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The networks have bet on our hunger for the genre in the past, with shows like Too Fat for 15, Dance Your Arse Off and Fat and Fatter having already aired on our screens.

Sunday night saw the sixth season of The Biggest Loser kick off, with four families going head to head in their battle of the bulge. The episode picked up 1.356 million viewers, up from last year’s season premiere that was watched by an audience of 1.17 million.

Next week, Channel 9 debuts Mike and Molly, a sitcom about a working class couple who meet at Overeaters Anonymous. Notching up more than 12 million viewers each week in the US, 9 will be betting that the series’ formula will prove a ratings winner here.

If Mike and Molly whet the appetite of viewers, there’s a whole heap more in this genre just waiting to be plated for local audiences. Among them:

• Huge �€“ A fictional series that follows eight teens who are sent to a summer weight-loss camp called Camp Victory “as they look beneath the surface to discover their true selves and the truth about each other.”
   
• I Used to Be Fat – A documentary series profiling teenagers desperate to lose weight before they head off to College, providing “an inspirational and intimate account of their emotional and physical transformation.”
   
• Heavy – A docudrama following individuals who overcome life-threatening consequences that result from their obesity over a six month period.
   
• More to Love – A reality series, similar in concept to the dating competition The Bachelor, which givesಔ plus-size women the opportunity to find a relationship with a plus-size man.
   
• Supersize vs Superskinny – An obese person and an underweight person are put in a clinic together and made to swap diets and lifestyles for a week so that they can “learn” about each other’s bad habits.
   
• X-Weighted – Documentary series following adult Canadians as they fight their war on fat over four to six months.
   
• The Last 10 Pounds – Women motivated by fitting into an outfit for a special event (eg wedding) are put through an intense fitness and nutrition bootcamp that “dramatically resizes them in record time.”
   
• Big Medicine – Reality television show that examines the effects of gastric banding surgery, conducted by a father and son surgical team on their obese patients.
   
• Ruby - Reality series following Ruby Gettinger from Savannah, Georgia as she attempts to lose weight. Ruby starts the show weighing more than 200kg (she originally weighed over 317kg.)
   
• Shedding for the Wedding – US reality series follows 10 overweight couples as they attempt to lose the unwanted weight and win their dream wedding.
   
• Village on a Diet – The entire population of Taylor, British Columbia goes on a diet in a quest to lose 1 ton in 10 weeks.
   
• Too Fat for 15 â�� Reality show set at the Wellspring Academy in North Carolina, where overweight teens fight the battle of the bulge.
   
• Celebrity Fit Club – Reality series which follows eight overweight, but formerly toned, celebrities in their slim down.
  
  Shows that have already been dished up:
   

• Fat and Fatter ��� This reality series introduces overweight Brits to extremely obese people in different countries around the world in an attempt to shock the UK cast members into changing their lifestyle.
  �
• Fat Camp - MTV follows teens at an American fat camp as they struggle to slim down.
   
• Dance Your Arse Off – A reality competition series which sees overweight competitors paired with professional dancers in hope of impressing judges and losing weight during the process.
   
• Fat Actress – An American sitcom loosely based on the life of overweight Hollywood actress Kirstie Alley.

  Have Your Say: Weightloss TV shows, do we love them or loathe them?

A free basketball camp is giving diabetic children the chance to learn how to manage their disease while learning the fundamentals of the sport.

The Moses E. Cheeks Slam Dunk for Diabetes Basketball Camp, to be held from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the University of Illinois Springfield Recreation and Athletic Center, is a basketball camp like no other, according to Jim Kelley, Bank of Springfield’s vice president of business services. It’s a chance for kids to learn that they’re not alone in dealing with diabetes.

“It’s really not about basketball,” said Kelley, whose 13-year-old son has diabetes and has attended the camp in Chicago the past four years. “It’s about you can be a kid, you can have diabetes, and you can still go out there and be energetic and compete. When the coach blows the whistle and says it’s time to test your blood sugar, you’re not the only one on the court who has to test your blood sugar.”

Campers should arrive at the gym by 8:15 a.m. Saturday outfitted for basketball.

When they arrive, the children will go to a check station to register and then inside the gym and have their blood sugar tested and logged.

A basketball will be given to each camper.

Blood sugar testing is scheduled throughout the morning. If children need their blood sugar tested more often, they can go to the testing station.

All campers must undergo another blood sugar test before leaving camp.

