I read an article recently about a woman who was purposely trying to gain weight. Her goal was to top 1000 pounds and perhaps become the world record holder for the heaviest woman to ever give birth. Her weekly grocery bill topped $800, and while the writer of the article deplored her actions, it was acknowledged that the woman would likely succeed in her true goal –to become famous and earn income from her endeavor, as she has a web page where people can watch her eat and bathe. I am not going to include a link to her page as I find the idea of what she is doing repulsive.

 No less repulsive is the American television show, “The Biggest Loser.” For those of you who don’t watch, it is a reality show in which morbidly obese men and women compete to loose the most weight. In addition to changing their lives, the contestants vie for a $250,000 prize.  Ashamedly, I am addicted to watching this horrible fake spectacle.

Each week the same drama plays out. They exercise, they get lessons on how to eat properly, there is a theatrical weigh-in and then somebody gets kicked off the show (either for not losing enough weight, or being a pain-in-the-ass, or not being sneaky-strategic etc.).  And there is much weeping. God is there weeping. “I need this more than you.” “I’m doing this for my kids.” “I love you, but you’ll be able to continue to lose the weight after you leave the show, so this week I voted for _______ to leave.” Blech.

The show is like watching an accident by the side of the road presented as ‘street art’ if it was produced by Disney –gross, emotional and entirely fake all in one fell swoop. I am happy for these people, who will be changing their lives for the better. And it is astonishing how quickly the weight is lost. Some contestants have lost more than 100 pounds in 9 weeks. One woman continued to compete a day after an emergency appendectomy.

But really, how does one lose as much as ten pounds in one week? If you didn’t stay home from work and completely ignore your family, it would be impossible to exercise enough to burn through the calories. Without a hyperactive personal trainer shrieking in your ear to push harder who would have the will-power to press on? There are rumours that contestants are purposely starving themselves in advance of weigh-ins to achieve the incredible results. Whether the rumours are true or not, how could it possibly be healthy to lose weight that rapidly?

I wonder how many of the contestants manage to keep their weight off after the show. I wonder if it isn’t completely irresponsible to promote rapid radical weight loss as some sort of achievable paradigm. And I wonder if cloaking extreme weight loss in the spectacle of a game show isn’t the inspiration for the idiot who is putting on a perverted exhibition of extreme weight gain.