Biggest Loser TV and Anti-Fat Attitudes

Chapter summary

Stigma backfires: Where obesity carries stigma, people do worse at losing weight and at keeping it off.
The show’s message: The Biggest Loser tells viewers that weight control is all about willpower and personal behaviour.
Who is affected most: People concerned about their own weight watch more episodes and are more influenced by them.

Dr Jina Yoo, associate professor of communication at the University of Missouri, St Louis, studied the effect of the show. Her paper is titled “No clear winner”.
She found the show leads viewers to hold more anti-fat attitudes.
She also found it encourages unhealthy weight-loss practices, because viewers copy extreme methods.

The defence: Supporters say it motivates people to exercise and shows that big weight losses are possible. Some contestants report life-changing results.
The criticism: The author and Dr Yoo say it frames weight as gluttony and sloth, shames contestants, and promotes extreme exercise and starvation that few viewers can keep up.
Missing data: Contestants sign legal agreements, so it is hard to get data on what happens to them afterwards.

The author argues the clear winners are the sponsors and advertisers: supplement companies, gyms, personal trainers and the diet industry.
All benefit from the belief that weight loss is a matter of overcoming gluttony and sloth.

Compassion and an understanding of the science.
Recognising the psychology and social barriers that make weight loss hard. (See the three-legged stool in earlier chapters.)
Modest, sustainable changes to diet, and not extreme exercise.

Yoo, J.H. (2013) No clear winner: Effects of The Biggest Loser on the stigmatization of obese persons. Health Communication 28:294-303.