'Biggest loser' drops a third of body weight

1st March 2011 - 29 year old Wil Graham is celebrating being Britain’s “Biggest Loser”, after winning ITV’s diet show by losing more than a third of his body weight.

He went from 24stone 7lbs to 16st - losing 8 stone 7 - a 34.69% weight loss.

A different person

Before he was named the winner, Graham told the audience: "I’m not even half the man I was, I’m just a completely different person."

His new slimmer looks have already meant he’s "been on a couple of dates” and he says, “I’m just looking forward to life."

He thanked the show’s team and his family and friends for helping him.

Once named as the winner, he had this message for other dieters: "It’s important for everybody to know that if I can do it, anyone can."

Big loss, big money

Graham’s reward for his remarkable weight loss is £25,000 in prize money. However, one obesity expert tells us he shouldn’t get the cash just yet.

Tam Fry speaks for the National Obesity Forum.  "The £25,000 prize needs to be withheld for six months to a year to see if this guy is actually keeping it off.

"It’s one thing taking off a lot of weight to get a lot of money; if what you then do is to immediately put it all back on again, you’ve profited by false pretences," he says.

"The organisers should say ‘well done, William Graham, but you’re not going to get your money for another year.'"

A 2010 study of a group of 105 overweight or obese successful dieters found that, six months later, only around half had kept all the weight off.

Advertising

The ad breaks in the programme carried many commercials for diet products and is sponsored by a fast food firm. "I'm extremely concerned about product placement," Fry says.

Product placement only became allowed on UK TV this week - too late for The Biggest Loser series. The first product was a coffee machine on daytime TV - but shows which take money to feature a product on a set have to put up special warning signs to alert viewers. Medicinal products are banned under Ofcom rules.

Inspirational or exploitative?

So, is a winner’s story like Wil Graham’s an inspiration to dieters everywhere - or exploitative? "My view is that that it is exploitative," Fry says.

"I hoped that we had seen the last of these voyeuristic programmes."

He’s concerned dieting shows are bound to pander to “people who are sat on their couches looking at people who are very fat on television.

"They themselves were probably snacking until their weight increased."

Diet clubs

"It gives people a lot of comfort to see fat people on television trying to get thinner," Fry says.

He says people would be better off joining a weight loss programme. "The psyche of taking off weight in a community group actually works very well. Once they’ve taken the weight off, they manage to keep it off because they then find their self esteem. They find how wonderful it is to be a sensible weight."

Are there any positive messages from The Biggest Loser? "It is yet another reminder," Fry says, "that it is for the majority of people very, very uncomfortable to be fat."

He adds: "There may be something in the programme, which inspires individuals who we may never hear of, to actually do something positive about it."