Who's the Loser?

So I'm addicted to The Biggest Loser. I admit it, okay? I find such inspiration in watching these (often morbidly) obese people lose weight, overcome obstacles, reach goals and milestones and push themselves and dig deep and find (regain?) a determination that was long since lost. I cry when their families see them for the first time in weeks. I cry when they get voted off campus or have to vote each other off campus and I cry when they show pride in themselves. I think of them when I'm at the gym, drawing motivation from their hard work, to push myself to go a little harder, to lift another repetition, to add weight, to work a bit longer.

But is this sometimes empathetic, sometimes parasitic "relationship" I have with the contestants on this show deserved? I do wonder, how does this kind of weight gain happen? I have moments when I can easily imagine how someone could balloon to the equivalent of multiple people in one body. I know I've ballooned, albeit on a much smaller scale, during times in my life when I lost focus and decided - yes, decided - that I didn't care about my food intake or my workout routine. I've had ups and downs and stages when exercise was not part of my routine...at all. And let's face it: Genetics plays a part and I am pretty lucky in that area, all in all.

Then I see the segments that include the contestants talking about their former eating habits. An entire pizza? And not part of a dare - this is part of your regular eating? How many fast food meals in a week? In a sitting? We all have pressures and responsibilities and time limitations and cravings and weak moments and any other excuse to have a bad day. But there's something that hits beyond the bizarre about eating multiple McDonald's sandwiches in one meal that can only be summarized like this: responsibility for self.

And then I wonder, as I see other reports that America is spreading not only its fast food chains to our foreign neighbors near and far, but also our obesity and cancer rates, whether some of this self-negligent, self-destructive behavior is a subconscious retaliation to the hyper-thin ideal that's continuously propagated by the media and the culture. Could I imagine myself thinking, "Screw it, I'll have another Big Mac, I'm never going to look like (fill in the celebrity name of your choosing) anyway"? Likely not.

Then again, I always said I'd never watch reality TV shows...