This year I took on volunteers to film their body transformations. Next year I will make a TV pilot with more volunteers with an aim of commissioning a TV series. In part of the preparations I have been watching all the weight loss and similar TV shows I can find. There is a lot of them! Therefore I decided to write an overview for some of the more major ones.
Biggest Loser – (Watch on You Tube>>)
This show is a fat loss competition for very overweight people. The contestants are weighed “weekly” and people are thrown off the show if they have lost the least amount of weight until they have a winner. The contestants are divided between the two coaches and separated into teams.
The show makes “good TV” in watching these people go through a change. It is powerful seeing how much people can lose when they are focused, it shows the effectiveness of team work and competition. It should give hope to anyone on what is possible. However, there were many things I didn’t like, the two coaches are both obnoxious and overly harsh on their clients. Numerous contestants have put there weight back on including the all time biggest loser who went back to exactly where he started. The show plays to so many unnecessary cliches, like exercise has to be hard, you must be “perfect” to get results, you need to focus on weight, you have to lose fat as fast as possible. You can see the show cares more for the ratings than the success of the individuals. The episode I was watching was the couples edition. After all the celebrations for getting on the show they then decided each couple must send someone home. It made for emotional viewing but pretty much wasted every ones time in applying. You can’t help but feel that the first thing each evicted person does is go and eat and depressingly return to exactly where they started.
Extreme Weight Loss – (Watch on You Tube>>)
This show takes an individual and looks to transform their body over 12 months. The coaches are much more caring than the biggest loser and seem to genuinely want a result in a healthy way. The person goes to their ranch in Arizona where they are put through the paces for 3 months. After that they come back to normal life to see what happens on their own for 3 months. They win prizes such as holidays if they hit their weight loss target after every 3 months. The final part has them undergo plastic surgery to remove loose skin, a style change and so forth. The end reveal is quite dramatic as the new person comes out to show the world how they have changed.
The show produces some very impressive transformations, there isn’t that much focus on exercise though what is shown falls to the to the cliche of having to try to kill people once more. The one drawback of the show is that much of the results is done on their ranch in Arizona. The one episode I saw the guy spent about 6 months out there. This is great for getting results of course but for those watching at home you may feel the only way to change your body is also to be taken away to some weight loss ranch. The show focuses on emotion of the person a lot (like all these shows do) but it seems to make people upset as much for camera as their own benefit. However, you can’t argue with results and this is probably my favourite of transformation shows.
600 Pound Journeys – (Watch on You Tube>>)
This show focuses on people who are over 600 (23 stone / 270 KG) and their efforts to get back to a more normal and healthy weight. This show is based on a more personal journey and diary than a transformation show of Biggest loser or Extreme Weight Loss mould. The show I watched followed someone who was 777 lbs (55 stone / 350 Kg). He wanted a stomach operation so he could stop eating and lose fat. The doctor asked him to be 650 lbs to qualify for the operation. On his own the guy actually goes up to 800 lbs, at this point he sees a nutritionist and then a therapist who help him get to 650lbs and qualify for the operation. By the end of the year long show he was 200 lbs down.
This show has much less ‘do this to make good TV’ activities compared to other programmes. His transformation shows the power of getting support in changing your body. At the same time you do feel the producers could offer more support to get them to their goals. Letting the guy gain weight over the first 3 months seemed a little unnecessary before hiring professional help. It would have also been nice to have seen how the whole story finishes.
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