Biggest loser poll

I am just curious about those who watch the biggest loser. My family is not overweight in any way, but we love this show and watch it every week. I have found that when we watch we crave junk food, or fattning food. we normally eat healthy every meal, but on Tuesdays nights - look out.
I was just wondering has anyone else found that show makes them hungry? I think it has something to do with all the talk about dieting or seeing these really overweight people. You would assume it would have the opposite effect. Someone at work said the same thing, the show makes them want to eat : )

Wed. Dec 5, 10:48am

Not me! It makes me want to get up and go exercise. The contestants are a constant reminder of what happens when you eat too much junk foods. And when I see them busting their butts to lose the weight I think about all the whining I do just to get my much smaller behind to go do just 30 minutes of cardio.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 10:54 AM

I'm with the previous poster. I usually eat the best on Tuesday nights. I think it's because the contestants on the show are a big inspiration. I try not to snack, and if I do it's always healthy.

I was really sad about who went home last night :(

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 11:01 AM

biggest loser

My husband claims that it makes him hungry too. It just motivates me to excercise more. I do sit ups and use my free weights while I watch.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 11:44 AM

I find yself doing squats and leg lifts while watching the show... it makes me feel like a slacker. I have on one occasion ate a bowl of icecream, and did lunges through the house while watching the show.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 12:17 PM

If I'm not watching it on the treadmill at the gym, I, too, find myself shoveling down the "wrong" foods.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 12:20 PM

I find them all to be an inspiration as well.
I usually don't eat during that time. I think because I am more aware.
But I don't know about anyone else but my mind is always on food when I am watching my diet. Thinking when I can eat again or what I will make for dinner.... It is strange, the more careful I am the more I think about food.
I know if I fast I fight thinking about food constantly.
I have never heard anyone else comment about snacking during the show.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 6:07 PM

This show is a strange phenomenon. Lots of people here at PT are completely hooked. I have to agree that it is completely inspiring that people move past a weight problem HOWEVER, I have trouble with the way they do it.

It's a contest and I find that upsetting ....the whole getting voted off the island thing is gross. Somehow I feel like America needs to be inspired by a group of people who come together to get fit and do something real like climb Mt McKinley. The show should model cooperation and support instead of a winner and a money prize and all the strategy and drama that goes into that.

The other thing is the challenges are weird...I watched for a few minutes last night and one of the women had a sprained ankle and one of the men a bad knee and they were jumping on a trampoline. What kind of modelling for "getting healthy" is that supposed to be? I turned it off after that.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 7:48 PM

Bringing your body back from borderline diabetes, heart-disease and other major ailments is REAL. Being able to run a mile and not feel like you are having a heart attack is REAL. Seeing the smiles and tears on the faces of their very proud family members is REAL. So what if there is a prize. It fuels them and keeps them going. What do you think someone who climbs Mt. McKinley is after? They don't go up there just for the heck of it.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 7:57 PM

Right on 7:57. I love this show and it completely inspires me. I cry with them and understand how it feels. I would give anything to meet these people and tell them how wonderful I think they are. I think its amazing to see the 200-300 pound people on the show now who are running miles after miles. I can't do that and i weight less than them. Its very inspiring and I hope to see the show continue for many years!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 8:52 PM

I wish they'd edit it more responsibly. That idiot Neil referred to his two previous weigh-ins that yielded "single digit" results as a PLATEAU. He lost 8 lbs one of those week, can't remember the other. What does that do to the average joe's (and jane's) expectations??

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 9:25 PM

I am very inspired by the individuals on Biggest Loser, I work out harder and longer on Tuesday nights while watching the show, if anything it makes me not want to eat because although I am heavy I do realize I could be larger and should not eat all the junk food in site.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 9:48 PM

To 9:25

That is exactly how the average joe thinks. You start a weight loss program and you lose big the first couple of weeks or months and then NOTHING. The scale doesn't budge even though you are working your ass off and eating properly. You get frustrated and want to give up. I've seen many threads on PT about this issue. It goes to show you that it can happen at 200lbs. and at 130lbs.

You have to also remember that if they don't lose enough they could be eliminated.

Thursday, December 6, 2007, 8:36 AM

EXACTLY 8:36. And that is a terrible message to put out there. Competition (and elimination) should not be part of the equation.

The other thing that bothers me about this show is a WHOLE LOT OF TIME is devoted to this portion (who gets voted off) of the show...and there is a MAJOR focus on some real or perceived flaw someone may have ...or they just didn't lose enough weight.

