I’m watching both of these shows in their entirety and I don’t know why they’ve historically gotten so much backlash. One reviewer called TBL “a dumpster fire of a TV show” and others seem to think M6L is downright abusive. However, I can’t find anything particularly bad in either.
Although it’s true that in TBL the contestants are losing an egregious amount of weight each week, it’s likely (actually almost certain) that most of this is water weight and it would have been more dangerous to instead not lose the weight. The intense exercise scenes seem pretty typical for anybody who’s serious about athletics. Finally, the famous “damaged metabolism” study that shut down TBL turned out to be debunked due to “damaged metabolism” being a boring, normal adaptation under high physical activity.
And although there are tons of bare naked shower scenes in M6L, everyone knew that going in and they agreed anyway. Some also complain how the stars don’t receive enough support for things like therapy and other cost centers. I would say that would actually have been a great thing to add, but it would be impractical at scale and have a high chance of bankrupting the production with how much healthcare costs, resulting in a net loss of benefit for those who need the surgery.
So, what’s your viewpoint here?
It makes public spectacle of acceptable targets of bullying. People laugh at them safely at home without facing consequences.
That’s actually weird, because I’m always thinking “wow, look how far they came! awesome work!” which is the opposite mindset.
Look how far they came when they had access to social supports and the high quality food we deny to the poor - it’s trying to shift the narrative from societal issues to personal responsibility… “look how easy it is - you too could lose hundreds of pounds if you got off your lazy ass” without regard to the fact that the personal trainers and dieticians are out of reach for normal people.
Look at billionaires if you want the real proof - Jeff Bezos hasn’t always looked like Vin Diesel, old pictures of Elon Musk are an amazing contrast, ditto for Gates - honestly Zuckerberg seems to be the exception here because martial arts a life long hobby of his… these are all people who already had a shit ton of money but even they struggled before they had a team dedicated to their body.
we deny to the poor
I see this a lot, but unless you’re talking about free range organic stuff, bulk commodity foods like rice and black beans are among the cheapest yet most filling. What’s the reason they’re not more common in these situations?
Believe it or not, they aren’t always available. Seriously. Well, not available and in good state.
If you go to some places, usually “bad” areas in cities and very rural small towns (or just rural without any town at all), you end up tempting relying on single source for food. It might be something as relatively useful as a proper bodega, but it can be a gas station instead. Even if the place does stock those staples, they will sit there until they get sold, or get so far past the “sell by” or “best by” date that the owner finally throws them away. So you can go in looking for that stuff, and then it’s so damn old that it doesn’t cook right.
Even out here in the mountains, where you can usually have a small garden, you run into serious issues obtaining other staples to make a complete food source, much less make food be more than just fuel, which can be soul crushing and lead to disordered eating on its own when people do run into a chance to splurge.
Food deserts are a thing, and they drive malnutrition as well as obesity.
That level of scarcity is way more common than people think for those living under the poverty line. And even that assumes that the individuals can cook. You’ve got the disabled that may not be able to, you’ve got people that don’t how how. Even when that isn’t in play, you can run into shitty apartments/rentals that make it difficult to cook no matter what. Places where a stove can be out of order for months without being fixed or replaced, and likely replaced with something that doesn’t work right.
Beyond that, why the fuck is the assumption that the people have been given any kind of nutrition education to know what they can buy that’s healthy? Why is it assumed that living on beans and rice is a good state of being?
It’s real easy for those of us that have had the privilege of good nutritional education to assume all kinds of things, but that doesn’t make the assumptions correct
Btw, that got ranty at the end, it wasn’t directed at you, it’s the situation that’s the infuriating thing.
One reason is the more you’re forced to work, the less energy, and, more importantly, time you have for preparing healthy meals. Therefore you’re more likely to go with preprocessed, prepackaged meals or straight fast food which will make you fat fast.
I’ve got a relatively cushy job and cook my own, relatively healthy meals but even I find myself going for that store-bought pizza when I have a particularly busy week.
Moreover, unhealthy, preprocessed meals are basically drugs in terms of the dopamine hit, so you’re more likely to go for them if your life sucks and you’re sad about it.
Add to that the lack of education on healthy eating, which I’d bet is easier to come by when you’re at least middle class and bam, you’re a fat poor person.
They’re bland and people want to enjoy life - rice and beans is good enough to support life (but stingy in some nutrients) but people want to enjoy food.
…you are an exceptionally good and decent person. I would think the same, but I have discovered through my life that few others do.
Just because that is how you enjoy the show doesn’t mean everyone is the same way.
Yeah, in Bullyland that’s not gonna be a popular attitude.
I can see where Bullyland might exist among regular people, but not among doctors given that M6L is literally run by Dr. Now’s son and overweight + obesity is approaching the number 1 preventable cause of death in the US. I guess I just have a different perspective than most?
If said doctors participate in something that is oriented to appease the public of bullies, I don’t care about their good intentions – they’re accomplices.
The producers don’t care about reducing the health crisis in the US. They care about viewers and the money they bring.
I watch and enjoy m600L for the same reason you do. I want to watch the overwhelming motivation and winning that happens frequently. The fact that some people don’t seem to be able to rise is what makes it not mundane though: you can’t always predict who will knuckle down and kick ass. Lots of people here seem to maybe not have watched more than a trailer of it.
Dr. Now with his hilarious diamond and gold plated stethoscope is definitely milking it though.
Because they are exploitative trash.
It’s fat shaming for public amusement. It’s a thoroughly awful concept from top to bottom… it doesn’t offer advice for healthy weightloss or encourage a healthy life style… it’s just making a spectacle of something people struggle with.
It comes from an entirely negative place.
TBL is a show that proves if you have a nutritionist, personal trainer, and heavily restricted diet you can lose a lot of weight really quickly. It’s still somewhat dangerous to do that, and almost guaranteed to not lead to long term success. People almost killing themselves to massive applause and congratulations isn’t actually a good thing.
The correlation between weight and health is a lot murkier than media in general, and these shows in particular, represent. It’s much more reliable to measure blood and vitals, such as cholesterol and blood pressure, to establish wellbeing and risk.
Rapid changes in weight tho, in either direction, are well established for having permanent harmful effects. It also tends to make it more difficult to maintain weight loss, and more likely someone actually increases in weight over time.
These shows make it seem like losing weight at any cost is desirable, and don’t put focus on the actually accurate metrics of wellbeing, while ignoring the negative long term impacts of rapid weight loss. It’s a very warped view of health that focuses on an aesthetic feature.
I strongly recommend giving this podcast a try if you want more analysis: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biggest-loser/id1535408667?i=1000505824482
Spot on comment. “But, but, but obesity” Yeah correlation is not causation, when will people get off of the better than thou train.
Being healthy is more than just how much people weight and it baffles me that so many comments here are tone deaf about how it is not as easy as CICO and criticize people who live in larger bodies.
Just FYI, please don’t downvote this question into oblivion… it may be obvious to you, but I think it’s asked in good faith.
We’re in NoStupidQuestions and this is a legitimate question someone might be afraid to ask.
“Hate”? No.
I just don’t care about the shows at all
I wish there was an episode called, “So, I Married a Snacks Murderer.”
Some people are sick of reality shows; others aren’t.
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Fat slobs don’t want to be shamed for their obesity.
I’m not even overweight let alone obese, but I can’t stand those shows. They feel unethical, like a modern day “freak show” that they used to have in circuses way back when.
Also, being not fat is extremely hard for a lot of people.
