Do you feel shows like the Biggest Loser make our job easier or harder?

I think that this show definitely makes our job more difficult as we deal with "real people," living real lives, and being surrounded by real temptations. As fitness professionals, most of us understand that the Biggest Loser farm presents an "unreal" setting for the participants. As a result, they can (and do) achieve unreal results. Unfortunately, the sensationalism of it all can have a very detrimental effect on our clients as they see the "results," (after all, we live in a very results-oriented society) but not necessarily at the same time taking in the situation under which those results occurred.

LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
lecfitness@yahoo.com

Can shows like the Biggest Loser make our job harder, definitely. But, it can do no more damage than those trainers out there who are only doing this for the money. Personally, I think that they do far more harm than the Biggest Loser ever could.

Shows like the Biggest Loser bring what we do to a wider populace and sheds light to people on what they can achieve if they are willing to put in the work and effort. Combine that with a trainer who is passionate about what they are doing, and any goal that they put their mind to can be achieved.

I don't watch these shows, but i'd say they create unrealistic and unhealthy goals. One of our jobs as trainers, is to help people create realistic and healthy goals, so I think these shows are VERY counter productive to our field, as most overweight people are impatient about dropping the weight and aren't concerned with how healthy their approach is.

I believe that most people understand that the almost impossible becomes possible when you put people in such a unique environment. All weight loss programs are successful when people are taken from their usual surroundings and tightly controlled. Whether it is called a spa or a diet and fitness center, they all show results even though less visible.

If anything, the show demonstrates that it takes a superhuman effort to lose weight that quickly. And they all have to go home afterwards to their normal environment where they have to prove themselves all over again.

to me, that show has made no difference whatsoever. I have never had anybody come to me expecting even remotely similar results. In fact, it is hardly ever mentioned.

When a client sees 30 lbs dropped in 1 week it does make it harder

I also believe it makes our job much more difficult. Im telling people doing everything right they can expect 1-2 pounds lost a week, and on TV they are losing 100 pounds in no time.

I think it depends on the person watching and their previous education and experience with weight loss. If they are the kind of person that often makes decisions based on what they see on TV, it could do one of two things. 1. They could be totally inspired by what they see and even have a contestant as a role model and realize that even though they might lose weight at a different pace from their role model they can find the determination to do it their own way. 2. They could see people losing weight at superhuman speed and feel like working out extra hard and cutting calories will make them a weight loss machine; potentially injuring themselves or quickly hitting a weight loss plateau. Maybe we as fitness professionals can facilitate the first scenario for clients that have an emotional connection to the show.

Yes, definitely makes it harder. I'm not gonna lie, I love this show (getting good work out ideas from the trainers). But it definitely makes it harder when clients see how much weight and how fast the contestants lose it.

I think it makes our jobs unrealistic and harder to have to convince our clients that in reality it's not sensible to work out all day long and eat so little and have a life.
I think it's a shame that some of the trainers on the show are not certified but are making a ton of dough, I think it's a show. Period.

These shows give people false hope. From the controlled environment to the on-site EMT and prepped meals these shows are hardly reality. Not to mention, many of the training tactics are downright dangerous.

I once read that Biggest Loser contestants are exercising 16 hours a day to achieve their weekly losses. I tell my clients this is not healthy, nor will they maintain this weightloss. If you watch their "Where are they now?" shows, most of the contestants have put weight back on. They can not possibly maintain the amount of exercise when returning back to their lives. It sets hopeful clients up with unrealistic and unhealthy expectations.

From a training perspective, I don't think the show makes our jobs more difficult, because we can glean ideas from the trainers there, in both motivation and program design. Also, a lot of the challenges on the show deal with nutrition (like calorie counts in various foods), which can be very informative for us and clients. But like Andrew stated above, it can be difficult for the trainer depending on what type of client you have...one that wants quick, spectacular results, or one that sees the value of hard work over a long period of time. I have often referenced excerpts from the show to my clients to help them see that what applies to the contestants on the show applies to them as well in "real life."

Definitely! These shows give unrealistic results for the average adult who puts in 8 hour days of work, 5 days a week.
These shows...allow the contestants involved in them to simply take away every other distraction in life...to focus all their energies on losing weight.
As for the ideas we can glean from this show...yes, they may have cool new ideas for training clients...but often times I have seen some of the worst motivation skills ever...by trainers yelling at their clients, screaming at them...that may work for a tv show...however it does not work for society in general...many people want training to be fun...they do not want to be scared and intimated, dreading their next session with a trainer...or they will not come back...they will get discouraged...and they will drop out of a program altogether.
Piggy backing off of Stephen Landrum...the other factor is nutrition...most people do not have a nutritionist preparing a menu for their eating patterns...nor do they have a cook who prepares it in the most healthy way possible either.
People can also view these shows...and start to envision that this is what a personal trainer does...and they see the contestants going through hell...it may actually de-motivate them by the sheer intimidation factor that they view with some of the motivation techniques as trainers on these shows shouting and yelling at the contestants.

Honestly, I don't think that any trainer who is regularly active on IDEA Answers couldn't come up with a better program for these individuals. For me, the issue would be money. How much are you going to pay me? If I'm helping you make arrangements for prepared meals, a small army of staff including a medical doctor and a nutritionist at the very least, not to mention the time that goes into coordinating workouts and making sure that your programs are sound, then... I need compensation that is reflective of those services offered. I think for clients in the top 10% income bracket might be the only ones who could live the lives of biggest loser contestants. As it happens, it usually is the case that we see people with issues like obesity and being unfit are usually in the lower income brackets or at most upper middle class.

Does it make the job harder? Well... It makes it harder to motivate a client. It's harder to get a "biggest loser" client to understand the reality of what has to happen for successful and long-term weight loss in the real world with limited resources and time.

Harder for sure! The reason being is after watching these shows, they seem to set unrealistic goals. When they don't achieve them, you get the blame. No matter how hard you try to bring them back to a more realistic goal, they tend to believe what is on TV.