I guess I hadn't really seen it as being totally exploitative (although many reality tv shows are). I guess any time you are booting someone out of the show for not doing as well as others, it gets a little mean-spirited. I was thinking it might be motivating...and that maybe I'd pick up a few good tips or ideas on weight loss/exercise/etc...maybe I don't know enough about it yet. When does it air?
k

I'm just glad CSI and L&O are on so much, so I can avoid those shows.

Vikki

It airs tonight. Check your tv guide for your area.

If this show were truly on the up and up, I would have no problems with it. However, TV is all about ratings and keeping people interested. And, using past formulae for "reality shows" seems to mean placing "twists" and "turns" and keeping the audience gasping and laughing and not knowing what to expext. At the same time trying to show human weakness at it's lowest point. From what I can discern from "reality shows" they are geared toward some weird voyeuristic tendency to gleefully watch others be humiliated and degraded, while sitting comfortably in one's own livingroom. Let's face it: watching strangers lose weight is about as exciting as watching paint dry. TV is going to have to "spice it up" somehow, and I firmly believe they will be revising P.T. Barnum's old freak show - the fat lady.

For encouragement and learning how others overcome adversity in their weight loss journey? I'll visit with some of the friends I've made online or turn to my real life friends. I don't need to watch other overweight people being made fun of.

Yeah, I'll pass....

I'll admit it, I have my Tivo set up to record it....

If, however, it sucks - I'll cancel my season pass... I don't want to judge it too much since I haven't seen it yet, but if it's like other reality programming I'll probably end up canceling it.

Sad to say, I'm certain no one who participates will be successful more than a year.

I think they will all lose some weight, and a few will lose a lot of weight, but none will keep it off. The reason I'm certain is because their methodologies for losing are unsustainable (lots of exercise, very low cal high carb diets). THey aren't learning anything, being "challenged" to run for an hour a day. They aren't learning anything by being "challenged" to eat as little food as possible. They aren't learning what foods make them feel good, what foods make them feel hungry, what foods to eat, how to cope with triggers, etc. Basically this is an exercise in crash dieting, and none of them will stick it out.

Second, they are doing it for the wrong reasons - money. When they win the money, it won't be as important to them to continue with their insane weight loss plan (lots of exercise and starvation) so they'll likely give it up.

I just don't see this being a good experience for anyone except the guy or gal who wins the money.

Another thing, it's not fair to put women against men in a weight loss challenge. Because of the unique hormonal profile of men, as well as their size, men are much more anabolic than females are. They burn way more energy, making it easier for them to create caloric deficits, resulting in faster loss of pounds. We all know this. I hope they have some way of controling for size/gender differences which may give an unfair advantage to some dieters. A 300 lb lady is going to be able to lose faster on the same calories than a 200 lb one, a 175 lb man is going to lose more pounds on the same calories than a 175 lb woman, etc.

Theoretically you can always adjust intake to produce a certain amount of weight loss (eating nothing at all will always produce weight loss of at least 1 or 2 pounds per week)... but as you get smaller and less anabolic, it gets incrementally more difficult to do. So, dieters who are less overweight and women have additional challenges that very obese and men don't usually have.

I personally wonder how many of the ladies are going to develop eating disorders BECAUSE of this show.

Women who were never bulimic will decide that in order to win, they need to throw up their calories for the day.

Food for thought?

Vicky

I wondered about that, it seems that it would be pretty tempting to a lot of people. But then we'll have to see how many and how well placed the hidden cameras are, how supervised the people are, are there rules that say you'll be disqualified for purging? On "The Swan" there was a rule that you could not look in a mirror during the whole time period ( 6 weeks or 3 months???) one contestant smuggled a mirror in, was caught and disqualified. On another diet show (taking it off) there were cameras in the participants homes (there was no prize for this show, it just follwed them through a 6 month period of fitness and dieting - their choice of plans and exercise. They had a "cheat of the week" and it was often caught on the home cam, but sometimes in a resturaunt - so how closely will these people be monitered.

Yea, it would be pretty tempting to purge on a show like that, maybe not if you ate on plan, but definitely if you cheated or even if you stayed on plan and didn't lose. They might decide that purging was pretty effective (for the short time)

"These people all have one thing in common, they are FAT!" That was just I don't know offensive. On national television plus 250,000 I don't think I would be caving. The whole world knows.

I love this show. These people are pansies though. I mean, they're crying and whining like babies. Of course dieting is hard; if it weren't everyone would be thin. You don't have to bawl over it though...

This is the new reality show created by NBC. Started tonight, and I thought I would start a discussion.

I actually related a lot to the contestants, and felt for them every step of the way. I also wish I had the chance to win $250,000 for loing my weight

At first I thought this may exploit the overweight, but I thought they dealt with the emotional and physical struggles very realistically.

I already have a favorite

Anyone else have an opinion?

~Michelle

Just watched it, it was actually pretty good. I'll tune in next week; if for no other reason just to watch the infighting amongst the groups

I noticed that both trainers, for each time, consider their plans "low-carb". But they seem to redicule anyone who eats meat?

One tean is "eat more", and the other is "eat less".

Should be interesting to follow

Wa'il

Yes, I know!

I posted this in my journal earlier:

Interesting observation...

There are 2 teams in this reality show, and each are on 2 different diets...BUT look at the diets:

EAT LESS DIET
~Burn more calories than you take in
~High fiber, high protein LOW CARB
~Portion control

EAT MORE DIET
~Deal with hunger before it happens
~6 -8 small meals a day
~High volume, low fat, LOW CARB

Hmmmmmmmm......................................

oh it was AWESOME!!!! I think it would be a chance of a lifetime to be on a show like that. It's too bad they had to vote the way they did, but it only made sense from the team point of view and she had a great attitude about it. Obviously she wasn't going to be able to give them even a 5lb a week weight loss and it could drag their team down.

One thing though, how many of them do you think stoked up on a lot of salty foods before the first weigh in. I mean even with that kind of training and dieting a 20lb loss in ONE week is pretty unreal!!!

It's great that they all live in, easier to control that way and for team members to see who might dig into the cheat fridge.

I'd like to see more of each diet though, we didn't really get to see what each team was eating - I guess they will work up to that. Surely they can't be leaving it totally up to them what to eat.

I know some people will be p'd at what i'm gonna say now, but the woman that was whining about missing her family - what's her problem, didn't she know she'd be leaving them behind for this adventure?? She should've thought about that before she went on the show, nobody twisted her arm.

That woman trainer ROCKS!!!!!!!!!