TV Review of "The Biggest Loser - Families", by Mark Hadley

CHANNEL:  Network TEN
TIME-SLOT:  Tuesdays / Thursdays / Sundays, 7.30 pm
RATING:   PG

The latest version of the anti-fat franchise, The Biggest Loser, has turned its attention to families.

Four collections of friends and relatives line up each week to see who has shifted the greatest number of kilos.

But is this familiar format likely to produce happier households when five years of this television regimen has resulted in trainers as fragile as their clients?

The Biggest Loser: Families boasts no fewer than four trainers determined to find the perfect form inside of their flabby team mates. There is a lot of talk about fitness but the selection of the coaches makes it clear health and beauty go hand in glove.

As the weeks go by we've watched them put their teams through the expected physical and mental tests aimed at building better bodies. And presumably we're learning personal lessons as we watch their sweaty progress. The most informative television so far, though, came in the first week.

Breaking their usual format, the producers of The Biggest Loser required the contestants' super-trim trainers to spend a week living with their new families, eating what they ate and only exercising when they did. Not surprisingly, viewers discovered large men and women whose self-esteem had plummeted because they had lost control of their eating habits.

What was unexpected, though, was how vulnerable the trainers became when someone took their carrot sticks away. Some were physically sick, others hit back with caustic comments. Martial arts trainer Tiffiny Hall suffered a sobbing meltdown when her diet began to undermine her carefully controlled image:

"All of my life I've treated my body like a temple. Last night I treated it like a night club."
The very people who were modelling the security a healthy body guarantees showed how a short change in diet was enough to destabilise their lives. Separated from their routines, they became as mentally fragile as the people they were supposed to be helping.

The current obsession with health extends far beyond fitness into the realm of worship. But it's a cruel god that demands total commitment while delivering little security. It's not just that our looks are dependent on bodies that are passing away. How we are seen plays as key a role as how we see ourselves.

Human beings have been swayed by the idea of the perfect body for as long as there has been history to record. Delve into the museums of Italy and you will discover countless images carved in marble, showcasing physical beauty.

But the real shock comes when you look closely and realise ... those ancient heroes and heroines aren't really that good looking. That's because the desirable body is as fashionable as last year's jeans. To our eyes Apollo has love handles and Aphrodite could do with an afternoon on the Stair-Master.

The lesson to be learned is that self-esteem based on physical image lasts only so long as you can maintain that image that both you and others consider to be attractive.

Picture: Mike Ryan, Flickr