While it may be very popular with viewers, it turns out a popular weight loss reality television show may not be as motivating as you may think.
According to research done at the University of Alberta, The Biggest Loser’s depiction of exercise is actually more likely to turn people off of exercise, rather than get them up and moving.
“We’ve heard that people have said that shows like this can be motivational, and we thought ‘Well, there’s no actual research evidence to show that, so lets see what’s actually happening when people watch the show’,” explained Tanya Berry, Associate Professor, Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation.
Researchers recruited 138 students to take part in the study. They showed half of the group a clip from The Biggest Loser.
“It’s deliberately a very negative clip, from early in the season, when the people are in the gym,” explained Berry adding, “They all work out under the supervision of one trainer who’s screaming and yelling at them and the participants are throwing up and crying.”
“The other half of the participants, because they were students and we were trying to go for a reality show type format, they saw clips from American Idol,” Berry added with a laugh.
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After watching the clips, all of the participants wrote down the first five thoughts they had while watching each of the shows. They also answered a questionnaire about general fitness and their mood after seeing the television clip.
“The results are across the board, it doesn’t matter what weight people were or how active they were, the results are the same. Those people who watched The Biggest Loser had worse attitudes towards exercise,” said Berry.
The co-author of the study, Nicole McLeod, says she wasn’t surprised by the results.
“I just think the show is really showing a negative depiction of exercise and a negative depiction of trainers and what exercise is about,” said McLeod.
Despite the fact the show aims to be motivational, Berry believes it’s an unrealistic depiction of exercise.
“My fear is that people who have never worked out or aren’t regular exercisers think that this is what people do when they go to a gym,” she said adding, “These people are working out for three to four hours, extremely hard, and you don’t need to do that, that is not what you need to do to gain health benefits.”
McLeod believes The Biggest Loser also shows obesity in a bad light.
“They’re showing people who are overweight humiliating themselves, falling off of things, trying to jump up onto different things, which in reality is not going to be a very easy task.”
Their main message behind the study is that becoming active is all about balance, and taking small steps when starting out.
“If you’re sedentary and you want to get those health benefits just getting up and doing a little bit, and then as you do a little bit, do a little bit more, and just keep going,” said Berry.
“It’s getting people walking, getting them doing a warm-up, getting them doing weight training and cardio, having a balance,” McLeod said adding, “Not going for three hours.”
The research group just finished data collection on a second study where a third group of people watched an inspirational clip from the end of The Biggest Loser’s season, where contestants have lost a lot a weight. They say they are currently in the process of looking at that data.
“We’re giving The Biggest Loser a chance,” said Berry.
With files from Su-Ling Goh.
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