It’s no secret that America is consistently ranked as one of the most obese nations in the world. According to Details.com, 21 percent of New Year’s resolutions this year involved weight loss in one way or another.
There is no doubt that Americans need to lose weight. However, the American public is not educated enough on healthy eating, exercise and weight loss to do so safely.
Yes, this statement even applies to those of us receiving higher education.
While colleges’ main concern should always be education first and foremost, they also play an important role in shaping the lifestyles and habits of their students as they stumble their way into adulthood.
With this in mind, it is no surprise that St. Bonaventure hosts programs to encourage students to lose weight. However, when it comes to the delicate balance between body and mind, schools need to be conscious of the type of environment they create with these kinds of weight loss programs. They need to ask themselves what education they provide to students participating in said programs while they design them.
This years’ New Years-provoked competitions hosted by the Richter Center are Bona’s Biggest Loser and 100 Miles in 100 Days.
The premise of Bona’s Biggest Loser is very similar to that of the NBC reality show, “The Biggest Loser.” Participants and their partners will have nine weeks to lose as much weight as possible with a grand prize of a Fitbit and weekly prizes of lesser value.
Bona’s Biggest Loser has great intentions; however, in America’s highly competitive culture this kind of competition can become very bad very quickly. It has potential to lead students to do whatever it takes to lose the weight including over-exercising, severely reducing their calorie consumption or binging and purging and more. These unhealthy practices can start to become habit when practiced over such a large time frame and do not effectively teach participants how to maintain their health throughout their lifetimes.
Being that Bonaventure has no sort of health elective requirements, students cannot possibly have enough education on how to implement diet and exercise safely into these sorts of programs.
If the school wishes to host these programs, there should be some sort of health education component to them. In fact, it would not be a bad idea for the school to require a health class as an elective for every student. In this stage of our lives, it would only benefit us to know how to safely diet, exercise and lead a healthy lifestyle—both physically and mentally.
Lack of health education coupled with a competitive weight loss program can drive students to unhealthy means to an end. These means could range from buying into fad diets and exercise programs to not eating or addiction to exercise—yes, exercise addiction is a real thing and puts your body at harm just as much as lack of exercise.
But it doesn’t stop there. There is no way of knowing how competing in this sort of way can affect a student after the competition ends. These unhealthy habits and views can carry over into their everyday lives, putting students at risk for disordered eating and negative body image issues.
With that said, these types of programs can be especially harmful to those students already suffering from an eating disorder, negative body image or exercise addictions because it provides an excuse for weight loss, reduction in food consumption and excessive time spent in the gym.
Another issue to consider is injury. It is not wise for someone to go from a mainly sedentary lifestyle one day, to running three miles every day for the next nine weeks. This can lead to injury and does not properly transition people into an active lifestyle.
It is not a bad thing that the school is attempting to encourage students to become healthier. However, health is a complex issue which needs to be treated with care. In the future the organizers of these programs need to be mindful of the complexities that arise regarding health, exercise and weight loss. Students should also be given more information about proper health and exercise, whether it comes from the organizers of competitions like Bona’s Biggest Loser or from course curriculum.
Alexis Young is a staff writer for the Bona Venture.
Her email is Youngam13@bonaventure.edu
