The TOXIC World of The Biggest Loser: TVs WORST Nightmare | Downfall

Mom are you okay I've never felt excruciating pain like that I can't go can you hear me can you say anything patient not responding go I'm not TR do it Joel stop saying all these words quit talking I'm sick of just words words words talk talk talk shut the up I despise my thighs I hate my upper torso my gut man boobs chubby belly chest my legs stomach the chin if you're just a a viewer at home watching the show you may think hey you know I'm in bad shape but I'm not that bad and every time you want to quit you think about your father who's about to drop dead on the treadmill who hold on reting and L is in the water as soon as I heard the reward I knew what I had to do I was going to eat the entire 5 minutes me why they can't lose 12 lbs in a week when I did when I didn't it's TV I want to talk to you for a second talking about one of the worst disasters to ever be shown on American TV screens in the history of Television Hurricane Katrina wait wait no no you didn't click on the wrong video just bear with me for a second it's all going to make sense as early as August 23rd 2005 meteorologists began to sound the alarm on a tropical depression that began to form in Bahamas now maybe you've seen weather forecast that show like intense swirling winds in a cyclone shape yeah that's literally a cyclone and when they form there's a very good chance that a storm is coming in Hurricane Katrina's case a storm was inevitable and it was going to be bad by August 28th evacuations across all of the major Gulf Coast regions were in effect and the National Weather Service made a grim prediction most of the Gulf Coast Area will be uninhabitable for weeks perhaps longer now hurricanes are measured through something called The seir Simpson hurricane wind scale with a one being the least dangerous and five being the most so even though Katrina was only a category 3 hurricane that doesn't even begin to paint the picture of how awful it was for starters a category 3 hurricane only has wind speeds between 100 and 140 mph if you can imagine that that's faster than most cars can go in the United States so if you mix that with horrifying rain and an infrastructure not prepared for that kind of weather and you have the recipe for a straight up disaster which it was when Hurricane Katrina came down on the coast early in the morning of Monday August 29th it had already been raining for hours the storm quickly began to flood levies and drainage canals now at one point during Hurricane Katrina nearly 80% of New Orleans was underwater according to the data center and independent research organization in New Orleans uh hundreds of thousands of homes were completely destroyed leaving hundreds of thousands uh maybe even more than a million people completely displaced people like Leslie Donahue a single mother who just couldn't seem to catch a break leading up up to Hurricane Katrina she lost her grandfather in a terrible accident then had to witness her parents become hospitalized nearly a half a dozen times by her own account she was the rock of the family and had to keep it together just to keep everyone else together all while again being a single mother honestly single mothers around the world y'all deserve all of the flowers and like trophies and Awards and plaques every single day of the week because I don't know how you do it uh Round of Applause but when Hurricane Katrina hit she and her entire family lost their home and everything they ever knew and Leslie lost her motivation to keep it all together now for the next few years Leslie and her family went from place to place from one friend's house to another just to survive and along the way Leslie coped with her depression through an unhealthy relationship with food where she binge ate until her former 135 lb frame nearly doubled to 250 lb now gaining this kind of weight isn't a problem in and of itself and we are not going to accept anyone shaming some someone for their size in this content but Leslie by her own account had completely given up on eating healthy or taking care of herself in anyway on top of that by the time she finally got a house of her own in 2007 Leslie was broke and she didn't even know she had a problem until she met by chance a man named Dr heisinger now Once Upon a Time Dr Robert heisinger had been famous for being the former team physician for the Raiders strange fact he was also an expert witness for the o J Simpson trial but that is a whole other story okay yeah we're not going down there but by 2007 Dr H as he was called had become the chief medical consultant for a hit TV show on NBC known as the biggest loser I really hate my midsection I despise my thighs I hate my upper torso my gut these 12 people have one thing in common they fat this was and is still a competition show that people who wanted to lose weight uh compete to lose as much weight as possible as fast as possible and one goal lose weight or face elimination it's time to cut the F whoever lost the most weight would win $250,000 as well as the title of The Biggest Loser uh the show had already been on for a few years and was a massive hit but just like any other competition show you need contestants and to find contestants Dr H and his team from NBC were scouting for them and on one fateful day in 20 7 they happened to be scouting in Louisiana where they met Leslie Donahue how bad do you want I like to push people go go go very hard now according to Leslie part of The Scouting process involved a free consultation directly with Dr H and after examining Leslie he made a fist and held it up to Leslie and opened his hand just a little bit and he told her this is your heart it won't open all the way and the reason is you're fat and then he told her in no uncertain terms quote if you don't do something today about your health you are going to die his words not mine now as far as Dr H was concern this was Leslie's wakeup call for too long according to him she didn't even realize that she'd been ignoring her health and to hear a doctor tell her she was going to die and that there was maybe a way to fix it and maybe make some money well sign me the right with a chance of going