“Unless you puke, faint, or die, keep going!” Exploring weight stigma in the gym on The Biggest Loser

Abstract

ABSTRACTReality makeover shows often focus on weight loss as essential for improved appearance and health. The Biggest Loser (TBL) highlights extreme exercise as the primary mechanism for achieving dramatic weight loss. Using directed content analysis, we explored the stigmatized ways in which contestants were portrayed and treated by personal trainers during the exercise segments of seasons 11–14 of TBL. Analysis involved verbatim transcription of the dialog and noting of contestant depiction during exercise segments of the broadcasts, a preliminary coding process to generate initial ideas and concepts for coding themes, and a final coding process to identify instances of stereotype endorsement, aggression toward contestants, and minimalizing and disregarding contestant experience. The dominant themes were presented as rational and justified methods of motivating behavior change for the good of the contestants. Representing fat bodies as lazy, unattractive, incompetent, and deserving of mistreatment does little to promote health or health behaviors; rather, pervasive weight-related stigma is celebrated and commodified. Efforts to advocate for socially just representations of diverse body shapes and sizes within the health and fitness domain are needed.