Biggest Loser

Just a heads up before ya'll get too deep into this post. I'm gonna be up on a little soapbox for a bit here, so you've officially received fair warning about the complainathon that's about to take place...

I've been a fan of NBC's Biggest Loser series for years. I love anything that has to do with fitness on mainstream cable television. The show does a lot of good things for a lot of people. Obviously, contestants that actually make it onto the show get a chance to go out to LA to train and gain health. They get to more or less seclude themselves from the "real world", effectively ridding themselves of nearly all of the negative and harmful influences that led them to their morbid obesity in the first place.

Since the show began, the Biggest Loser has also helped thousands of fans of the show to lose millions of pounds on their own at home. It provides a large dose of inspiration to all of those people who struggle every day with the same problems as the contestants on the show.

Let me make myself clear: these two aspects of the show are dramatic and meaningful, and they far outweigh any gripes I'm about to go into on here. The show has a positive utility for society, and does, in my humble opinion, put something beneficial out into the world. That is the biggest reason why I am a fan of Biggest Loser.

Having said all of that, there are a few things that really grind my gears about Biggest Loser. First of all, I hate the fact that the show has both life changing and game-playing aspects. I love it for the life changing aspect, while I merely tolerate its gameplay aspects.

For example, every week, somebody gets eliminated from the show. Whether they lose the least weight that week, or they lose some sort of challenge, or get voted off by their co-contestants, somebody typically gets sent packing each and every week. The "Survivor Model"of basing a reality television show on staying on the island for one more week through asinine challenges is extremely unnecessary. Hell, I'd go so far as to say that all of that reality tv gimmickry is actually harmful to the contestants and the fan base.

The "Survivor Model" attempts to place something on the line (a large cash prize) in order to get the contestants to play the game (doing those stupid, stupid challenges and such). On Biggest Loser, the contestants already have something at stake (their lives); the show doesn't have to artificially manufacture motivation to get the contestants to play the Biggest Loser game (losing weight and gaining health and knowledge).

The fact that they have a $250,000 cash prize for the person who stays out in LA the longest, plus another $100,000 for the person who loses the most weight after getting sent home, is just icing on the incentive cake for the contestants to do their best to get in shape and lose weight.

But despite this, Biggest Loser doesn't require all of the ratings-based gimmicks that it currently uses. It has something that few reality tv shows have: real, raw, human emotion based around a literal life-or-death struggle. Outside of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Intervention, and occasionally a rare episode of The Dog Whisperer, there are no shows that have these same qualities.

So, here's what I propose be the basis of next season's Biggest Loser...

• Pick the unhealthiest and most overweight contestants that they can get their hands on. And I'm not just talking about the (relatively) "able-bodied" morbidly obese. I want to see people who are extremely overweight AND have some sort of injury/disability that makes it exponentially more difficult for them to get and stay on the wellness bandwagon; bum knees, arthritic hips, blown shoulders, bad backs, asthma, smokers, all of them. The current Biggest Loser does not do anything to address those people at home who have injuries or other barriers to entry keeping them from doing the same workload that they see being done on tv.
• Give all of the contestants a guarantee of 4 months out in LA. No eliminations. No voting other people off. No more watching people go home heartbroken after being at the Biggest Loser compound for only one week. The show will simply give the contestants all of the tools they have in the Biggest Loser tool belt, and then they'll let them learn how to use those tools for the entire 4 months of the show.
• Show more of the fitness and nutrition aspects to the show. Even if I disagree with the exact methods being used on the show, what they're doing is apparently working. I'd like to see them giving exact explanations of what they're doing fitness-wise so that more people at home can have a bigger and better jumping-off point for taking control of their own wellness. They already do this a little bit on the nutrition side of things via sponsorships from companies like Ziplock and Jennie-O Foods.
• Person who loses the most weight wins the grand prize. $100,000, $250,000, a $20 Target gift card... who cares. When you keep everybody on the show and allow them to lose the weight and address their personal issues, that should be more than enough of a prize for most all of the contestants.
• Incorporate another metric other than "total % of weight lost" to judge who wins. Maybe some series of workouts, where the contestants who achieved the highest level of fitness are equally rewarded for their hard work (I don't know, I'm just spitballing up here...). On the finale show, they'll get everybody up on the stage. You can always tell which contestants "get it" and are doing it right, and which ones have been starving themselves for weeks leading up to the finale. Nothing makes me shake my head more vigorously at the tv screen than when someone from the latter group ends up winning. The point is to put the emphasis of the show on health, not on weight loss. Check the pictures below: which person looks healthier/fitter to you?

You should be saying "Person B", even though he's doing ridiculous looking, totally unfunctional bicep curls... Both of these guys were on Biggest Loser Australia (season 3). Guess which one won? (Hint: pay no attention to the gold star in the top left corner of one of the photos). Did Sam (top) deserve to win the cash prize more than Cosi (bottom)? According to the agreed-upon rules of the show, yes. Why not change that to include another metric (such as fitness) instead of just total weight lost?

So, there's my five point plan for changing Biggest Loser for the better. NBC, I'm counting on you to find and read this, and then to take it to heart and implement the changes I have suggested. I'm not asking for $250,000, or even $100,000...

...but that $20 Target gift card sure would hit the spot.

* * *DISCLAIMER* * * I haven't based my opinions in this post on anybody else's complaints with the show. These are just my opinions, based on years of following the show myself. Feel free to comment on anything on here, or to voice your own opinions on Biggest Loser. It's what the "Post Comment" button is for on here...

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WOD 101116 Tuesday

Location: The Shell, 9pm

Warm-up

S/S: Back Squat, 20RM

WOD: Complete the following rep rounds for time of:

-10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1 Heavy DB Swings (75/50#)

-1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10 Burpees

Finish: Plank Progression.

S/S Results

Matt- 185#

Donny- 155#

Katie- 135#

Atherton- 115#

WOD Results

Donny- 6:48 (65#)

Katie- 7:04 (30#)

Matt- 8:41 (75#)

Atherton- 9:01 (40#)