home I mean I'm about to cry I want this so bad I don't want to go home I'm not ready I can't do this by myself unfortunately or maybe fortunately Leslie didn't last long on the show getting voted off after only 2 weeks in her time on the show but by the end of the season when the show typically checks in with all of the contestants Leslie lost 55b in 2 weeks yeah we're going to talk about it in interviews with Glamour and even smaller creators like olivan Lavita low carb which is just that's a great name Leslie spoke glowingly about how the show was the quote opportunity of a lifetime that helped her commit to being happy and healthy sounds like it worked out for her right so why not even a decade after her time on The Biggest Loser did Leslie donu say that going on The Biggest Loser was her biggest Nightmare and that it was literally a worse experience than Hurricane Katrina and I have been through a lot and then Katrina comes and takes it away I mean after the hurricane and I have been to seven different states and sometimes I thought it would have been better off if I would have went with my house because this is hell and then to be fat on top of it the worst let me say that again this woman survived a category 3 hurricane that left her displaced depressed and almost dead and she said that the Biggest Loser was a worse experience and even worser still why is this far far from an isolated experience she's not the only one because it turns out that even though the Biggest Loser was a show that promised to radically changed the lives of its contestants for the better it was actually an environment that had a sick toxic truth of everything from emotionally harmful producers to phobia to the fostering of EDS to substance scandals and more this is the story of The Biggest Loser oh hi there hello hello hi it's my face again SW if you're seeing me for the first time welcome I make documentaries and short films on Unsolved cases True Crime and social media influencers who abuse their power and manipulate audiences because as they always say it's not drama it's dangerous we also dig deeper into the root psychology and sometimes we take it to Petty university cuz honey Petty is my coping mechanism for assh haty okay I don't know about you but I need my Petty to get by and I want to give a huge I me huge thank you to everyone who has grabbed your new items so far from the brand new Petty University valid Social Club apparel collection I just launched it in the last video y'all have blown me away by your response and support for the new collection it makes me so so happy to see so many of you embracing the idea that you are valid I designed this collection for any of you who have ever felt unseen or swept aside told you weren't good enough 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asked but I'm assuming that most of you either raised your hand or at the bare minimum know what the Biggest Loser is right but for those of you who have never heard of it it's okay whoop is here for you uh now it's not really all that clear whose idea it was to make a competition show out of how much weight people could lose and put them on display and watch their suffering for entertainment and it's not really clear uh what the inspiration was I mean I have my guesses you know to make mockery of people because you think it's fun to make fun of people's body sizes but you know that's neither here nor there according to the website outside the origin story of The Biggest Loser involves a then 35-year-old reality TV producer named JD Roth approaching NBC with the idea of a basic show about what they refer to as obese people becoming thin people through competition that led to excess weight loss quote how much weight the networking Zex wanted to know 100 lb Roth told them and the rest is history as they say now just a quick side note I know that words like obese and fat and so on have been heavily stigmatized it actually makes me sick what people have done with words to make other people feel bad about their body uh and people have different opinions on whether or not to use these words and after researching I haven't found a conclusive single answer that's been outlined on what's the most preferred way to refer to those words and also traditional medical terms even though I think those terms are changing in the field I've seen people use these words to describe themselves with no issue I've seen some who are on the fence those who don't like them at all so if I happen to say any of these words at times it's because they they are directly what the shows are using or it's in quotes and I'm referring to the context of the show there are no stigmas here I think it's absolutely horrid how words have been stigmatized and have been used to weight shame people at any size and I want this to be an open discourse that's respectful so I'm trying to be sensitive to this as well I hope all of that makes sense and just for some quick extended research then we'll jump back to it uh for those who are interested I read a fascinating Journal published with the world obesity Foundation written by Dr Rebecca p a a professor of human development and family Sciences at the University of Connecticut who has a PHD in Clinical Psychology from Yale so you know a whole ass T smarter than me in the journal Dr pul researched the stigmas and potential harm in the use of certain weight related words in the uh medical field and reviewed 33 studies that examined people's preferences for weight related terminology and found the following quote finding suggests that neutral terminology EG uh weight or unhealthy weight is consistently preferred whereas words like obese and fat are viewed to be the least acceptable terms across study samples particularly in the context of patient provider conversations about weight however comma individual variations in language preferences is evident across demographic and other characteristics and caution is warranted in interpreting language preferences for different racial ethnic groups and across gender given insufficient studies comparing differences in these groups and or inconsistent findings as there is no single term or phrase that is universally acceptable across