It’s really interesting how my perspective of the show has changed since first watching it as a teen. My family, friends and I would all watch it really feeding into the idea that this is a “positive” show. But when it went off air and we started learning the truth about what happened to the contestants (dehydrating themselves, intense exercising with multiple layers before weigh-in, under-eating, etc). I can definitely say that I do realize now how much the show has glamorized dieting and how trying to ‘rebrand’ the idea isn’t going to solve the real issue. If people knew what was really going on behind the scenes back when the show first aired, there’s no way it would have been able to survive so many seasons.

I also don’t understand why that trainer said this, about understanding that it doesn’t take hours and hours of excessive exercise everyday to get healthy and yet still supports the idea of this show. It’s like she’s pretty much admitting that the show isn’t “Wellness Promotion + Entertainment” it’s “Entertainment Disguised as Promoting Wellness”.