As you turn on your television today you will find it difficult to avoid seeing a show, or product or service having to do with weight loss methods. There is a constant reminder in the media that this is the month of January and we have to keep the old New Year’s resolution to lose weight. We are told to go after weight loss secrets of celebrities.

We see Jennifer Hudson singing next to her former heavier self, basking in the glory of being skinny in Weight Watchers commercials. Weight loss shows such as The Biggest Loser show the grueling journey that shedding the pounds and changing your lifestyle can be. Not to mention the endless list of products from 100 calorie or less snacks to Bowflex machines. We are constantly being reminded that we are fat, it’s online, on buses, on subway ads, it’s everywhere.

So why exactly are we being told that we’re fat and we need to lose weight? While many would be naïve enough believe that the media saturation for weight loss is to make us healthier, the truth is that the weight loss industry is a very profitable industry. According to Marketdata Enterprises Inc, the U.S. weight loss market is worth $60.9 billion as of 2010. People looking to shed the pounds look to easy, tasty and fast ways to make the process less painful so it’s easy for us to fall for all the products and services marketed towards us. It’s not easy watching contestants of The Biggest Loser sweating and grimacing with each move they make in the gym, but we enjoy witnessing how they manage to shed 100 pounds in a matter of weeks. Yet The Biggest Loser is a fantasy that we shouldn’t try to emulate. Most of us can’t dedicate our entire day’s focus on diet and exercise because we have lives.