THE BIGGEST - lokmanmurad.files.wordpress.com · NAME: LOKMAN HAKIM BIN ABDUL MURAD CLASS: MC1114A MATRIX NUMBER: 2015894188 lecturer: MADAM RAIHAN BINTI abu BAKAR negative effects

THE BIGGEST

LOSERMANUFACTURED REALITY TV SHOW

TABLE OF CONTENTS

introduction

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST LOSER?

background of issue

story of andrew castillo

relevant facts

discussion + Analysis

recommendations

conclusion

bibliography

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3 - 4

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6 - 7

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NAME: LOKMAN HAKIM BIN ABDUL MURADCLASS: MC1114AMATRIX NUMBER: 2015894188lecturer: MADAM RAIHAN BINTI abu BAKAR

negative effects

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INTRODUCTION

There has been an increase in reality television shows in the past couple of years and most reality shows have very high viewers count. Reality television shows are barely hard to produce and can be about anything at all compared to other tv series and the reason why there has been a vast amount of shows in this format. All you need is a crew and regular extraordinary people, and youʼve got yourself a reality tv show.

Despite the fact that reality tv shows are quite popular among people in todayʼs society, these television shows sometimes seems to be quite fake or manufactured. It is thought by people that most tv reality shows are staged and scripted, as it is impossible for some of the things that happen on the shows to be real and just happen naturally, without a script of construction. Today, we will analyze one of the most well-known reality show, The Biggest Loser and how real the show actually is and take a look on how the entertainment industry could be misleading the society and damage peopleʼs perspective or views.

FAKE

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WHAT IS THE BIGGEST LOSer?

The Biggest Loser is a reality tv shows based in the United States of America but well known by people worldwide.

The show mainly revolves around overweight individuals coming onto the show and going through their program in hopes of losing the most weight possible in a short period of time.

The contestants compete weekly to win the grand cash prize by losing the highest amount of percentage to their initial weight.

BACKGROUND of the issue

The definition of reality tv shows are that it is supposed to be unscripted, spontaneous, revolving real-life situations and usually features unknown and regular individuals that competes or participate in a program or activity. A few years back, reality shows might be genuine and real, but in these days of age, people should already realize that reality tv shows are often manufactured. This is usually done by the entertainment industry to make the show more interesting to watch.

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THE STORY OF andrew COSTELLO

VS

BEFORE AFTER

One of the contestant of The Biggest Loser, Andrew ʻCosiʼ Castello decided it was best to tell the public of what it was like to be on the show and there were more to just one side to every reality tv show production. Andrew wrote exclusively for News.com.au to tell his story. He described as being on the show was like being in ʻprisonʼ and what the entertainment industry had the contestant go through to make the show more exciting and how they lie to the public of the circumstances of the show.

Andrew explained that the show lasted for four and a half months and had stated of one incident where it was during Christmas time, all the producers had had a leave to go home and spend time with their familes for the holidays - the contestant were given only 5 minutes to call their partner or family members. Furthermore, they were only allowed to contact their loved ones for only 3 times throughout the whole production.

He also told about his biggest dissapointment with the show, and it was the showʼs length of time between the weight-ins. On the tv shows, we would see that the weight-ins on the show would be done weekly, but for Andrew and the contestants at the time, this was not the case. He explained that the longest period of time in between his weight-ins was around three and a half weeks (25 days between weight-ins) and the shortest was 2 weeks plus (16 days). He also mentioned that the contestants were told to say certain things such as ʻWow, itʼs a really great result, Iʼve worked really hard this week!ʼ instead of just letting the contestants react naturally during shooting.

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why did he do it?

Andrew decided to come forward to share his experience with the Biggest Loser because there was a controversy around season 15th winner, Racheal Frederik-son, 24 years old contestant. The controveresy started when the contestant lost almost 60% of their last total body weight in what seemed like a weekʼs time. Racheal came onto the show weighing 260 pounts (118kg) and left the program at the final weight of 47kg as revealed during the final episode. The show claimed that she lost over 155 pounds (71kg) in total weight and gained $250,000 in winning and was crowned the biggest loser for the season.

Of course, everyone thought this was impossible, to lose so much weight in such short amount of time. Despite the training and intensive program, the drastic drop in weight of Racheal Frederikson was the reason a lot of people started to doubt the credibility of the show and contestant started to reveal the real situa-tion that had been happening for longer than it should have.

