Winnipeg TV producer Vanessa Loewen admits to once being glued to TV weight-loss shows like NBC’s The Biggest Loser and Canada’s X-Weighted on Slice.

“I was compelled by the numbers of people losing weight. They make the shows very addictive,” Loewen, a producer at Animiki See Digital Production, told Playback Daily.

When developing the Fit First reality TV series for APTN, however, Loewen decided to forego pushing the TV weight-loss show genre to extremes where contestants shed tears and pounds and restore their self-esteem just in time for the final credits to roll.

That wasn’t realistic for a Canadian aboriginal TV audience battling chronic obesity and poverty, not least because life in small northern communities or on reserves mitigates against securing access to affordable nutritious food or regular exercise.

So Loewen and co-producer Stephanie Scott adopted a documentary style for Fit First that combines competition with compassion.

“I just realized it’s (TV weight-loss show) something that can speak to our audience because of the issues of diabetes and the cost and availability of food in the north,” she says.

There’s weigh-ins and tears, but no last-chance workouts and elimination challenges, and certainly no humiliation for contestants that fail to attain their weight loss goals.

“This is one genre that actually might do some real good with our audience and community,” Loewen adds.

The second season of Fit First now on air sees four women from Manitoba push their physical limits under the direction of fitness trainer Kent Brown to lose weight, but also improve their mind and spirit.

That meant going well beyond pumping iron and receiving eating tips typical of most TV weight loss shows to reshaping spiritual lives.

“It’s (weight loss) a huge lifestyle issue and about getting in touch with your spirituality. Those things need to be healthy and balanced. If your spirit is out of check, or you’re emotionally out of check, you will have a tough time keeping the weight off,” Loewen explains.

So rather than have contestants sit down and tell the camera about their personal struggles and problems confessional-style, the Fit First camera crew traipse through the homes and communities of the series participants, capturing their lives and meal-times up close.

“These are people that our audience can relate to, as any TV producer wants, and the best way to get them to relate is to see them in day-to-day challenges,” Loewen says.

And a third season of Fit First is on the drawing board, this time to focus on young Aboriginal Canadians.

Fitness guru Kent Brown already runs an inner city youth program to keep young Aboriginal people off the streets.

“Season three is going to be focused around Kent’s program. He’s going to find unfit, over-weight and potentially misguided youth and put them through a similar experience to season one and two,” only more intense given the younger age group, Loewen says.

And the edgy documentary style Fit First is embracing will serve that end.

“You can’t even make a show like that without it being a documentary, because anything can happen with these kids,” Loewen adds.

APTN’s Fit First is co-production between Animiki See Digital Production and Indios Productions, with Loewen, Stephanie Scott and Desiree Single sharing the producer credits.

Scott, John Gurdebeke and Rick Harp are directing.