New Year Fat Shows

You know it's a New Year by all the weight loss shows on the telly and my gym is full of new members looking uncertainly at gym equipment and clutching the free towels they received when they joined. Here are some of the weight loss shows currently guilting the public into losing the Christmas fat.

Fat Families is a British offering hosted by a bloke called Steve Miller who looks like a DJ from a hospital radio station in his groovy red framed glasses. Each week he berates a hapless family who have all managed to eat themselves into the world of fatness. His slightly camp demeanour and insistence on alliteration when addressing the families sets my teeth on edge after about five minutes of watching.

Calling them 'chunky chubbies' and 'wobbly widebottoms' can't do a lot for their self esteem, something that might have got them into this state in the first place.

Fat Fighters is another British offering that follows the personal trainers in a London gym and shows the lengths they go to in a competitive market. They are led by a huge bloke from California called Mark 'The Pillar' Miller who looks like a giant neck. Mark plans to use his Californian sense of optimism to galvanise overweight, gloomy Brits into taking care of themselves.

He is likeable and knows what he is talking about however he has a disconcerting habit of looking fully into camera when he is lifting enormous weights, his bulging veins and sweating purple face gives the viewer an idea of what they would be looking at if he had sex with them.
Amongst the trainers is an East European woman who looks about seven foot tall and wears rubber bondage gear and cracks a whip when she runs her classes.
I'm hooked.

But the grandaddy of them all is The Biggest Loser. I've tried watching the Australian and British versions but these are watered down and pale in comparison with the American original, which is bigger, louder and better produced.
The contestants spend three months on a ranch concentrating fully on weight loss, the one who loses the most weight walks away with quarter of a million dollars.

Managing their training regime are the good cop/bad cop combination of Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels, two of the best trainers I have seen. They don't just shout at people to work harder but get inside their heads until the contestants face up to the reasons they have put so much weight on.
Quite often these people have suffered a tragedy in their lives or horrendous bullying and have spiralled into comfort eating.
One of the reasons I enjoy this show is watching the contestants become more empowered with each episode as they become fitter and more confident in themselves.

This is something that weight loss surgery could never achieve.

The Biggest Loser is addictive stuff and tonight I will be sitting down to watch it with my wife, a bottle of wine and a big packet of crisps.

Then going to the gym to work the crisps off.