RACHEAL FREDERIKSON

before and after losing

60% of her body weight

on the show.

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relevant facts

It was explained that problems will occur when your body get too used to certain weight and in the case that the body started to lose weight below the usual weight, the body will fight way to much to regain the weight, which will force the body to enforce their survival instinct.

If the body lose too much weight too quickly, the body will start to reduce the number of calories that regularly burns in order to regain the weight that was lost. It is nearly impossible to lose weight that quickly properly and without any other side effects and complication on the individual. One might also get depressive due to the mental toll it would take on the person itself.

A study was done by

Erin Fothergill a clinical metabolic

researcher, andKevin D. Hall, PhD,

senior investigator

at National Institute of Dia-betes and Digestive and

Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

suggested that the body does not take ʻlightlyʼ.

Kevin Hall started watching The Biggest Loser a few years back on the recommendation of a friend. ʻI saw these folks stepping on scales, and they lost 20 lb. in a weekʼ, he said. Because of this show, it was shown that there was a widespread unreal belief about weight loss. He also stated that the workouts were punishing and the diets were too damaging causing the contestants to be able to slim down quickly but he thought that losing 20 lb. in a week was quite too much. Hall quickly learned that in reality-TV-land, a week doesnʼt always translate into exactly seven days, but no matter: the weight being lost was real, speedy and a bit much.

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negative effects

Sure, rapid change were seen for each contestants that entered the show but the method that were used by the show only brought a lot damaging than it was positive. The show focused too much on losing weight rather than positive body changes and there were some negative effects to the viewers as well as the partici-pants of the show.

1. The show focused on weight loss, not body composition whichmeans contestants not only lose fat but also losing muscle, bones, internal organs, water, glycogen and contents of digestive tract. If you watch the show, you would think they are burning fat, but the truth is, they are losing water, which are crucial for your bodyʼs health, and they are also losing muscle, and penalized if gained. Losing weight and losing fat are two different things. It damages your body if you lose the wrong thing, and contestants suffered because this was what the show wanted.

2. The show claimed that they did not encourage and go against the use of drugs for weight loss, or make their contestants go through unhealthy diet regime but one of the contestants from season 1 confessed that when he was on the show in S1, he were pushed so much and wanted to win so badly towards the finale, he basically starved himself to lose the weight. This shows that rapid weight loss competition encourages physically dangerous practices even if not implied so.

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3. The show pushes the contestants to overtrain and put them in high injury risk. Time and time again on the show, you can see that right off the start of the competition, the contestants were pushed to do a contest - overweight people were asked to run 1 mile on the beach without any proper preparation. On one of the season (S8), one of the participants collapsed. He looked dehydrated and ill, and was almost unconcious. She was immidiately hospitalized. They were also forced to train 4-6 hours per day, which can be considered to be way too much hours for their bodytype. Also, this was not the first time it happened, many contestants were hospitalized because they were pushed way to hard during shooting as well as training.

4. The showʼs trainers are also often very abusive, there is a line between ʻtough loveʼ and abuse, and the trainers are just generally very abusive in their push for weight loss. Some of the contestants explained that they were constantly yelled at with profanities and this only left a mental scar and affected and manipulated the contestants majorly while shooting the show.

5. The show encourages unrealistic weight loss expectations and does not teach real-world lifestyle strategies. There is no possible way that you could lose so much weight health in such period of time. The show teach you nothing about setting real-istic goals, it encourages the opposite, more like a fantasy. They do not teach proper nutritional intake, proper fitness edu-cation or anything like that, just to push yourself until you break, and this is highly dangerous for viewers to see.

CONT.

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discussion and analysis

From what was said by Andrew that there is more side of the show that what is shown on television. In other words, ʻdonʼt judge a book by its coverʼ. He mentioned that the show lied about the training and weighing regimen used on their contestants. This was done to generate phony emotional response from their contes-tant.

Not only that is is problematic and very torturing to the contestant, it also would give out misleading information to the public, also to gain a lot of sym-pathy and views. Andrew also stated that the producers wanted a lot of drama to attract people to watch the show more often.

It can be seen that the workout and diet that each contestant had to do is very excrutiating. From what I have observed, it doesnʼt make any sense that these contestant were able to lose more than kilograms in the duration of 7 days. Even if these individuals were able to stick to their regime, I believe it is non realistic to lose that much weight in such a short time.

