the deal.

I kind of have a problem with the idea of using kids this season, though. I am not worried about the kids' mental or physical health. I do feel they are being properly protected and cared for, but it doesn't sit well with me. I am sure they will lose weight but I dislike them being on any kind of public weight loss program and I think if BL wishes to contribute to the cause of fighting childhood obesity, it would be better for them to donate to private programs that all children could access through schools or private doctors.

Lol, just my opinion.

I've watched a couple seasons where the contestants relatives at home lost just as much as the contestants did or those season's where the person who was eliminated first ends up losing just as much as the finalists.

I've read a lot of what Kai said too and while I think there is a grain of truth to it I suspect a lot of it is sour grapes too. If it were that horrible they wouldn't have all those past contestants still active with the show and getting together on thier own. As to them starving themselves, you see lots of contestants who go below what they are supposed to on the show and they stop losing weight.

Yep, this. I cannot compare my life as a single mom of a school aged kid, who also works full time to the life they can lead on the ranch.

However, I do find the show inspiring - seeing people who are heavier, sicker, in worse shape than me pushing themselves as hard as they do. It makes me push myself a little bit harder too. Not as hard as Jillian would, of course! But I think most of us can do a bit more than we give ourselves credit for.

OK so with respect to Kaplods post on Kai and TBL, I did the math and since the beginning of TBL the number of contestants on the program totals 252.
252 people have been on the show since it started and of all those people only one 1 has written about it in a negative way and that one 1 persons experience is taken as why the show is terrible and why it isnt healthy and why it doesnt work and alot of what Kai's written has to do with what happened between the end of the show and the final weigh in which is what she chose to do to try to win the money Ive read her blog. There are far more success stories than failures presented from TBL cause lets face it, no matter HOW you lose the weight the odds are than youll regain it whether you did it TBL style or on your own. So if a TBL contestant regains the weight it isnt because of the TBL show "not working" its just pretty reflective of what usually happens when people lose weight. I dont know of any weight loss program that guarantees permanent weight loss.

Personally while interesting I dont take Kais experience and result as necessarily the norm maybe it is and noone else is saying its true and maybe it isnt. All I know is more TBL "graduates" thank the program than cut it down. Im not going to take 1 persons experience as gospel when they represent 0.39% of the total experience from the show. And as for exercise induced injuries? Well you can get injured at any point when you exercise on your own at least these guys have a medical staff and team and intervene when theres a problem instead of working on an injury which you are more likely to do if you dont have a 24/7 team looking after your personal wellbeing. I know in the long run Id rather pull a hamstring exercising than have a heart attack sitting on the couch so I accept that injury may MAY be in my future if I start or ramp up an exercise plan and if it happens Ill deal with it.

I'd totally go on the show if I could. And yes I think Id love the results that you see on TBL but while emotionally when I step on the scales Im bummed that I dont lose the way they do mentally I understand that what I do in no way compares to what they do and I gotta be kinder to myself.

I'm watching season 13 of it (now on episode 14 makeover week and where they met the first lady) and yea sometimes it's really shocking like on the first episode Buddy (the guy with the glasses) lost 20 something pounds in 1 week! That's everything I want to lose and it's going to take me at least around 2 months but he lost it all in one single week! Then on the episode where they sent all of them home for 18 days and he lost 23lbs! Just what in the world (o_O)...but he did get a leg fracture injury and he had to sit out of challenges for a few weeks so yea it is obviously dangerous to be pushing that hard, broken bones is no joke. I get that they really are a lot heavier than me so I know I can't expect to lose as much they do. Overall though, I don't really like it because I find it to be the opposite of motivation because there's so much whining and bad attitude especially from Megan, Conda, Kimmi and Mrs Clause. I'll finish watching this season to see who wins, I hope it's either Kim or Mark because Kim really does fight for it even though she's alone in the group and Mark really looks like he has lost a lot of weight and he seems to be fair player. No spoilers, thanks

that season was almost universally panned, even by the trainers, as a season dominated by bullying and bad behavior

There has been at least one more contestant who spoke out (in a previous 3FC thread. I believe the name is mentioned as well, but I don't remember if I or someone else named the other contestant).

I would have an easier time believing that the Kai's alleged experiences were the exception to the rule and that the other 250 contestants had a great experience if they didn't all sign non-disclosure agreements, and weren't being paid whenever they praised and endorsed the show, and if they weren't subject to being sued for saying anything remotely negative about the show.

Of course, they did all sign those non-disclosure agreements, and all the releases (you KNOW they signed releases promising not to sue or to publicly blame the show for any injury they would suffer).

