Good luck to everyone who has decided to make their long-term health a priority at the expense of their privacy and dignity; I think that they are quite brave. I'd argue that Mr Studdard shows even more courage in presenting himself to the nation as a "big loser" a decade after he was voted an "American Idol". I'm sure he didn't "fall into oblivion" in regards to his friends and family, and certainly hasn't in regards to his own aspirations.

I consider The Biggest Loser a form of torture porn. I seriously doubt it's healthy to take sedentary, obese people with a myriad of health problems and make them suddenly do excessive, intense exercise for hours every day - that actually sounds like a recipe for multiple injuries. On the other hand, it's nice to show that weight loss and lifestyle changes in general take discipline and hard work, and it may just be that the "real" workouts are edited out, although I am skeptical. Between the bullying tactics, emphasis on numbers as an indicator of health/success and extreme levels of transparency and accountability in contestant behaviour, there have to be some mind games and anxiety that accompany the "weight loss journey". Normal, or even "just not extremely high" rates of weight loss are treated like failure.

I do wonder what the "relapse" rate is once these people are back juggling the demands of work/family in a real environment where they don't have professional athletes as personal trainers and no one is monitoring what they are eating. Hmm.