As we’re just days away from the crowning of Asia’s FIRST Biggest Loser - who will walk away with a cash prize of US$100,000?
Using the most unfair method possible to judge the winner, which is just actual weight lost on the scale - it only opens the competition up to cheating and drastic methods.
Think about it - if those contestants on the biggest loser gained muscle - they would be penalized. And how ridiculous is that? Penalize someone for gaining muscle?
Top that with a US$100,000 carrot dangling in front of them - I’m pretty sure that they would do almost ANYTHING - I mean… who wouldn’t? People will do crazy things for money - even if it meant exercising 8 hours a day, starving themselves, and dehydrating before the weigh-in (or murdering their best friend). It wouldn’t even matter if contestants ended up in the hospital - cos they’d be out the next day and start back right where they left off!
As the finale for the first season of the Biggest Loser Asia is next Tuesday morning (9 March 2010), that leaves them only 3 days to do what it takes to win. In fact… the next few days will be the most extreme that remaining contestants will ever go - it’s just that we don’t get to see it on tv - and we probably won’t even know what they did.
Already, we don’t see them exercising at the Fitness First clubs - where did they all disappear too? Did they suddenly decide to take a break during these last crucial days?
If you’re wondering what I’m going on about…
From the American-version:
Ryan Benson from Season 1 said:
“I wanted to win so bad that the last ten days before the final weigh-in I didn’t eat one piece of solid food! If you’ve heard of “The Master Cleanse” that’s what I did. It is basically drinking lemonade made with water, fresh squeezed lemon juice, pure maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. The rules of the show said we couldn’t use any weight-loss drugs, well I didn’t take any drugs, I just starved myself!
Twenty-four hours before the final weigh-in I stopped putting ANYTHING in my body, liquid or solid, then I started using some old high school wrestling tricks. I wore a rubber suit while jogging on the treadmill, and then spent a lot of time in the steam room. In the final 24 hours I probably dropped 10-13 lbs in just pure water weight. By the time of the final weigh-in I was peeing blood.”
FYI, Ryan fell back into his old eating habits after the show - in fact, he regained 32 pounds in 5 days simply by drinking water.
Season 3 contestant Kai Hibbard also blogged about the risky measures she took for the finale.
“She wrote on a blog that in the two weeks before the finale she severely dehydrated herself using asparagus (a diuretic), colonics and six-hour stretches of hopping in and out of a sauna. She lost 19 pounds, which as she joked, rebounded to her rear end almost immediately.”
And as the season for Biggest Loser Asia comes to a close - what are some of the ‘lessons’ we have got out of the show?
* Rapid weight-loss works
* If you aren’t seeing double-digits lost each week, you’re a failure
* The number on the scale is what’s important
* Eating well means depriving yourself (this resembles the crash diet mentality, something that isn’t realistic for your entire life)
* Willpower is the answer to weight loss
* You need to subscribe to their website to learn how the contestants lose weight
* Personal Trainers are mean ugly monsters that respond to the name Kristy
I’m just stating the obvious, but we all know, the show is unsafe - I don’t have to keep saying it. I’m just glad that no one died during the first season. (I really thought someone would).
So next Tuesday - I’ll be at the finale - to watch as Asia’s first biggest loser is crowned. It will be good to see who the winner is - after all, it IS an accomplishment.. but it’s just that the journey they took wasn’t a very good one.
I pray that they’ll be able to live a renewed life from that point onwards - and never look back.
In health,
DM
Read also:
{ 1 trackback }
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
dude - i stopped watching after two episode. From time to time, i see it when i switched channel and those 5 minutes i see are totally irrelevant to healthy lifestyle.
BLA Season 1 is nothing but drama show playing up the contestant emotions and also ridiculing them about their appearance.
I think we will already know who the winner are, and they are not the contestants but the show producers when they rejoice about how well the Season 1 goes.
Also, Kristy most probably murdered her own PT career (i saw one episode when she ridicule one of the guy when the guy stop responding to her).
Couldn’t care less about BLA. Total waste of time. Massive disappointment. Nuff said.
Watched the finals last night and was appalled at them all congratulating and giving a car and USD100k to a guy who obviously starved himself to the extreme…BLA is dangerous and TV at it’s worst.
hehe exactly what i’ve been saying.. since they announce BLA. i remember posting it here too… whether its BLA or TBL, it’s all the same.. as you put it.. for 100K contestants will do anything. its less about health and more about drama.. but hey it makes good tv with all the drama and hysterics… its what makes good tv not good health that brings in the ratings..
Leave a Comment