Quick to Judge

I wasn't going to blog about this topic, I really wasn't.  But the more I thought and read about it, I figure this is a great way to start some important discussions and bring some awareness to things.

First off, I haven't watched The Biggest Loser in years.  I used to, religiously, but just kind of stopped.  Most of the reason was because I was a little tired of just watching the contestants cry all the time.  I never once, however, saw this show as a realistic portrayal of weight loss.  First off, it's a reality show, which in and of itself is a little fake.  Also, living on a ranch, away from all other distractions and having nothing but time to exercise will obviously produce much more dramatic results than any average person can achieve.  I did think it was getting more and more ridiculous as the seasons went on to see people losing 20+ pounds each week.  But the bigger the weigh losses, the bigger the ratings I'm sure, and all TV shows are really only concerned about that at the end of the day.

Anyways, I did not watch this season of The Biggest Loser.  Thanks to Twitter though, I knew last night was the big season finale.  I was then surprised to see a flurry of tweets expressing shock at one of the contestants, Rachel {who was last night's winner} and how much weight she loss.  I was interested so I looked into it a bit more.  What I found was this...Rachel is my height and her finale weight is the same as mine.  I looked at the pictures and yes, her before and after are quite shocking...155lb weight loss will do that.  But I was not as horrified by her after photos as everyone else was.  Mainly because when I look at her, I see a girl who is pretty much built like me now, thin with some noticable muscle tone.  What was horrifying to me was all the name-calling, skinny-shaming I witnessed.  {I'm not talking about everyone I follow, some people were just questioning whether or not she did this in a healthy way}.

Now here's the thing, I have no idea if Rachel lost all that weight in a healthy way...but neither do any of you.  Maybe it was too fast for her to lose that much weight in less than a year.  Maybe the poor girl has developed an eating disorder because of her quest for winning and the experience she had on the show.  If that is the case than she needs help.  She doesn't need millions of people calling her "disgusting" "a skeleton" and telling her "go eat a sandwich".  None of this is constructive discussion of the eating disorder problem in this country.

Being severely underweight causes a whole lot of health problem....though depending on a doctor's opinion, being slightly underweight for your height does not.  Other than when I was pregnant I have been this weight since I was in high school {except for my freshman year of college when I discovered the wonders of late-night Ramen noodles} I eat healthy, but with plenty of treats, and work out a healthy amount.  My doctor has always said I am at a great weight for my body.  So yeah, I'm going to feel personally offended a little when people are saying terrible things about a girl with the same height and weight as me.

Here's the other thing.  You know what else is unhealthy and causes a lot of health problems?  Being overweight.  It is also a problem in this country that really needs to be addressed.  But you know what, I would never look at an overweight person and automatically think they have an over-eating disorder.  They could, or there could be a variety of other reasons as to why they carry around extra weight.  It's really none of my business; it's a personal discussion that person should have with their doctor.  I also would never calculate some one's BMI and just assume they are unhealthy based on that single number.  Do you know how many athletes would technically have an overweight BMI?  Probably most of them as muscle weighs more than fat.  But none of them are unhealthy.  So in the same way we should not just assume that a person with a slight underweight BMI {hers and mine are 18...by the weigh, 18.5 is what is considered "normal"} is starving herself.

I find it amazing that so many people immediately assumed that someone on the thinner side obviously doesn't eat.  It is absolutely as offensive as someone assuming a person who is overweight is lazy. 

I'm not saying that Rachel doesn't have an eating disorder, nor am I saying she does.  What I'm saying is maybe we all shouldn't be so quick to judge.