Imagine a show that forces overweight people to follow extreme diets, works them out until they collapse, and plays mind games by making them eat massive amounts of unhealthy food to earn rewards. This is the premise of one of the most successful American reality shows, and it lasted for 18 seasons. After the premiere of the first season ofThe Biggest Loser, the show became a global success and generated billions of dollars in revenue. It even led to the release of spin-offs around the world.
TheNetflixdocumentary,Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser, reveals the truth behind this real-lifeHunger Gamesseries and proves how it was indeed one of the most harmful reality shows ever.The Biggest Loserwas a massive hit, as it directly addressed people who felt like they had no hope left, and the show was their last chance to change their lives. The producers were looking for people who were overweight and unhappy with their situation, as the show claimed to offer a supportive space to connect. That is exactly why a lot of people signed up for it,but it ultimately seemed like the show on primetime network television didn’t genuinely want to help people. It just needed a great story, no matter the cost.
‘The Biggest Loser’ Was Nothing but a Reality Show
Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loserfeatures interviews with people who worked on the show, like the two executive producers, JD Roth and David Broome, one of the trainers, Bob Harper, the medical advisor, Dr. Huizenga, who is also known from appearing in court during theO.J. Simpson trials, and various contestants. The testimonies of the actual survivors ofThe Biggest Loserare mind-blowing, and the producers' reactions are beyond concerning.
The reality TV show, which weighed contestants weekly after intense training with Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper, deliberately created a toxic atmosphere to draw viewers.The trainers would yell, even verbally abuse, the contenders, and push them beyond their limits. The docuseries also shows again that the producers created cruel games, like rooms filled with temptations, where contestants were briefly left alone with fast food, and whoever ate the most calories got a chance to see their family. They had to overeat but also still lose as much as possible at the end of the week. Challenges like this only imply that overweight people cannot be trusted around food, and it is all about spectacle.
One of the contestants, Joelle Gwynn, shared in thecontroversial reality show documentarythat she and her friend were forced to get on a parallel bar, even though they didn’t have the strength to hold themselves up.The camera captured every moment, and when Joelle’s friend fell, the camera movement imitated an earthquake to joke about her weight. This happened frequently because the idea was to make the contestants' weight seem terrible.
The Biggest Losermocked overweight people to entertain the audience and make contestants seem less worthy. The show makes it seem as though nothing will ever be seen as much of an achievement as losing weight, and that is a disturbing message. Danny Cahill, the Season 8 winner, ended up saying that he wants to lose weight again, but:
“We need to do it for the right reason. Not for a show. Not for a prize. But for our health.”
Failure is part of the weight-loss process, butThe Biggest Loserdoesn’t allow for failure. It condemns it. Theshocking Netflix documentaryrevealed that the producers came up with various scenarios to put the contestants through hell and garner more views through it.While the weight-loss show disguised itself as a life-changing, even life-saving opportunity, it was nothing but a reality show to make fun of the contestants, their character, and their weight.
‘The Biggest Loser’ Was Incredibly Harmful
Season 8 ofThe Biggest Loserstarted with a near-death experience of one of the contestants, and that’s where the show should have finally been canceled.In theBiggest LoserNetflix doc, Tracey Yukich opened up about how she collapsed and allegedly briefly died during the first challenge. It is the most striking moment in the documentary, because despite this shocking incident, the show continued for many more seasons. At the same time, the two executive producers of thelong-running showtalk about what happened and excitedly share that unsettling scenes raise the viewer numbers. They wanted the contestants to puke and feel terrible, and they seemingly didn’t care about actual health issues.
In the docuseries, Dr. Huizenga called out the production for creating such harmful situations and stated that he had tried to prevent them. While Dr. Huizenga emphasized a safe environment and adequate caloric intake, trainers Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper, acting as pseudo-therapists, allegedly gave contestants caffeine tablets, berated them, and restricted them to roughly 800 calories per day. Season 8 winner, Danny Cahill, said in thecaptivating documentary on Netflixthat he followed this rule, even though his caloric deficit was reaching dangerous levels. He even revealed that instead of being healthy and losing some weight, it became about winning the prize money.
Years into the show,studies revealedthat the extreme weight loss during the time onThe Biggest Losersignificantly slowed the contestants' metabolism, and it never adapted to any newly gained weight after the show. This means that the contestants would have had to stick to the 800-calorie diet even after reaching their “goal” at the end of the show to avoid weight gain. One of the ex-contenders reveals in the documentary that he asked for an aftercare program with gym membership or therapists, because it was incredibly difficult to come back home after such an intense experience.
Unsurprisingly, the producers denied the request because they allegedly didn’t have sufficient funds for it. It sounded more like they didn’t care about any injuries or mental health problems.All these aspects led to immense backlash towards the show, and the appearance of Season 15 winner Rachel Frederickson in the most controversial finale in the show’s history was the last straw. Frederickson looked emaciated, and concerns about the well-being of the contestants grew until the show was eventually canceled after 18 seasons.
Executive producer David Broome said inFit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loserthat there is no other show that ever changed a contestant’s life in the wayThe Biggest Loserdid. He used it as a means to defend all the backlash the show received from near-death experiences, dangerous diet cultures, and verbal abuse. In reality, though, the show creates an extremely harmful picture and puts its contestants' well-being at risk. Themust-watch Netflix documentaryproves that many contestants are still grappling with their experiences during the show, even years after they participated in it.Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loseris available to stream onNetflix.