We should also consider that they wouldʼve been mentally drained and their body would at some point would just stop functioning if they were pushed that much. The show was often dispalying that the contestants had very little difficulties while in truth, they were absolutely struggling.

In his article, Andrew also claimed that about 75% of the people from the season he was in gained back their actual weight before the show. This is what happens when super over-weight people lose too much weight, too, using the wrong technique.

My biggest concern when it comes to this issue is the question: how manypeople would believe that their methods would be able to make them lose weight very quickly. If they are guillable and believe that it can be done, they will push themselves way too hard and this would only result in them straining their body and damaging their own health.

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recommendationsFor what I have observed, it can be said that the show is more fake than it is real, and most reality tv shows are the same. If the tv show The Biggest Loser are allowed to continue with their methods, many more contestant will get hurt in the process and a lot more people will be influenced by the show if they continue to air it.

Since the show have a very high viewing and cancelling it wonʼt solve that much of the issue at hand, it is crucial that the show turns over a couple of new leaves. Here are some recommendation that I believe would help the show to stay on the air and influence the public in a good, healthy way.

The focus of the show should change. The purpose and the format of this show should be about losing weight with the proper way and to encourage people on how to practice a healthy lifestyle instead of it being a competition.

The duration of the workouts and regime should be extended to each personʼs needs and not push extreme workout agenda to the contestant and the public.

The broadcasting company of the show should keep a close eyes on the producers and hold them accountable for any abuse of contestants.

The production should also be held accountable for the mis-leading information shown to public and the lies that they have spread about being able to lose weight in such short period of time.

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conclusionIn conclusion, for me The Biggest Loser was such a great show or program because it have the influence to motivate unhealthy and overweight people to lose their weight and live a better and healthier lifestyle but instead of bringing awareness to the general public, the show had only brought damage to people that try the same methods and regime as shown on the show.

The show should encourage viewers to see and focus on the problems that the contestants face while being overweight and try to apply a healthier lifestyle to the viewers and how to properly do it without harming them-selves. They should not take advantage of the power that they have over the viewers and just tell lies and create drama for the sole of it being inter-esting and just for the entertainment while using the contestantsʼ misery to make profit.

Shaming the contestants, encouraging dangerous workouts regime and excessive diet and promoting nearly impossible weight loss targets in short duration of time had led to the believe that, as said from many people, ʻeverything that is wrong with weight loss in Americaʼ. I do hope that the Biggest Loser production team and broadcasting company to do better and showcase a non-misleading views and goals from the show.

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bibliography

Cosi Costello. (2014, February 7), The truth about the weight loss show. Retrieve from http://www.couriermail.com.au/former-big-gest-loser- contestant-andrew-cosi-costello-reveals-the-truth-about-the-weight-loss-show/news-story/

Alexandra Sifferlin. (2017 May 25,), The Weight Loss Trap: Why Your Diet Isn't Working. Retrieve from http://-time.com/4793832/the-weight-loss-trap/.

Bruce Y.Lee. (2016, MAY 7), ʻThe Reality Of 'The Biggest Loser'. Re-trieve from https://www.forbes.com/sites/bru-celee/2016/05/07/the- reality-of-the-biggest-loser/#2e8712585ddf.

S.E. Cupp. (2014, February 10), 'The Biggest Loser': A warning from someone who's been there. Retrieve from http://edi-tion.cnn.com/2014/02/10/opinion/cupp-biggest- los-er-been-there/index.html?t=123

James Fell. (2016, January 4), 'It's a miracle no one has died yet': The Biggest Loser returns, despite critics' warnings. Retrieve from https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and- radio/2016/jan/04/the-big-gest-loser-returns-despite-critics- warnings

Sigmund Fraud. (2014, March 1), 6 Examples of Media Manipula-tion. Retrieve from https://www.activistpost.com/2014/03/6-exam-ples-of-media- manipulation.html

Katherine Sender & Margaret Sullivan. (2008, August 4) Epidemics of will, failures of self-esteem: Responding to fat bodies in The Big-gest Loser and What Not to Wear. Retrieve from http://www.tand-fonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10304310802190 046?journal-Code=ccon20

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Documents

THE BIGGEST - lokmanmurad.files.wordpress.com · NAME: LOKMAN HAKIM BIN ABDUL MURAD CLASS: MC1114A MATRIX NUMBER: 2015894188 lecturer: MADAM RAIHAN BINTI abu BAKAR negative effects