Last night I recorded “The Biggest Loser” so that I could watch it today. I have never seen the show before, even though this is apparantly the ninth season. I was surprised to find Sami from “Days of our Lives” (a show from my distant past, yet I remember every smarmy detail LOL), Allison Sweeney hosting. Next to “Green Jobs Czar,” her presence could arguably be the least necessary job on the planet. I know, I know…she used to be “fat” by Hollywood’s standards and now she’s not. My ex-husband used to say she was the fattest thin person he had ever seen; I used to think “well then I must be a whale” every time he said that. Regardless…do we really need her there?
SPOILER ALERT: I’m gonna tell you what happened, so stop reading if you haven’t watched it yet and you plan to.
Never having seen the show, the introduction scared the crap out of me. I mean I literally felt anxiety watching trainers Jillian and Bob screaming at these people as they paraded around with their bellies hanging out, forced to be weighed publicly in their hometowns. I was horrified. Was this really necessary? Trust me when I say, we fat people do not need to be humiliated like this; we take care of that on a daily basis by ourselves every time we shower, sit on the toilet, or catch our reflection in a store window.
I had to stop for a few moments and ask myself if I wanted to continue watching. Having Binge Eating Disorder means understanding and embracing…even owning every word these people say, every tear that falls. I posted my thoughts on Facebook:
“…is watching “The Biggest Loser” that I recorded last night. So far it is making me incredibly uncomfortable. Hopefully that will change.”
Several of my friends, including my cousin, encouraged me to keep watching. My friend Al (the one mentioned in my “About Me” encouraged me to blog my reactions, and because I think he is really smart and has awesome ideas, I am doing just that. 
This season is all about “couples.” Each couple is a “team” identified by color. The first hour gave us the opportunity to get to know the contestants, most of whom were incredibly good-looking regardless of their weight. I was immediately drawn to the Italian mother-son team from Chicago, the white team…hey, they’re “my people!” In any case, my heart broke as they shared their stories, because they were my stories too. Nobody admitted to binges or sugar addicition (my main issues), but I could relate to the embarassment, the shame, the need to hide/isolate. I tried to find the contestant who I felt looked most like me, body-wise. I do this everywhere I go.
After the public humiliation and admiration of these beautiful people, they were zapped off to “The Campus,” which I assume is the name of the beautiful California parklike setting where the show is filmed. There, they were met by Bob and Jillian. I have Jillian’s 2009 Wii game, but I bought it used and I can’t figure out how to use it, so I bought the 2010 version and have yet to try it. All I knew about her was that she is tough, likes to bring out the “warrior” in people, and has great hair. As for Bob, I only knew of him through a clip I saw on “The Soup” where he berated a contestant and then stomped off, whining and cursing like an overgrown toddler.
After the introduction, I expected the pair of them to break out the can of whoopass right away, and in effect they did, making the teams bike 26.2 miles. The winning team would earn immunity; the slowest two teams would be sent home. I was shocked that they would take these morbidly obese people and make them do this, but they seemed confident in the abilities of their medical staff. I guess Dr. Rob Huizenga’s healing hands can unclog arteries with a single touch? In any case, I have never seen people sweat like that. It was inspiring. The two losing teams were an adorable mother-daughter (blue team) and an equally adorable father-daughter (yellow) team. The blue team mom had beat breast cancer, but unbearably painful cramps forced her to stop riding. Her gorgeous daughter continued, in my opinion, kicking ass. The yellow team father was a huggably adorable teddy bear of a guy who you just could not help but like; his daughter was beautiful and named Sunshine…again, how can you not like these people? They were told they were being sent home, and they were crying in the limosenes until Bob and Jillian came out and told them separately that they would be back in a month to compete against each other. Of course, Bob and Jillian would be helping them. Interesting twist. I hear they do things like that on this show.
We were then informed that this is the fattest, most unhealthiest group they have ever had. My Italian boy was 30 years old and over 500 pounds. There were twins who weighed 30 pounds short of a half-ton. The pink team (mother-daughter) daughter was the heaviest female contestant ever. With each revelation, my heart broke a little more.
Nobody likes puking, although the episode of “Daisy of Love” when the skunk gets into the house and all of the musclehead beefcakes start freaking out and puking was hilarious. Sadly, there was some puking as Bob and Jillian unleashed their fury and had these people work out in a way that made Rocky’s Russian training sequence look like a piece of cake (pun absolutely intended). I did note that the contestants were closely monitored and although they were pushed to their limits, they were encouraged to modify, as in the case of the twins walking in a pool.
After this, there was the obligatory group therapy session, where my heart broke even further. The pain flowed with the tears. It was like hearing my own story over and over again.
Finally, the weigh-in. Al assured me that the weigh-in was “pure joy,” and for the most part, he was right! Their weight losses were enormous, ranging from just under 20 pounds to almost 40 pounds IN ONE WEEK. Watching them react to their nearly inhuman weight loss was awesome. The way they dragged out the weigh-in (insert Sami here) was, well, a drag. I found myself fast forwarding through some of it, and even counting the beeps the scale made. Purple mother-daughter team won. The twins lost. This meant the rest of the people would have to vote one twin off, and you could tell it was not easy. In the end, they sent home the twin that did not have to work and could thus focus on his health, and they showed you that two months later he was already 100 pounds down.
My friend Cheryl made an excellent point: what bothered me the most was that despite these dazzling weight losses, I couldn’t be sure that the underlying conditions that caused their obesity was being addressed. I know from experience that if you don’t deal with the root, you will never stay thin. I have lost 50+ pounds TWICE…not including pregnancy weight gain…I have been thin and now I am obese. Trust me. It’s not about the food.
In the end, I was glad I watched. It did inspire me to start pushing myself to exercise more strenuously. It’s always nice to spend time with people to whom I can relate, even if they are on TV. And I can honestly say that Jillian and Bob aren’t that scary. But then again…they’re far, far away in TV Land too. I am safe…for now.
