Does The Biggest Loser finale cause eating disorders?
Now that the show is over, I’ll finally admit it: I’ve been a closet fan of this season of The Biggest Loser, at least since the early stages. I seem to take pleasure in the irony of watching it with my fiancee while we eat ice cream (low fat ice cream, but ice cream nevertheless). Anyway, the show is at once exploitative and inspiring, showing people losing cartloads of weight in order to give them back the fulfilling lives they lost as they packed on the fat. It also gives viewers a chance to decide which of the trainers — Jillian or Bob — is most manly. (By the way, my money’s on Jillian there. She’s attractive, but she scares the living crap outta me.) But what seems to happen between the last challenge and the live finale is that the finalists tend to go from healthily thin to scarily emaciated, all in the name of winning the grand prize. And, after taking a look at this year’s winner, I have to ask: Is this healthy? And will it cause problems down the road?
