The Biggest Loser, NBC's weight-loss reality show, is coming back for its 18th season kickoff Jan 28.
The show features 12 contestants, each trying to lose the most weight for a greenbacks prize by participating in fitness challenges and activities like learning almost nutrition and food prep.
The prove has previously attracted controversy for its methods — one-time contestants have complained of health issues, and critics accept argued the show is exploitative and sends a harmful message.
The new season aims to focus more on lifestyle changes, rather than solely on weight loss, according to press materials and host Bob Harper. Critics remain skeptical.
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Subsequently a iv-year hiatus, NBC's weight-loss reality show "The Biggest Loser" is dorsum. Beginning January 28, a new 10-episode season of the serial will show 12 contestants facing off to see who can lose the most weight for a cash prize.
The 30-week contest kicks off with a counterbalance-in to determine each contestant'south starting weight. And so, the participants are divided into two teams, with cherry-red and bluish uniforms. During the grade of each episode, contestants participate in a variety of weight-loss activities, including a timed one-mile race, grouping therapy, and lessons on nutrition and food preparation.
Forth the way, viewers acquire more most each participant, including their background, personal life, and motivations for being on the bear witness. For example, PhiXavier Holmes ("Phi") is a school counselor in Washington D.C., who began using food to cope when her father passed away, according to her bio on the show's website.
Domenico ("Dom") Brugellis is a dad, erstwhile chef, and food managing director with the New York Metropolis Department of Education who's "finally gear up to detect balance between his dearest of the Italian food he grew up with and maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle," according to the website.
At the stop of each episode, one contestant is sent home, based on which team lost the most collective weight, every bit a percentage, relative to their starting weight. The person who lost the to the lowest degree weight on the losing squad must exit.
A scene from a previous season of "Biggest Loser." Trae Patton/NBC/NBCU Photo Depository financial institution via Getty Images
'The Biggest Loser' has long been critiqued for being exploitative and harmful, promoting unhealthy ideals and habits
Previous seasons of the prove faced backfire and criticism for its premise — which experts accept said is fat-shaming and harmful — too as for the reported health problems suffered by former participants.
A 2016 report, published after the then-finale of the show, looked at 14 erstwhile contestants over six years, finding that almost all of them regained weight afterward the bear witness and experienced problems with their hormones and metabolism. Those issues were proportional to how quickly the participants lost a large amount of weight, researchers constitute.
Some of those former contestants have spoken up themselves. Ryan Benson, winner of the 2005 flavor of serial, started his own prove to address the ongoing issues he'due south faced since then, including regaining the weight and and then some. Bernie Salazar is a frequent guest on registered dietitian Rebecca Scritchfield'due south "Body Kindness" podcast, where he discusses his journey from having disordered eating behaviors and body image problems to embracing that "his true, happy and healthy self was always meant to have a fat body."
Experts accept also said that the rapid pace of weight loss depicted in The Biggest Loser is up to 7 times more than what is safely recommended. Contestants are shown losing every bit much equally one to two pounds per day (or more), compared with the usual one to two pounds per week typically suggested for condom, sustainable weight loss, Insider previously reported.
"This is nigh getting these contestants on the right form to living healthier lives — physically and mentally," host Bob Harper told the Washington Post. Crystal Cox/Business Insider
The new flavour has been touted for focus on 'lifestyle changes,' just critics are skeptical
According to the official description on the The states Network website, the new series will be a "360-degree view of what it takes to make a serious lifestyle change, rather than focus solely on weight loss."
Press materials besides note that contestants will be working to address what brought them to the show in the commencement place, including any physical, emotional, or social issues in their lives.
"Skinny does not always equate to being salubrious," host Bob Harper told the Washington Post. "This is about getting these contestants on the right class to living healthier lives — physically and mentally."
The reboot is also reportedly taking extra precautions to make sure contestants are medically condom, including by enlisting nutritionists to create individualized meal plans, trainers to vet each workout, and keeping doctors on set to monitor contestants' vitals.
But some experts are skeptical that the show has really improved, including Scritchfield, who'south also author of "Body Kindness," a book nigh developing healthy habits and a positive body image without dieting.
While the changes to the show practise reverberate that our culture has become more body-positive, she said, the new version's so-called holistic approach is but lip service, equally long as the scales and coin continue to be involved. "The best change they could make is to non air a weight loss bear witness, period," Scritchfield told Insider.
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