Remember ‘The Biggest Loser’? A new docuseries explores the harm the show did in the name of health

Contestants exercised for hours a day. (NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection via CNN Newsource)

Millions of Americans watched for 18 seasons as people pushed their bodies to the limits physically, ate as few calories as possible, and underwent sometimes mortifying challenges to be crowned “The Biggest Loser.”

It was discomfort worth grappling with for a shot at better health and a new life, many of the contestants said. But “Fit for TV: The Reality of ‘The Biggest Loser,’” a Netflix docuseries premiering Friday, suggests that the cultural phenomenon may not have been healthy for the contestants or the country at large.

When creating the new show, filmmakers asked themselves whether “The Biggest Loser” was, in fact, part of an industry promoting health and wellness in the United States, said Skye Borgman, the director of the docuseries. “Everybody always wants a magic bullet that’s real. And the thing about magic bullets — they’re never real.”

“Fit for TV: The Reality of ‘The Biggest Loser’” investigates how the highly popular show affected the contestants and conversations around health. The docuseries also explores the implications of so many viewers being willing to watch –– and sometimes laugh at –– people attempting to lose weight.

“It was such a huge phenomenon and absolutely reflected and perpetuated some of the really harmful messages around weight and weight loss,” said Dr. Rebecca Pearl, associate professor of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida.

Promoting health or harm?

In a show claiming to transform people’s health, what did the contestants’ regimens look like?

Men were advised to cut their calories down to 1,500 to 2,000 per day and women to 1,200 per day, said Dr. Robert Huizenga, physician on “The Biggest Loser,” in the series. But sometimes, trainers might have recommended as few as 800 calories daily, he added.

The amount of exercise was also intense, sometimes spanning eight hours a day, former contestant Danny Cahill said in the docuseries.

The series showed clips of contestants dropping to the floor from a treadmill run, many people vomiting in the gym, and instances when caffeine pills were utilized to curb appetite.

“There’s not any way that an entertaining show and a health show can 100 per cent exist together. … One of them is always going to take the lead,” Borgman said. “In the case of ‘The Biggest Loser,’ I feel like the entertainment value of the show far outran the health aspects of the show.”

An extreme diet and exercise regimen is associated with significant health risks, Pearl said. Losing too much weight too quickly or not getting enough calories can lead to gallbladder complications, muscle loss and nutritional deficits, she said. Overexercising can result in heart problems, dehydration and injury –– which also prevents people from maintaining healthy behaviors.

Eating a balanced diet and getting movement in your day is generally good for health, but the punishing approach to food and exercise showcased on “The Biggest Loser” also worked against long-term health-promoting activities, Pearl added.

“One predictor and one recommendation for engaging in physical activity long term is to find an activity you enjoy,” she said. “The kind of grueling, suffering activity that was shown on that show is not setting someone up to build a healthy, positive relationship with physical activity or with their body.”

When the weight comes back

One theme that may have kept viewers coming back to the show was the hope that someone could make a dramatic, lasting change to their body. But a weight loss transformation that stood the test of time wasn’t always necessarily the result even in “The Biggest Loser,” Borgman said.

A 2017 study following 14 contestants in the years after “The Biggest Loser” wrapped found that many regained much or all the weight they had lost over the course of the show.

The return of the weight makes sense, said Dr. Larissa McGarrity, clinical psychologist in physical medicine and rehabilitation at University of Utah Health. The degree of calorie restriction and intensity of exercise were at levels that neither the contestants nor the viewers could implement at home in a realistic way, she said. Also, the amount of weight lost from week to week was extreme.

At times, show participants were losing up to double digits at each weekly weigh in. Experts tend to recommend a sustainable weight loss rate of 1 to 2 pounds per week, McGarrity said — adding that the best guidance is to utilize the methods you can keep up long-term.

“The answer instead is probably, ‘how do I slowly make changes in my life that help me to get in the right nutrients to help my body feel good? How do I move in a way that will allow my body and mind to feel at its best over time?’” she said. “Making too many changes at once tends to not go well for most people from a psychological or behavioral standpoint.”

Even if viewers at home could implement the stringent protocol followed by “The Biggest Loser” contestants, research suggests metabolic changes from the dramatic weight loss depicted on the show made it harder to keep the weight off.

Six years after contestants were on the show, the 14 studied on average still had a slower metabolisms, even if they had regained about two-thirds of the weight they had lost, according to the study. Their bodies were naturally burning fewer calories throughout the day and increasing hunger cues.

“It essentially means that keeping the weight off long term is nearly impossible without continued extreme measures over many years, because your body will fight against you to maintain that weight or defend that weight at that initially higher level,” McGarrity said.

Laughing at fatness

Often interwoven into “The Biggest Loser” –– from coaches, in depictions of bodies, and in the audience interactions –– was a lot of shame, McGarrity said.

The format supported a myth around weight: that the size of a person’s body is totally under their control, and having a larger body is a sign of lack of willpower or moral failing, she said.

That myth ignores the realities of things like genetics, environment and individual metabolisms, and it paves the way for denigration and callousness, she said.

“Cruelty, verbal abuse, sort of indirect physical abuse, in terms of being forced to really torture your body in unhealthy ways –– there was a sense that if you’re in a larger body, you deserve this,” said Oona Hanson, a parent coach who specializes in helping families navigate diet culture and eating disorders.

“It made us participate as viewers in kind of like a pity or even disgust response in terms of the way people’s bodies were portrayed, in the way they talked about their bodies,” she added.

The docuseries showed just how dehumanizing or degrading those images could be, with cameras shaking as contestants fell to make it look like they caused an earthquake or challenges asking contestants to carry whole loaves of bread in their mouths.

“Without really being completely aware of it, the show succeeded in making fun of fat people,” Borgman said.

Some contestants did say that they found empowerment and representation in being part of a competition in which they succeeded in goals and accomplished physical feats, she added. But it isn’t hard to find a clip from “The Biggest Loser” in which contestants are put in disparaging situations, Pearl added.

Content that stigmatizes the size of a person’s body and emphasizes thinness at all costs impacts not just the contestants, but also the viewers at home, Hanson said. It’s hard for those viewers not to internalize those negative stereotypes, affecting how people see their communities and themselves.

“The Biggest Loser” may have been canceled years ago, but “Fit for TV” shares that the reality show’s lasting influence underscores the fact that the United States has not elevated the way people talk about weight and bodies, Borgman added.

“We as a culture feel like we’re super evolved. … We don’t judge. We take people for who they are,” she said. “I don’t think that’s true at all. So, I hope people walk away from this series and look at themselves a little bit more and how we treat people.”

Article written by Madeline Holcombe, CNN