The underlying message for the biggest loser is you are ultimately worth what you weigh and who needs that????

Granted there are moments of true blood sweat and tears (those people participating are courageous....it's the SHOW and the message it puts out here that is sickening).

Thursday, December 6, 2007, 10:09 AM

It's a contest!

Don't compare your real life to a contest/reality show on TV. I would think we should all know this by now. I love this show and it motivates me.

I can't stand it when people blame their insecurities/flaws on the media.

Thursday, December 6, 2007, 12:26 PM

I am totally inspired by this show! I don't eat anything while I'm watching, out of pure guilt! I didn't feel like doing my workout tonight, and all of a sudden into my head popped, "What have you done today to make you feel good?!" And down I went to do my workout! It is amazing to watch how much they can do and how far they've come. I can't wait for the couples in January!

Thursday, December 6, 2007, 9:52 PM

My daughter loves this show and so we usually watch it. I am both punked and inspired. These men and women are doing something very hard in a very public way. I don't think I would be too comfortable for all of the world seeing my jelly belly on millions of tv screens. So I admire them.

The competitions are truly bizarre. Eating donuts to get to a goal? What? Why do they give away cars instead of exercise equipment for the home, or a lifetime membership to 24 hour fitness, or something? What do cars have to do with weight loss (I know, sponsorship, marketing, and advertising, I know).

And the drama feels very forced. Such and such is such as huge threat. Why? I know, the money prize. but if their success makes another person work harder, that is what we are doing here at PT, right? Without the added drama. I guess its better TV. I wonder if they are told to cook up some animosity about someone else. On the flip side, the drama is so much less than it was a season ago, there is a lot more community and working together now than then. I think the producers have backed off of the heavy temperamental drama that was consuming the competitors the first few seasons I watched.

Since it is a competition, I am okay with this. How many people getting fit or keeping fit participates in a marathon, or 5k, or something? Many people do to encourage each other. And, if you happen to win, there is a prize, usually money. So, the BL people are doing the same thing.

But I bottom line think that they are losing weight very quickly, they are toning very quickly, and the long term results on many of their contestants has shown most of them to have a substantial weight gain for their maintenance weight. Did anyone see Matt and Susie, winners from a previous season, who now have a kid? They are each at least 30-50 lb. heavier now than they were on the show. What does the show do to encourage their participants to keep up on the diet and exercise?

And I usually do some crunches or other exercises when we watch too.

Thursday, December 6, 2007, 10:05 PM

I have to say I hate people being voted off because they are all working thier bums off, but the show reminds me of me when I first started out. . I draw inspiration from how hard these people push and how hard they work.. I know if I dont want to restart this journey again Ihave to continue to move and exercise and watch my foods.

I think each of them are winners in my book. no matter wh loses the most. the chnages they are making in thier lives is amazing. especially the ones that have kids.. they will be able to live a longer healthier life and be parents to thier kids.

Thursday, December 6, 2007, 11:18 PM

12:26...it is a contest and I know that. I have checked the show out because people here talk about it. I never watched it before.

People are watching this show with their teenaged kids who have weight problems and I think along with it being inspiring that these poor peoiple are working so hard to make a change it teaches a terrible path for doing this.

Kids are going to be disappointed when they don't get double digit weekly weight losses. They see injury as a norm....and those folks play through injury so they can win.

Most people don't have a clue about sustainability instead they want to watch a bunch of severely obese people engage in a contest to see who wins. It's like using an NFL football season to teach and inspire wellness. We all know NFL is about big men bashing bodies and winning...biggest loser masquerades as something else.

Friday, December 7, 2007, 10:08 AM

I do not watch the biggest loser but all my friends do.

Friday, December 7, 2007, 11:29 AM

10:08

you have a lot to say about a show you don't watch.

if parents are concerned about what their kids will think then they need to step in and talk about what the show is missing or not telling them. Fill in the blanks and stop relying on the media to teach their children everything.

Friday, December 7, 2007, 12:50 PM

You're assuming that parents "know better", which a lot of them don't. I mean, haven't you noticed that the parents of overweight kids aren't exactly pictures of health themselves most of the time? At which point they're about as effective and convincing as a smoker telling his/her kids not to smoke.

Friday, December 7, 2007, 1:18 PM

Agree with the other poster

Still, the media is not responsible for the sole education and raising of your kids.
"not knowing any better" doesn't get them off the hook. The show has books and dvds that they can check out from the library or buy. I've even seen little magazines dedicated to the Biggest Loser. And I'm sure they have a website, don't they.

Friday, December 7, 2007, 2:14 PM

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