Former "American Idol" winner Ruben Studdard joins new season of "Biggest Loser"

[Shlup]

They have 24 hour access to medical care. Sure, every day they drop weight that fast is unhealthy, but every day they spend being obese is unhealthy. Either way their body is strained; might as well get to the healthy zone as quickly as you can, while entertaining and inspiring people and potentially winning money.

I think it's reasonable for people to criticize her weight, being that fitness is the focus of the show. She looks small enough that it's a little concerning. But it's a competition, she won, and she'll probably put a little weight back on now. Whatever. I like dollars.

[Calliope]

If fitness was the focus of the show, why doesn't the prize go to whoever can run the fastest/lift the most weight/do X number of reps relative to their finishing body composition?

[Shlup]

Because we Americans are of simple mind. You're talkin' lots of math talk there, hoss.

[Slothy]

If fitness was the focus of the show, why doesn't the prize go to whoever can run the fastest/lift the most weight/do X number of reps relative to their finishing body composition?

The average person watching the show or trying to lose weight themselves doesn't understand such goals. They just understand a number on a scale.

I agree with you though, I'd rather see them get to the end and actually compete in some meaningful competition covering a range of different athletic skills to see who has improved the most. That's the sort of fitness people should be paying attention to. Weight can be part of measuring health, but it's far from the be all, end all measure.

[Del Murder]

A athletic fitness challenge would definitely be a much better goal. A lot of the 'reward' challenges are fitness based so that's good, but at the end of the day it comes down to that % weight lost. I think there was another weight loss show where the goal was a fitness test, wasn't there?

[Slothy]

I seem to remember my mom watching one at some point that had them do a fitness test at the start and at the end to see the improvement. But they still ended on a weigh in so you may be thinking of something else.

[SuperMillionaire]

Indeed, the format of the show is very unrealistic. They work out for 6 hours a day with very little food. That is why they drop a lot of weight in a week, especially in the first week. There is another show on ABC, entitled Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, in which the depictions of weight loss are much more realistic, with the only difference being the presence of cameras to document the progress.

I also found out that the antithesis of The Biggest Loser is a show entitled Man vs. Food, which aired from 2006 to 2010 on the Travel Channel, and featured a man named Adam Richman overindulging and participating in various mass quantity and/or extremely piquant (spicy) eating challenges.

Going back to weight loss, I've seen infomercials for exercise programs that these obese contestants are better off doing. P90X and Insanity are pretty extreme workouts, but even those are still somewhat more realistic than being on The Biggest Loser.