I really can’t understand the ‘weight loss’ shows that are on tv these days. We were talking about it in The ABS Gym in Dublin the other day and it got kind of heated.
I went home and posted my opinion on ‘Operation Transformation’ and ‘The Biggest Loser’ on Facebook later that day and got quite a response.
1. These shows like The Biggest Loser and Operation Transformation are made for entertainment purposes ONLY. Nobody is going to be helped by this nonsense. Why kick somebody out of a weight loss competition? Seems, well… ‘mean’ for want of a better word. Kicking somebody off the show who genuinely wants and needs help. Why? For the same reason people watch the opening rounds of x factor; to see people fail.
Seriously, people like seeing others fail… Makes them feel better when they fail themselves. It’s wrong, it’s sad, but it’s true.
2. Even the people who lose weight and last a few rounds in this ‘competition’ are not going to be able to maintain it… And if they do, they’d better be unemployed and have no life because the maintenance of this flawed weight loss approach is time-consuming.
3 x training sessions per day?
The training they are doing is more of a test of endurance and mental fortitude than actual weight loss training. Olympic athletes don’t train 3 times per day.
The diet they have to adhere to is nothing more than a starvation diet that they will almost definitely give up afterwards.
If they don’t give it up, they’ll have to become accustomed to living on 800kcals/ day… Which is wrong, nobody should have to live like that. Its downright unhealthy.
Not to mention their fat loss will come to screeching halt eventually with the low-calorie diet resulting in a gradually slowing metabolism.
Did somebody say massive rebound weight gain?
3. I suppose my real problem with this is there are thousands of people out there who want to lose fat. The need to lose fat but they see this garbage on the television and it puts them off altogether.
Think about it… Who would willingly subject themselves to the ridicule involved in that type of training.
Not only is it excessive… It’s actually so random, stressful and downright ridiculous it’s COUNTER PRODUCTIVE.
Sure, look at the results some of the guys get. 3/4 pounds in a week after all that punishment is nothing. I’ve had clients lose that much weight by mistake.
There should be a disclaimer on these shows.
‘The weight loss practices carried out on this show don’t actually work long term. If you wish to lose weight and keep it off in a less entertaining and more realistic fashion seek out an ACTUAL fitness professional, not one of these inexperienced donkeys we have on our show’
After thinking about it a little I likened these shows to Scrubs…
Hilarious right? Taking the piss out of the medical profession…? Yeah, it is actually… ya gotta love Scrubs 
Difference is, these shows have real people in them, not actors, and they have feelings and needs. I don’t think its right to make it ‘entertaining’ when a persons well being is at stake.
There was a lot more giving out and slating of the shows in my original article but I cut it out. Maybe I’ll post it another day.
Think about it next time you are looking at the show… even some of my personal clients in The ABS Gyms in Dublin said they were expecting to be shouted at and ridiculed when they started personal training. They thought it was part of the motivational process or something.
It’s not motivational at all.
It’s stupid.
We coach our clients in The ABS Gym, we don’t just train them.
Bryan Kavanagh BSc CSCS
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