Kent State Interns

  Faint, Puke, Die, or Keep Walking. The wise words of TV personality Jilliam Michaels trainer on Biggest Loser. But are those words really that wise? And did this TV show leave its contestants and most of America in a worse place? In short, yes.  Over the 18 seasons of Biggest Loser we watched 14 contestants on average go from their starting weights of sometimes up to 400 pounds drop as much as they could as fast as they could, all well-being publicly shamed on national television. With the idea that they would fight tooth and nail to get to their dream bodies and they would do it only with diet and exercise and emerge a healthy and happy person once it was all done. Well also keeping in mind that you would be kicked off the show if you did not lose enough. All with challenges designed to make you crack and trainers pushing you to know you were never going to be good enough.  A 2016 study published in the journal  Obesity  followed contestants after being on th...

   What Happens When TV Takes it too Far? In recent years the TV world has found a few found fascination with pushing the human body to the breaking point. With survival shows like Naked and Afraid, Survivor, Extracted, and most of note Alone taking the world by storm it’s safe to say the TV networks know that the viewers have caught the survival bug. But what happens when the after care of competitors is neglected, and what is the real tole on their bodies once the cameras turn off for good?  Producer Pender of US History Chanel told reporter Andy Dehnart that the preselection for participants is rigorous and that they must meet with the team to make sure they are fully equipped to be out there. They meet with an on staff “nutritionist” so they can get the “vibe” of what their diet traditionally looks like, as well as safe ways for them to bulk up. However, the aftercare on a show like alone does go further then most. They do not just give the contestants a flight home a...