Are weight-loss competitions helpful?
May 3, 2009 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
The Biggest Loser, a reality television show that pushes people to lose weight, is a big hit in North America. But do such shows and competitions help people actually lose weight? I’m not sure about the TV shows, but when it comes to competitions, some researchers are saying “yes.”
In 2007, Rena Wing,professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Waren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and her colleagues evaluated the Shape Up Rhode Island weight-loss competitions. According to this article, Weight Loss Competitions Produce Encouraging Results, “Shape Up Rhode Island reduced the percentage of patients in the study who …read more




