N.Y.Times Says Biggest Loser Contestants Risk Health in Rapid Weight Loss Competition with Diuretics, Dehydration and Over Exercising

All is not what is may seem on the popular weight loss competition show Biggest Loser. Former contestants have recently been speaking out about what really happens when weight loss becomes a competitive sport. It is all about who can lose the most weight during the season competition. It is not about healthy weight loss. The winner gets $250,000,

Obese contestants compete to see who can lose the most weight the fastest. Each week contestants are publicly weighed and the one who loses the least amount of weight can be sent home. Contestants are eliminated one by one until only one remains. He or she then becomes the Biggest Loser.

Rapid weight loss is the goal. Contestants routinely drop double digit pounds each week. They work out 5-6 hours a day. They eat strongly supervised diets. Trainers pressure them to the breaking point and sometimes beyond.

The whole Biggest Loser concept is Reality Show drama, which it does quite well. Biggest Loser has shows all over the world. The shows measure of success is simply, who lost the most weight in the allotted time, not how they lost it. It berates and pushes the would be losers. Each session lasts about 3 months.

Overweight people have been told for years that the key to losing weight is to make healthy lifestyle changes, eat less and exercise more. Normal weight loss should be about 2 pounds a week. There is no magic secret.

Rapid weight loss of more than 2 pounds a week can result in gall bladder disease, hair loss, dry skin, cardiac arrhythmias and electrolyte imbalance. The New York Times recently has been interviewing former Biggest Loser contestants.

The extreme 6-8 hour races and work outs have resulted in stress fractures, vomiting and hospitalizations. Season one's winner, Ryan Benson started urinating blood.

One former Biggest Loser contestant, Kai Hubbard of Florida, 2^nd place winner in the 2006 show, has been speaking out about her experience. Even though her weight dropped from 262 pounds to 144, she describes the whole experience as unhealthy and traumatic.

She says that the Biggest Loser program harms its contestants and misleads its viewers. They don't see what happens behind the scenes.

By the end of the competition she had been through months of dehydration especially days before the weigh ins. She wrapped her body in plastic garbage bags to sweat more. She took diuretics and vomited. She worked out 6-8 hours a day and ate less than 1000 calories.

When she appeared on the show after losing 118 lbs wearing a skin tight black cocktail dress, she looked like a modern day Cinderella. But 3 weeks later she collapsed on her bathroom floor shaking. Her immune system was shot. She was covered in bruises and was losing her hair. She had gained back 35 pounds simply by drinking water.

Mentally, she is traumatized by her experience and felt like a failure: but she is now studying nutrition and exercise herself to become a professional weight loss instructor. She wants to teach her clients the healthy way to lose weight.

The shows producers said they may have missed the extreme methods some of their contestants were using to lose weight, but they do promote health weight loss. They will be more careful in the future.

Sources:

New York Times

St. Pete Times

Wikipedia