So I don't feel sorry for the contestants either, however I don't have to watch anyone submit themselves to what amounts to torture for my entertainment. I know that what they're doing is dangerous, and potentially deadly so it would be rather gladitorial to watch.

I've gotten stress fractures and a herniated disk from exercise that wasn't 1/100th as intense as what appears on tv. The disk was especially bad, I was in the hospital for 3 or 4 days, and unable to get out of bed to do anything but go to the toilet or shower for 6 weeks) And we know that contestants have had stress fractures on the show and then were STILL taunted and bullied into continuing the pace, accused of laziness for being unwilling to work through the pain.

We've seen contestants being rushed to the hospital (in fact, now it's become an integral part of the show, it seems. It seems that every year it's in the news that at least one episode of a contestant has been rushed to the hospital for an exercise-induced asthma attack, or irregular heartbeat or something.

One thing I disagree with JoJoJo2 though, I think we (well anyone who watches the show) WILL see it, and I think it will only increase the show's ratings.

I think people watching will say "see, that's what being very, very fat gets you" (not "see what trying to lose weight by ludicrous methods when you're very, very fat gets you").

I really think that TBL, Survivor and all the rests appeals to the primitive Colloseum-appetites in all of us. Seeing someone hurting themselves for fame and profit, shouldn't be so entertaining, but it is.

On a gut level I like the show, but what I like about it, I know from experience is self-destructive. I do find it motivating - but it's motivating behaviors I know are self-destructive. Seeing the show reminds me of the adrenaline rush I used to get dieting and exercising extremely (even though my extreme wasn't nearly as extreme). I have to actually remind myself of the damage I did to myself in the name of "no pain, no gain" weight loss. The stress fractures, the asthma attacks, the chest pain, the panic attacks, not to mention the health problems I have now that were likely aggravated as much by the chronic malnutrition and physical stresses of decades of yoyo-crash dieting as by my weight itself.

After nearly killing myself in the name of weight loss, it's just not so fun watching someone else do it.


My husband and I've gotten fed up enough with television that we moved our television into my craft room, where it gets used only a couple times a month (usually when I have nothing handy to read and my back's too sore to sit at my desktop computer or to lie in bed).

Now that I have my ereader (hubby got be a Nook for Christmas), I've been considering getting rid of the tv completely. I do watch a few television shows on netflix, but mostly I watch documentaries and movies.

I wish netflix would get in more health, diet, weight loss, and fitness shows because I've exhausted all the ones available.

I not only am motivated by the shows with healthier, more reasonable weight loss and exercise done at a more gradual, less painful, and more practical pace, I'm also more motivated towards those behaviors and away from the ones that nearly killed me.

Watching someone twice my size spending hours on the treadmill (even though the footage may be spliced to imply that he or she was on the machines longer than they actually were) makes me think (even when I know better) I can do that too (or at least something like it).

I too thought that I was far too educated and intelligent to be persuaded into stupid behavior by a tv show, but I'm not so sure:

A little over a year ago, hubby and I participated in our YMCA's fitness challenge "Passport to Fitness." Everyone was given a passport, and a list of "Countries" to visit. Under each "country" was a list of two to four different types of exercise. To get your passport for that country stamped, you had to spend 30 minutes at that activity. You had to have 12 stamps from at least 9 different countries to "win" (the prize was a hooded sweatshirt).

I was determined to win that sweatshirt. It was more than a sweatshirt to me, it was symbolic of my battle with my health, and I think winning the sweatshirt helped me feel that I had control over my diseases and was mastering them.

So one day, I decided to try the upright elyptical (the reclining elyptical hadn't been so tough) and after 10 minutes on the machine I felt like I was dying.

I could have gotten off the machine, rested for twenty minutes and then done another 10 minutes. Or (I later learned) I could have done the next 20 minutes at an exercise of my choice. But in my mind, I wasn't going to get my stamp if I didn't get my 30 minutes on the eliptical done.

I made it, and I did think to myself, "if the people bigger than me on TBL can do it, so can I (note that this was after I found the show distatesful)."

I not only should have known better, I DID know better, and I did it anyway - and the prize wasn't $250,000 - it was just a rather ugly grey-blue hooded YMCA sweatshirt (I look good in all shades of blue, except this one. I didn't even know there was an ugly shade of blue until I saw this sweatshirt). I wanted that ugly sweatshirt more than I wanted anything, and I was willing to hurt myself to get it.

