Why "The Biggest Loser" is bad

An introduction to my eating disorder... It all began when I was about 10yrs old. Having footage beamed into our lounge rooms every night of starving Ethiopian children just filled me with immense guilt. I would tell my Mother that I would eat less so that those kids could have my share (little did I understand about capitalism). I managed my eating disorder, staying at a healthy weight but trying every bizarre new diet on the market plus a few I made up myself. That was until I was 31 & I longed for the voice to return, the one that makes you strong & able to say no to food. Before I knew it, this "voice" had taken over my life. I was severely emaciated & weighed EVERYTHING before I even thought of consuming it. With the support of great people, I, luckily, have been able to recover. It's been a long road, I lost my soul. Since my recovery I have lost my fiance to suicide which lead to nervous breakdowns that landed me in hospital. Thankfully, anorexia didn't rear his ugly head this time. 

The Biggest Loser
I still recall the very first season.
Who knows what stage of anorexia I was at, what I do recall was being thrilled with the motivation it gave me to exercise after the episode.  Obviously, I wasn't the only one.  In the beginning, my partner & I would see a number of people heading out of their houses for a brisk evening walk or jog.  I thought this was a good thing. As the show continued, I saw the obsession with calorie counting, specific diets and of course, the Sunday nail biter "the weigh in".  I wished I could lose as much as them.  I couldn't.

As the years went by, in my opinion, the show got worse, more extreme. Today, I cannot watch it for I learned (the hard way) how to manage a healthy weight. All I see in the commercials is contestants being belittled, put down, yelled at, being sick, crying and with forlorn expressions. The saddest part is to think that this show is aired in a very family friendly time slot. Just trying to imagine how many families sit down to watch this program together makes me hang my head in shame. What have we become? I really do feel for all those kids out there that are subject to this propaganda.  The messages they must be learning could be not only damaging but life threatening. Let's think about it (from the mind of our inner child)...

• It is ok if people in authority yell at me and call me names,it does make me feel bad about myself but they are "trainers" so they must be "right"
• If i am thin i am worthy of a relationship (think back to the "Singles" series that aired last year).
• People cheer and get excited when I lose weight, it must be VERY important (and being 'big' must be VERY bad).
• I am defined by my size (which is only good if I look like someone who works out at the gym for a living).
• I now associate the word "loser" with someone who is bad (fat, lazy, greedy etc)

Fat shaming, the obesity 'epidemic' and  extreme over correction is no way to control expanding waistlines.
Why, as a society, can we not appreciate good deeds, intelligence, kindness and respect?  It all comes down to what we/they can sell.  I can only be happy that I am now in a fairly strong recovery because programs that embrace unhealthy under eating & obsessional behaviour would only serve as a trigger.

To this day, I cannot believe that this type of show is allowed on the air, with a failing public health system, it shocks me to see that people are being pushed to follow this extremism.  Show me a study that says losing more than 500g per week is healthy or a study that says morbidly obese people should be expected to work out in a gym (I was so worried that "Big Kev" was going to have a heart attack!), I now know what a healthy diet consists of, how healthy weight loss works and the importance of fitness appropriate exercise. From what I've seen TBL doesn't promote this.