study samples these findings suggest that it may be appropriate to default to the use of neutral terminology when communicating about weight okay back to it so JD Roth isn't credited on the show as a Creator three other guys named Ben Silverman Mark cops and Dave Broom are uh three Executives who credits are kind of Staggering uh kind of like a who's who of Hollywood those other guys have worked on everything from the office to Jane the Virgin to Master Chef so they be out here doing the Hollywood big bucks thing uh to even something called Mob Wives oh oh uh all of that being said my guess based on those guys credentials and the way they talk in interviews it it seems like this show doesn't have any kind of crazy origin story uh more than likely somebody probably JD Roth was like Hey being heavier weight is disgusting right what if we made a competition show that made them feel less that weight and therefore less disgusting like this whole story just enrages me so much uh and I'm not just being a petty [ __ ] for the sake of being a petty [ __ ] if you're a if you're just a a viewer at home watching the show you may think hey you know I'm in bad shape but I'm not that bad and you start to feel a little bit better about yourself and so there's a lot of different you know things that are going on I think for for the for that so yeah that's producer David broom weight shaming his own contestants talking about how he wants the contestants to be bigger than the average person person so that viewers can feel better about themselves which is a little weird we'll call it a little exploitative uh but we're still early in the story so let's give them a chance okay yeah Famous Last Words listen be real with you right now I'm not going to give them really many chances at all but I'm trying so watching The Biggest Loser is a commitment each episode is around 2 hours long and there are anywhere from 11 to 15 episodes per season which means if you're a Biggest Loser devote and I'm not judging I mean look how long my videos are uh that means you're committing yourself to anywhere from 22 to 30 hours per season I don't know if you like mainlined a pot of coffee and just stayed up for a day straight watching the show you might not even finish one season and also please don't do that but the way the show works is it's a 30-week competition between 18 finalists picked by the network every contestant is considered overweight uh to varying degrees and once the contestants arrive on set they all start with a weigh in where each contestant is weighed to signify where they are starting on their weight loss Journey after this the 18 contestants are broken up into three groups each one of them wearing a differently colored t-shirt and this is where each group gets to meet trainers now these are I don't know I said it like that these are the people who are in charge of setting up and teaching each group's diet and workout routines how you feeling what's your name Jerry Jerry I'm Bob hey Bobby Welcome to The Blue Team how you doing brother ni there are a number of different trainers and it kind of varies from season to season how the trainer system works out uh sometimes each team has like a specific trainer and sometimes each trainer works with all of the teams either way there are always a few trainers at a time with the longest lasting between a man named Bob Harper who I will get back to to later I don't really have anything too bad to say about Bob yet allegedly but there is uh one thing yeah I'll get to that later but the other famous trainer is a woman named Jillian Michaels you may have heard of her I'm not going to yell I'm just going to show you the door it's my way or the door seriously oh Jillian Jill let's talk about you a little bit later babe we've got some to discuss Jill now no matter what the setup for this season uh the trainers are in theory there to teach and motivate each of the contestants into living a healthier lifestyle healthier allegedly there's going to be a lot of allegedly here and every day during the 30 we challenge the contestants are expected to reach certain exercise and diet goals throughout now these are usually set up in the form of various challenges for example uh the biggest challenge each team has uh to meet every week is the most weight loss and it's measured by percentage uh basically whoever loses the smallest percentage of weight is said to be falling below the yellow line which is a reference to a graphic that they show on screen about where you are in terms of being safe or being at risk of being eliminated from the show Now teams who fall behind the yellow line have one of their members voted off of the show eliminating them from further competition but not eliminating them from the contracts uh these votes are usually done by other teams but either way below the yellow line someone is gone uh now in order to stay above the yellow line teams will have to do things like work out with the trainers uh doing the first workout the trainers will speak with the contestants and get to know them usually figuring out the emotional Crux of why the contestants feel their weight had gotten out of control now these exercises get more intense and more grueling as time goes on and so do the trainers but I will also get to that a little later uh all you need to know for now is that all of the challenges result in the way in now the weighin is the part of the show where contestants are measured on their weekly progress we'll call it now even though the scene takes place at night this is just an editing technique contestants are weighed early in the morning and then shown their weight later in the evening sometimes 10 to 12 hours later teams are weighed all together uh the losing team is judged by the overall average of their Collective weight I cannot think of a more awful premise sorry again this story just pisses me off other challenges that po up on the show can sometimes but not always include things like Temptations not those ones these Temptations these have changed a lot over the course of the series but usually it's some kind of really messed up tradeoff uh for example in one episode each of the contestants are put in front of a tray