Venting about the Biggest Loser Contest

[adaptive1]

I am looking to write my thoughts down to make sense of them. Over the years I have struggled with OCD and other anxiety issues, but the progress I have made has been great, things are good all around, but sometimes my obsessive mind gets the best of me.

I have struggled with my eating habits and tried to stop my self from binge eating and then purging. I suppose it became away to control anxiety. I thought a weight loss group would be a good strategy, that way I would be forced to control my eating and I thought I would lose weight in the process. So, one of the local gyms was having a biggest loser contest where they have teams competiing againse each other to lose weight.I signed up. Its 12 weeks long.

Well, the good news is that I dont over eat at all since I joined, infact I feel so much anxiety to lose weight that I can hardly eat at all. I am barely eating and I cant stop thinking about the weigh ins. IN some ways this seems positive to change my life style, but today a dietician told me that I don't need to lose weight, so why am I doing this competition at all? I wonder if I am just trying to take the easy way out and if I should stay in the competition or if staying in it will just make me crazier and more obsessive It seemed harmless enough in the beginning, but now I just feel like I cant eat and I have to exercise all the time.

Maybe I am just competitive, I dont know, they read out your weight and announce how much weight you lose every week. I dont want to be embarased and let the team down. I could just try and eat in moderation and not get crazy about it, but then the anxiety comes at every meal, around every calorie.

Why cant I just do things in moderation, it would be so much easier.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Personally, I detest reality shows like the one that inspired this contest and the concepts that they are based on. It seems to me that they exist less to encourage people to lose weight or strive for progress or excellence, but rather to mock and shame those who are not the most successful.

My advice is to hold your head up, drop out of the stupid contest, and do something else that's more supportive and empowering if you think you need to lose weight. You're not going to "let the team down". You're simply opting for the rational instead of the illogical.

 

[adaptive1]

Thank you Dr Baxter, after eating nothing today but some green bell pepper strips and spending two hours at the gym I feel so hungry I could cry. I will quit the competition, I think you are right about the concept and personally I am afraid I have far too much of an obsessive personality to be in a program like this. I know it sounds silly, but thank you for advising me that it is ok to quit.