The Biggest Loser Season 6 discussion (1 Viewer)

[RyanAn]

I agree with everything said... I am so happy that Michelle won!!!

The new season looks great! I'm very happy that it's starting in only a couple weeks, I could watch this show year round! I'm glad they are not doing the old family thing with two weeks a family or couple. Straight regular seasons suit me best.

 

[Mike Frezon]

And, Ryan, let me agree with you! I thought we were going to be in a reality show doldrum at my house with Survivor, The Amazing Race and The Biggest Loser all ending within a couple weeks of each other. It'll be great to get another season of The Biggest Loser started right up again...especially in January since (as I stated earlier) I like to do my own workouts while watching the show!

 

[Lucia Duran]

My friend went to her her gym this morning and saw Heba and Ed. We had a good laugh when I asked her if she threatened to beat Heba down! LOL!

 

[DaveF]

This is the one "reality" show I watch, and even so it's a background show for me (read the paper or surf the web while watching). I only really enjoy it towards the end, when the pack is thinned and real progress is being made.

And this season was the least interesting of the few I've watched. None of the people were highly interesting, and Vicky was wholly repulsive. I nearly quit watching when Vicky fell below the line and the swing voter chose to be "loyal" and didn't vote her off. Bah!

But I always enjoy the finale, seeing how much everyone has lost.

I have three wishes for the show. It would be fun to have "where are they now" episodes. Do the contestants keep their weight off? How do winners fare? Especially after Bob's chat with Vicky, telling her the first season winner gained all the weight back.

And with that, I wish they'd use good stats. It's bad math to weigh people to a single pound but calculate percent weight loss to 0.01%. The losses are so close that weighing to a tenth pound could change the results in some cases.

Most importantly, the show should use body fat percentage instead of weight loss. Pounds off are good, but lean mass matters and body fat % is a better metric.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

True, also I have always heard muscle is heavier than fat. So as you convert fat to muscle, that negates some of the weight loss, yet is still healthier for you.

 

[DaveF]

Yep, muscle is denser than fat, so you can slim down but not see the scale show as many pounds off as you might expect.

My wife sees this. She's trying to lose some weight and the gym's evaluation will report saying she lost four pounds of fat and gained three pounds of muscle. This is real improvement, but the scale only shows one pound lost, which feels frustrating, as we're culturally taught to think in terms of simple weight loss.

For these people with hundreds of pounds of fat, simple pounds off is a big deal. But body fat % would be telling at the end, especially with the men, who are clearly gaining significant muscle mass.

 

[Scott-S]

I also think that they should not have the women and men compete against each other. Everyone knows that the different sexes are not the same physiologically. Simple percentage of weight loss is not the same.

The reason women have started to take over the game is that they now know in order to win, they have to vote off all the men. This made the game swing from men winning to women winning.

I really wish they would remove the "voting" from the competition. It should be about results, not personalities. They should just make it so the scale (or some other hard data) decides who gets to stay.

 

[Chris_Morris]

I have said this from the first episode. How can they call it the biggest loser when it is not. It is the biggest loser out of those that play the "Survivor" game the best. Case in point this season, Heba was actually the biggest loser.

 

[Mike Frezon]

But would it be as compelling a TV show with the personality element removed?

I totally understand your point...but two hours of workouts would clearly not be as interesting as what there is now. there'd be little need for challenges although I guess they could remain for prize value.

And while Heba may have been the biggest loser among the final four since their last weigh-in, I wonder who lost the biggest percentage of weight since the first weigh-in? She may not actually be the biggest loser, right? The weekly weigh-ins and eliminations could mean the result of a true "biggest loser" may still get skewed.

 

[DaveF]

I asked my wife why she watches Survivor but not the ballroom dance show. She said it's because the dance show doesn't have the personalities, the social conflict, the competitions--it has none of the things that make an interesting "reality" show for her.

So it is with Loser: if it was simply weight loss, it would be a dieting infomercial for Subway, not a "reality show" to get good ratings and viewership.

And though I'm not a "reality" fan, what bugs me about Loser is that people play the game, yet the don't play the game. That Vicky wasn't voted off was infuriating to me -- it was such a bad gameplay move. That people still play as "blue" and "black" when it's all about individual weight loss, rather than voting strategically, makes the show more tedious.

Similarly, the show's producers are recruiting for fat people, and not necessarily interesting people, whereas survivor clearly auditions for interesting personalities and conflicts.

Last season was one of my favorites because by the end, the men were such an interesting group. The Vegas trip and tatoos was an unexpected and fun sement.

 

[Chris_Morris]

The results on the finale was the percentage lost from first weigh-in to the live weigh-in, so Heba did indeed lose the most overall.

I don't like the idea of the eliminations either. The purpose of the show is to change people's lives (well, after being an infomercial for the product of the week that is). But look through the past season and the trend is usually that the earlier they are voted off the less weight they lose overall. Some do buck that trend. I think eliminated or not they should still get to stay there and get the benefits of the trainers.

I don't know how else they could do the show. I would be perfectly fine watching it with the eliminations, but I understand that most people have a need for the drama and conflict. Maybe there could be some reward/punishment system that would help the show retain it's drama. But to me the fact that people like Vicki, Brady, Heba and Ed, who are hideous people both inside and out, can stay on the show, yet people like Phil have to leave due to the "survivor-ness" of the show is a big turn off to me.