Why I Love The Biggest Loser

I started watching the NBC show The Biggest Loser' the first year it came out. 7 seasons later, I'm still watching.

The show never ceases to amaze me. The amount of weight loss these contestants obtain is remarkable. Each season it seems the contestants that are on the show, are bigger than the last seasons. I'm not sure if they do this just for sensationalism, as in why have a 300 pound man when you can have a 400 pound man? I think that is part of it but it is also to shock us Americans into waking up and realizing that the obesity epidemic in this country has reached ridiculously high levels. According to the CDC, approximately 35% of adult men and women in the United States are obese and 16% of children ages 2-19 are obese. We are literally the 'fat Americans' and it only gets worse each year.

One of the main reasons I love watching the Biggest Loser is that it is the one show I just can't seem to watch while I mindlessly snack on chips or popcorn or some other comfort food. I feel too guilty to do that while watching these extremely overweight people working out and sweating away their pounds. How many of us have thought or felt that we were to out of shape to run a mile, or do too many sit ups? These contestants come onto the show in worse shape and size than I have ever been, and immediately the trainers, Bob and Jillian, start working them out non-stop. They are working, and sweating and often times to the point of tears and throwing up. Every season I see these new faces, and I try to imagine what they will look like much thinner and healthier, and it makes me smile knowing that the show will change their lives.

Last season it was a contestant named Michelle from Dallas that had me rooting for her. I could see a young woman with emotional pain, lots of self doubt and a whole lot of inner beauty. She had the greatest smile, but she didn't smile often in the beginning of the show. Her mother was on the show with her as her partner and I was amazed each week as I watched her work through her issues while dropping the pounds. On most show nights, I would do sit ups, push ups and arm weights during the commercials, because I was so inspired to get back to working out and feeling good. My mom and I decided to start meeting up 2-3 times a week to exercise and in the summer my backyard pool got a lot of use from us. We saw Michelle and her mom as great examples that we as mother and daughter, could get in shape together as well. Michelle in fact won the title of Biggest Loser last season and $250,000 to go with it. She looked great and still does. Mom and I now play tennis and basketball at our local park once a week, just to break up the monotony of our work outs. And as sweaty as we are at the end of the day, we always feel good that we exercised. It has been a nice bonding time for us as well and I find my mom even funnier and smarter than I ever really appreciated before these moments.

My favorite contestant this season on The Biggest Loser is Tara because I see in her a person with the want and will to succeed. She has never fallen below the dreaded "yellow line" that could have lead to her being voted off the show. She has won the last 5 or 6 competitions they have to win money, trips and the coveted extra 1 pound loss for weigh ins. She is a fierce competitor even though she is fighting her own paranoia and self-doubt the whole way through. Any woman who can go out and consistently beat the guys on the show, is pretty impressive in my book. She has made it to the final four with three other impressive contestants. She has lost over 100 pounds in 17 weeks and has once again inspired me to put the cookie down and go run with my dog. I just hum the shows theme song as I jog, "what have you done today to make you feel proud?" and I know that it's better than any cookie I could ever eat.

Sources:

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/Obesity/

http://www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser/