Tweet

Trigger Warning: I will be talking about The Biggest Loser and the negative effects it can have on a person’s mental state.

I have written about my love/hate, mostly just hate relationship with Biggest Loser before. While I admitted to watching it for shallow reasons I also can argue how ridiculous the show is and all those other FA preachy things. Anyways the point is, I have been loving these last 2 weeks with no Biggest Loser to invade my home via the good old boob tube. 

While the Olympics have been on the Biggest Loser has been on hiatus and at first I was a bit irritated, the last episode kinda left us at a cliff hanger challenge between Darrell and Cheryl (HA that rhymes, oh so clever is me!) over who would be the one to go home, but then I realized that it was definitely a small price to pay for not having the negative effects of watching the show that week. Those negative effects for me being a bit of unnecessary guilt, a lot of ranty anger time, and those tiny moments where I begin to question myself and my beliefs.

I think no matter how pro fat or body acceptance we are, and how knowledgeable and self loving we can be, there are still be moments where the media can find a way to get under our skin and make us doubt even for just a split second our happy fat lives. It is completely ridiculous that the media and that this bull shit show can have that kind of power. I consider my self to be very strong with tough skin and enough confidence and overall love for myself that nothing should be able to rattle my cage or shake up my values, and I think it took having a couple weeks of no Jillian Michael’s guilt, or Dr. H your gonna die drama, to make me realize that just watching this fucking show could really be damaging to my mental health. Wow, if it’s this bad for me, who has the wonderful fat blogsphere, the knowledge, and the gung-ho positive body image, then holy shit what is it doing to people who haven’t found fat acceptance yet? Fucking scary.

It is completely messed up that BL can make us feel these horrible things especially considering the dangerous nature of their show and how unachievable a similar lifestyle would be to obtain. We are watching these fat people, who are fat just like us but are determined to change their ways, and the attempt is made to make us feel  guilty for not spending 6 hours a day in the gym, for having not every healthy food at our fingertips and for having absolutely nothing else to do besides think about what the scale is going to say at the next weigh in. These people are taking time off from real life, from their family and job responsibilities, from fast food on every corner, from real life shit and real life problems to live in this alternative reality. They come across as heroe’s who are making their life changes, but really this is not their lives, this is their lives on the ranch/planet of endless weight loss possibilities. Thats too much fucking pressure for viewers and its teaching fat people to loathe themselves more for not being able to meet these high expectations. Though motivation for other fat people is what they promote as the reason for this show isn’t it just teaching unrealistic ideals that lead to more fat hate and discrimination, to more self loathing and to more yo/yo dieting which in the end takes a bigger unhealthy toll on our bodies then being fat in the first place? I think so, and that is why I have enjoyed these last 2 weeks with no Biggest Loser being pushed in my fat face and after this 2 week reprieve I am not going back. I will not be viewing the show again and I hope others will give it up as well.

Hell if your starved for TV and don’t want to be faced with the idea to starve yourself turn off that damn Biggest Loser and switch over to something more good for your mental health and in the long run your physical health. American Idol is the choice for me. Plus Ellen DeGeneres is too adorkable and fiercely herself , to miss!

Tweet