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Quick to Listen

The Lost Hope of 'The Biggest Loser'

Quick to Listen

Christianity Today

Religion & Spirituality, Religion, Christianity

4.3 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2016

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Everything’s possible if you work hard enough. At least that’s what shows Biggest Loser (NBC), Extreme Weight Loss (ABC) and Fit to Fat to Fit (A&E) suggest to their audiences. But it’s not necessarily true, as The New York Times reported this week in an in-depth examination about the lives of Biggest Loser contestants—many of whom regained the weight they had lost over the course of the show after they left. As the Times reports, biology—specifically one’s metabolism—plays a significant role in determining a person’s weight and their ability to lose weight. This news may bring relief to the former contestants, but it also ought to challenge society about its own assumptions about individuals and weight. “As Christians we want to be welcoming to everyone and not judge someone based on their size but when it gets down to it, a lot of times we may think What is wrong with this person that they haven’t taken care of their health?” says CT’s online associate editor and reality television show fan Kate Shellnutt. Shellnutt joins Morgan and Katelyn this week in Quick to Listen to discuss the relationship between social media and weight loss, how reality TV shames the wrong people, and how we can honor ourselves. One of the main contestants profiled in the NYT piece is a pastor in North Carolina who gained back a significant amount of weight after going on the show. He says his metabolism is now so slow, “It’s kind of like hearing you have a life sentence." How does this idea challenge common conceptions about people who are overweight or obese, such as, "It's all their fault," "they're lazy," etc.? What's going on in our attraction to reality TV shows? How do they speak to our particular cultural moment or spiritual desires? What's holistic health? Are there specific ways Christian communities can lead on the issue of holistic health? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.

0:11.0

Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion.

0:14.5

Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at Apologeticsky.com.

0:28.4

Music Michael Del Rosario at Apologeticsguy.com. You're listening to Quick to Listen, the Christianity Today podcast where we go beyond

0:32.6

hashtags and hot takes and set aside time to explore the reality behind a major cultural event.

0:38.4

I am Caitlin Beatty, the print managing editor of Christianity today, and I'm joined as always by

0:43.1

my co-host Morgan Lee.

0:44.6

Hey Morgan.

0:45.6

Hi, everyone.

0:46.2

How's everyone doing today?

0:47.4

Great.

0:47.6

Today, our guest is my colleague Kate Shelnut, the online associate editor here at C.T. and she's in the house. Kate.

0:55.7

Hey, long time listener. First time chatter. I'm so glad to be here with you guys. Yeah. Thanks so

1:01.0

much for being with us. So as our listeners know, we try to dig into controversies that come

1:06.6

with some complexity and tension. And we first try to acknowledge those tensions and then work out how Christians can respond.

1:13.5

This week, we are talking about a major story in the New York Times this past weekend on a trend

1:18.8

among contestants of the biggest loser.

1:20.9

Some of you might have seen the competition reality show now in its 12th season that follows

1:26.4

overweight contestants through five months of strenuous

1:29.2

exercise, restricted calorie diets, and the one losing the most weight relative to their initial

1:34.3

weight winning $250,000.

1:36.6

But the study found that several contestants gained back a significant amount of weight after

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