“If you’re a little bit high, you get insulin to bring your blood sugar down,” Kelley said. “If you’re low, then you get carbs to get your blood sugar numbers back up.�€

Family members are welcome to watch.

The Chicago-based camp was founded by Monica Joyce, a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator, who learned during the early 2000s that one of her patients was the wife of a man who was on the Chicago Bulls board of directors.

Soon after, she learned another patient was Moses Cheeks, the father of NBA coach and former player Maurice Cheeks. Moses Cheeks was recovering from pancreatic cancer and had Type 1 diabetes.

The inaugural camp, which took place in August 2004, was paid for by the Chicago Bulls. Moses Cheeks died in July 2005, one day before the second annual camp was to begin in Chicago.

***

Want to go?

What: Moses E. Cheeks Slam Dunk for Diabetes Basketball Camp

Who: Children ages 5-18

Where: UIS Recreation & Athletic Center,񎩻 University Drive

When: Registration at 8:15 a.m.; camp from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.

How to enroll: Call Jim Kelley at 899-1190 to ask about availability

A free basketball camp is giving diabetic children the chance to learn how to manage their disease while learning the fundamentals of the sport.

The Moses E. Cheeks Slam Dunk for Diabetes Basketball Camp, to be held from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the University of Illinois Springfield Recreation and Athletic Center, is a basketball camp like no other, according to Jim Kelley, Bank of Springfield’s vice president of business services. It’s a chance for kids to learn that they’re not alone in dealing with diabetes.

“It’s really not about basketball,” said Kelley, whose 13-year-old son has diabetes and has attended the camp in Chicago the past four years. “It’s about you can be a kid, you can have diabetes, and you can still go out there and be energetic and compete. When the coach blows the whistle and says it’s time to test your blood sugar, you’re not the only one on the court who has to test your blood sugar.”

Campers should arrive at the gym by 8:15 a.m. Saturday outfitted for basketball.

When they arrive, the children will go to a check station to register and then inside the gym and have their blood sugar tested and logged.

A basketball will be given to each camper.

Blood sugar testing is scheduled throughout the morning. If children need their blood sugar tested more often, they can go to the testing station.

All campers must undergo another blood sugar test before leaving camp.

“If you’re a little bit high, you get insulin to bring your blood sugar down,” Kelley said. “If you’re low, then you get carbs to get your blood sugar numbers back up.�€

Family members are welcome to watch.

The Chicago-based camp was founded by Monica Joyce, a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator, who learned during the early 2000s that one of her patients was the wife of a man who was on the Chicago Bulls board of directors.

Soon after, she learned another patient was Moses Cheeks, the father of NBA coach and former player Maurice Cheeks. Moses Cheeks was recovering from pancreatic cancer and had Type 1 diabetes.

The inaugural camp, which took place in August 2004, was paid for by the Chicago Bulls. Moses Cheeks died in July 2005, one day before the second annual camp was to begin in Chicago.

***

Want to go?

What: Moses E. Cheeks Slam Dunk for Diabetes Basketball Camp

Who: Children ages 5-18

Where: UIS Recreation & Athletic Center,񎩻 University Drive

When: Registration at 8:15 a.m.; camp from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.

How to enroll: Call Jim Kelley at 899-1190 to ask about availability

Chronic pain patient Sharon Denny had a sledding accident when she was just a teen.

“I had my first back surgery at the age of 30 and still had chronic pain and leg problems throughout my life on,” she said.

Sharon’s story is common. Even after decades of treatment, occupational therapy, physical therapy, back surgeries and even potent pain killers have provided little relief.

Now, Denny has a spinal cord stimulator implanted in her back.

“Spinal cord stimulation is use of electrical currents, applied to areas around the spinal cord that produce a very pleasant sensation that overlaps or overcomes the painful sensation,” Pain Management Specialist Dr. Trip Gordon said.

“I feel like it broke the cycle of pain,” Gordon said.

It begins with a seven-day trial. A temporary stimulator is placed in the spinal canal, near the nerves where it interrupts pain signals.

The pain is replaced with a gentle vibration and 80 percent of patients move to the permanent implant. The small battery is placed either in the patient’s lower back, buttocks or upper chest where most patients don’t notice it.

Patients have the ability to increase or decrease the amount of stimulation. In fact, there are billions of programs patients can choose from, depending on their level of activity.

And with just a swipe of a magnetic wand over the battery, Sharon is ready to go without her pain pills.

“I am not depressed. I’m not lying on my couch thinking everyone is out there living and I am out there living now,” Denny said.