Determined To Succeed

Hey there and happy Saturday, everyone.

I can’t believe it! I am actually in “O.K.” pain from yesterday’s second mixed martial arts session with martial arts and self-defense expert Doug Shaffer. When I say “O.K.” pain I mean I ache but only in the ways I’m supposed to. The kind of aches you have after using muscles you didn’t even know were there (like the freaking muscles I seem to have activated on the back of my armpits) and using them for the first time. Sure, my triceps hurt. They should. Sure, I feel as though my crotch has been stretched like Van Damme used to do. It should.  That is what this workout was and is meant to be. It is awesome (I always sweat within the first five minutes) and I am learning cool stuff (who knew I’d kick better with my left leg than my right?). I know I have homework from Sensei Doug and will report on that soon.

After martial arts I came back to my computer to sort of wrap up the day and I came across an older (from March 2009) and rather disturbing story about something I have LONG-suspected – that a great number of contestants who appear on “The Biggest Loser” gain their weight back – that they are basically set up to fail.

Now, before you go getting all “hey wait! You said you liked this show and it does inspire me” on me I will say, for the record that this is only my opinion and I, too, have been and continued to be inspired by the weight loss dreams of its contestants. I find the human stories of people fighting the “battle of the bulge” all over this country very moving and inspiring. I really do. However, the problem I have isn’t with that. It’s with the methods the show uses to get people to lose weight and how unrealistic it is given the real world we all face.

Just to recap what I’ve said before, I believe (again, only my humble opinion) that “The Biggest Loser” is unrealistic because of how the show sequesters people from the real world and puts them through an incredibly and rigorously intense two/three month fitness regimen to lose the weight we see on the show. In other words, of course you’d lose weight – it’s the only thing you have to do for that entire time. It’s your only job. That is what is unrealistic. When the real world comes creeping back in so do the pounds because you have neither people yelling at you to keep going nor the equipment at “the ranch.”

Again, this is just my opinion however it seems to be shared by two others – Kai Zwierstra, runner-up on “The Biggest Loser” Season Three, and Season winner, Erik Chopin. Not only does each one confirm what I suspected their stories are really the heartbreak of it all.

In a story that ran in the Anchorage Daily News, in reality stardom’s after-light, it seems getting skinny on national television didn’t melt away her problems. Instead, it magnified a volatile all-consuming cycle with food and exercise Zwierstra (who appeared on the show under her maiden name Kai Hibbard) doubts will ever go away. It caused her to lose weight in very desperate ways while on the show, including that final weigh-in night. It caused her to use Ex-Lax. It caused her to make herself throw up.  Please read the entirety of her story. It is absolutely eye-opening and part of what you don’t see when the cameras stop rolling (both on and off the set).

Then there is the story of Erik Chopin, who after losing 214 lbs. (he started off at 407) was crowned the winner of Biggest Loser season 3. But after the reality show was over and the trainers had gone home, the deli owner from West Islip, N.Y., slowly gained the weight back (he got back up to 368 lbs.).In January of this year, Erik became the subject of a Discovery Health documentary, “Confessions of a Reality Show Loser,” which chronicles his story and his new attempts to re-lose the weight and do it right.  He even went on Oprah to talk about his weight loss and re-gain.

In the article from Anchorage, “The Biggest Loser” executive producer Mark Koops said about half of the show’s contestants keep the weight off. Half! And, that counseling isn’t (ISN’T) part of the show’s plan. How can it not be when people, in a very short, intense amount of time, give up their normal lives, workout all day, lose a tremendous amount of weight then get thrust back into actual reality and are still expected to keep going. That’s crap and not realistic, or healthy.

Also from the article is a quote from Lynn Grefe, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association. “Compulsive overeating is a disease,” she said, “with deep psychological roots. The show makes a spectacle of people’s pain. Can you imagine doing that with cancer — whose tumor is going to disappear faster?” she said. “My chemo versus your chemo?”

I guess what I am saying, and what I have always said is to take weight loss seriously enough to know there are no quick fixes or “magic pills.” And that shows like “The Biggest Loser,” while inspiring on some level, do have a reality to them you don’t see and you can’t take what you see on the screen as real reality.

It is television, after all.