OK, yes, I watch The Biggest Loser.  There is something exciting about watching big people lose weight.  But there is one aspect to one part of the show that has always made me feel uncomfortable.  And in the past two episodes, it has really become clear that it is a problem.  Two episodes ago (in episode 9), it could have potentially kept Shay from falling below the yellow line and subsequently going home.

The issue is with the weigh-ins.  They (the show’s producers) calculate the percentage of weight loss based on whole digits of weight, ignoring tenths and hundredths, but display the percentage in hundredths.  So, if you have two contestants that weigh 200 pounds and each lose 2 pounds, that would be 1.00% weight loss each.  But if one of those contestants lost 2.1 pounds, that contestant has lost more weight than the other.  But according to Biggest Loser, they each lost 1.00% of their weight.

The potential issue is if someone loses more weight than someone else when you include tenths and hundredths of pounds, but when you round to whole numbers, they appear to have lost less weight.  For example, contestant 1 weighs 206 pounds and contestant 2 weights 209 pounds.  They each lose 3 pounds, so #1’s percentage is 1.46% and #2’s is 1.44%.  But what if contestant #2 had actually lost 3.05 pounds?  Just 5/100ths of 1 pound more?  #2’s percentage would have been 1.459%, while #1’s percentage is 1.456%, thus changing who has lost more weight.  But under the current system, that slight difference isn’t reflected and the outcome reverts back to the original amounts.  But this isn’t just an example, it is taken directly from episode 10 (the latest episode).  The 3.05 pounds part is hypothetical.  I put together a table, below, that shows what has happened in the last 2 episodes (you have to click on it to see the detail clearly):

The above shows that the differences really come down to a few hundredths of a pound.  The margin of error is minuscule.  But The Biggest Loser has decided to throw that all away and deal in whole digits.  With the case of Shay, had she lost 9/100ths of one pound more, she would have stayed above the yellow line, holding Allen’s weight constant.  The trainers were saying how, of everyone, she needed to be on the show the most.  But because the producers use whole digits, she fell below the yellow line and was sent home because she was the biggest competition, pun wholly intended. 

Of course, you should ask about Allen’s weight.  Maybe he also lost some more weight that isn’t reflected in the whole digit.  But maybe he lost less and was rounded up.  Maybe Shay lost less.  My only point is that if you are going to compare percentages of weight loss down to the hundredth part, you should start with comparable inputs: weight loss measured in at least hundredths of parts, especially when you’re dealing with contestants who are completely emotionally and physically bound to the TV show.  When you have percentages that are as close as the past two episodes have been, it is very unfair to the contestants and condescending to the viewers to use such simple calculations.

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