Since only my sister reads this blog, and she doesn't watch tv, I am going to begin by explaining what "The Biggest Loser," ("TBL") is. TBL is a reality show/contest, whose contestants vie for the titular title and cash prizes by a combination of losing weight and manipulating the other contestants. The show is hosted by actress Allison Sweeney, best known for portraying Samantha Brady on the soap, Days of Our Lives; Ms. Sweeney was at one time a bit on the chunky side, and I suppose after her own dramatic weight loss, NBC decided she'd make a good host for TBL (since I don't think she was the original host).
So people send in their home videos of themselves engaging in lardporn - that is, in varying states of undress, revealing their massive fat rolls, and eating in the most disgustingly gluttonous manner. Sometimes contestants arrive in pairs, such as siblings, mother & daughter, father & son, and variations on these combinations. They gather at TBL ranch, which I guess is somewhere in the Los Angeles area. And they are divided into teams. Now, I have only watched the show for about a year, I guess 2 seasons, so I'm not absolutely sure that what I've seen is representative of all of the seasons, but sometimes they split up the teams that arrived together. Anything for the drama.
Anyway, everyone is immediately immersed in tough workouts, led by whichever trainers are working on the show. The first season I watched had Bob Harper, Dolvett Quince, and tennis player Anna Kournikova as trainers. They're mean-ass meanies, pushing the contestants to the point that they all end up using the puke buckets placed in the gym. (Good fucking grief, who has to clean those fuckers?) Each week, contestants are subjected to a weigh-in, whereby the person who has lost the most weight, relative to their weight from the week before, is immune from being voted off of the ranch. The team which has the collectively lowest weight loss for the week has to vote someone off - but it's not necessarily the person whose weight loss was smallest. That's where it becomes a popularity contest. In the middle of this there's lots of crying by the contestants about how they didn't realize how fucking fat they'd become, and they beg their teammates not to vote them off because they are "single mothers" or whatever and think they "need" to stay on the ranch longer for whatever reason. And challenges are held, in which rewards of some sort are given for the winner, such as a 2-lb advantage at the weigh in, or 6 months of Biggest Loser (tm) meals. Often, there's some sort of contest which requires contestants to gorge themselves on their favorite food for some advantage. It's all somewhat sick, in a way, and from what I've read on the internet, a lot of people watch this show while eating pizza or having drinking games that involve chugging or taking a shot every time someone uses the word, "journey."
These contestants, more often than not, post HUGE fucking numbers. I understand that they're pretty large to start, but most of the men seem to hit double digits in terms of weight loss in a single week - and sometimes some women are right up there with the men.
Ten, twelve, fifteen pounds in a week? Really? The show has doctors on the staff, who are mostly seen informing the contestants in the early episodes that they are (pre-)diabetic or have other issues, and sometimes some contestants aren't "cleared" to participate in some of the physical challenges, but most often the restrictions on participation seem to be related to an injury as opposed to heart or sugar concerns.
I liked watching this shit, seeing how the contestants changed in appearance from week to week. But the most recent season sucked; the winner was still a fatass, his sister was a total bitch, and there were several quitters who were fucking crybabies. It was a mess, and I couldn't root for any of them. I hope they ALL gain back the weight.
Often, a contestant has either ganed a couple of pounds or not lost what they thought was commensurate with their work for the week. Most of the time, these are women. I've never heard anyone on the show mention anything about their periods, but some of these damn women must be having them. I have never had a period where I didn't gain at least 4 pounds, and I've seen women whose asses seem to have exploded over night due to their periods. The show always seems to write it off as reaching a plateau.
Historically, most of the contestants have gained at least some weight back after the show, even if only a couple of pounds in contrast to losing 100. Some of them have done quite well at maintaining, and look damn healthy. But I think I feel for some of those who gained back weight, because the show is all about dramatic weight loss in a relatively short period of time. The winner of each season gets about $250k, and probably the chance to make more in endorsements. Money is a motivator, so I can see how some people can do it for the money and then go to shit afterwards. I've seen some episodes where they bitch about having had nothing to eat but chicken, and I understand that.
But I don't think most people can adhere to a diet where every food that they love is a never-again food. I certainly don't plan to have never-again foods, except in cases of allergies (mine is strawberries; and I may have a lactose intolerance or some gluten issues, I don't know). I've been blogging and making slight changes for about 7 weeks now. Things I have given up: diet soft drinks. Things I have cut back on: microwave meals (this is the big one); fast food; beer; bread. I haven't been exercising, but there is probably some calorie-burning in standing at the counter to cut things up and cook them, and getting up to check on them, and washing the dishes. Net weight loss as of this morning: 8 lbs.
But I'm on my period.
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