I couldn't walk for two days (going to the bathroom was ****, because I couldn't really sit down onto the toilet. I could lower myself a few inches and I'd have to "fall" the rest of the way. After using the toilet, I'd sit there for a bit because it was such agony to get up again that I had to psych myself up to do it).

It was about 8 days before I was pain free.

I could have done worse (I have done worse - at least the damage lasted a week and not 3 months). When I herniated the disk, I couldn't feel anything below my knee (except the nerve pain that felt like my whole leg - hip to ankle was on fire). It took two years for the nerves to heal as well as they would. I still have some nerve damage (my left foot along the big toe has constant neuropathy that feels like pins and needles and bugs crawling on and pinching the skin). It's only a small patch, and it's on the top of my foot (thank God - if it were the bottom, I'd be at risk for injuries that could infect without my noticing it).

I don't blame TBL for my momentary lapse in judgement, but I do know that I let the show's message seep into my brain. I let myself forget the "do not try this at home" message (be it in fine print) at the end of the show. My fault entirely, but it reinforced to me the insidious nature of the show. Even when we know better, it can be tempted to think "if they can do it, so can I."

My biggest problem with TBL isn't the show itself. I don't think it should be kept off the air, anymore than the Bachelor(ette), Survior, or any of the rest. Protecting people from themselves has never worked, and most people don't need protecting from themselves. Also, everyone has different ideas of what is entertaining/motivating etc. I'm willing to concede that the show that subtly reinforced self-injurious behavior for me, might be beneficial to someone else.

What bothers me most about the show is that since it's become popular, the the more reasonable documentaries and weight loss shows are disappearing. Obviously the ratings are proving that when given a choice, most people would rather watch the etreme entertainment. The shows depicting a healthy rate and method of loss have lost their appeal. They've become "boring" in comparison.

They make those people burn thousands of calories per day, not to mention they are usually pretty large so the weight seems to come off faster. Ever notice that the lighter they get the less they lose. They also seem to lose the weight so fast that in the end they are all left with so much hanging skin.
I remember we used to watch that show every season, and say we need to lose weight as we munched on our chips, soda, breads and cookies.

Now I've never been to one the "Biggest Loser" boot camp things, so I have no idea what they're like (And from what I've seen and heard so far they don't appeal to me at all...) But I have gone to a few spa type resorts that have weight loss programs like Canyon Ranch and even did one on a cruise once (didn't lose any weight on that one.. lol...)

Actually I went to one again this past summer for 2 weeks and while it was a very good experience overall and I did lose a decent amount of weight... It was very, very expensive... In retrospect I probably could have just gone to a very high end resort with a really nice spa, just hired one of the personal trainers at the hotel, eaten off of the "spa" menu, had massages everyday, and just lounged around the pool and gotten similar results... for a lot less money...

This worries me more than what people are subjected to on the show:

http://health.usnews.com/health-news...se-study-finds

Good point. I know for myself the "spa" experience of weight loss is much more effective than the "boot camp" method.

I've never been able to afford a weight loss spa, but for most of my life I thought "Well, heck anyone could lose weight when they had someone preparing gourmet food for them, had access to all sorts of fun types of exercise, and had massages and life coaches and a stress-free environment where your only job is taking care of yourself."

For some reason though, I continued to try to do "boot camp" (with myself as the bullying personal trainer).

Finally, "this time," I decided to bring the spa to me. I decided to start pampering myself thin instead of punishing myself thin.

It's been slower progress, but there's far less incentive to quit or become frustrated. I'm making fun, doable changes that I'm willing to commit to forever, regardless of whether the weight comes off quickly or slowly.

I'm having such a great time, it doesn't feel like weight loss at all.

I've finally reached a point where I have to put more effort in to get the weight off, and I'm at a bit of a dilemma. Push myself more aggressively (which doesn't work) or be more creative in finding ways to pamper myself thinner.

I watched it (gave it a chance) and was disgusted. How many people view this and think that the only path to weight loss is to abuse themselves, both physically and verbally? Or reinforcing to the non-obese that the obese are simply undisciplined and deserve mistreatment to 'fix' them.

Everyone sitting around with ice packs on their joints and vomiting in buckets, the #1 sign people should stop doing what they are doing.

The way the children were treated was the way that ALL people should be treated, with dignity and encouragement. For shame, I would never watch this again because of that.

Exactly.

I'm guessing people who go on Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune sign non-disclosure agreements too. As far as the exercise goes, the doctor once said that one of the original intents of the show was to show that the morbidly obese could exercise at a high level. Up to that point conventional wisdom was they couldn't.