of a hundred little chocolates filled with caramel and are told that each chocolate is only 26 calories but if they ate the whole tray that number skyrockets to 2600 calories cies with all of that in mind the teams are given a goal whoever eats the most chocolates yeah I know uh will set back their goal of losing weight quickly but they'll be able to pick up a teammate from any team to join their own and that's basically how every Temptation challenge worked eat something to set yourself back and you might win some kind of reward what kind of whole grained up [ __ ] on toast is this okay speaking of rewards the less up version of the Temptation challenge nope still not talking about them the worst is called the straight up reward challenge this is your normal reality show competition stuff like this one Challenge from season 8 where contestants hold onto ropes on an angled wall and have to hold on as long as possible before falling into the water below uh the contestants who last the longest can win a number of prizes like for instance immunity from being eliminated or exercise equipment or something called a weight prize which allows whoever wins to have a bigger weight loss at the weighin so for example if you actually lost six lbs the weigh-in prize would say you lost 7 lb on a one PB Advantage I just this is so messed up I can't believe we are creating rewards like this to just really mess with people's minds about their bodies why can't we just let people live and be happy with their bodies the petty was run over today I'm just this whole thing just might be Petty University at this point now sometimes the weight prize can be thrown at the losing team so their six PB loss is actually a five PB loss uh seemingly at random the show decides on a number of acceptable contestants ahead of time now what do I mean by that let's just say that the number of producers decided uh that it's six there are six contestants left and suddenly boom that team dissolves uh sometimes that number is higher rarely is it lower but at a certain point it's every [ __ ] for thyself to get there the final part of every episode revolves around the vote which is set in an elaborate dining room full of refrigerators with each contestant's name written on them filled with each of their most tempting all-time favorite foods yes the degradation is real with this if you couldn't tell every part of the show is completely [ __ ] up and cruel in my opinion if you're a fan of it you have your reasons we will just disagree here that's fine uh but how the vote works is right before each contestant that could be eliminated makes the case for why they should remain at the rayan and then whoever is up for elimination arrives first uh at the dining room then everyone else shows up with a plate covered up and under the cover is the name of whomever they're voting out uh one by one the covers rise revealing the name and then bam someone is heated right off the show welcome everyone to your first elimination we're going to go around the table you're each going to let me know whom you voted for Phil since you had the highest percentage of weight loss on the red team you can't be voted for this this week so whoever gets the most votes is going to be eliminated and we'll have to leave The Biggest Loser campus immediately Charming in typical reality show fashion the finale is a big emotional moment where all the eliminated contestants return to both cheer on their friends and compete for a smaller prize themselves which I guess is cool but everybody that's left gets to compete in the grand finale for a chance at $250,000 and the title of The Biggest Loser yeah Ponder why they named it that [Music] now if you listen to me walk through all of that and thought wait what the or maybe you were a little more generous with your reaction and thought Oh okay wait what the then the best I could do is provide some context for why a show like this might even exist this isn't me defending the show at all trust me this is me giving you the context of what life in the United States was like in 2004 if you were too young and don't remember don't worry I researched so this is kind of a short perspective say we introduced it in the last doc we're going to do that right now so what am I talking about this was the era of and it's called obesity the Public Health crisis again I am uncomfortable using that word if it's a word that makes people uncomfortable and again there's no conclusive so I'm just that is what it was called uh according to a research report done by scientists from the national Center for Health statistics and the Center for Disease Control and prevention back in 2006 nearly an entire third of adults in the US were considered quote obese or the more neutral term that the professor recommended unhealthy weight now these numbers become even more drastic with some sources saying it was actually close to 2/3 of the population this sounded the alarm for the World Health Organization to release a global strategy for diet physical activity and health which mentioned that one of the top six causes of non-communicable disease were being overweight this was sobering for many Americans because it was a sign that our diets were according to them literally going to kill us on top of that Nick Hy from the website outside points out that quote diet culture was going through its own transformation carbohydrates were out dietary fat was in low carb diets had been around for a while uh the Atkins diet perhaps the best known first appeared in the 1970s but popular interest in the new paradigm surged after Gary Toby's story what if it's all been a big F Li appeared in the New York Times magazine in 2002 challenging if not up ending the lowfat dietary standard that had been promoted by doctors and medical associations since the 1960s other fads were also underway but the pitch was always the same if we just ate the right stuff like say bacon and eggs the pounds would melt away and good health would return you know I wish I could eat a full plate of bacon every day and not feel like my intestines are going to shame me but they do I can't do it uh so yeah when you combine this uh new American mindset of eating the right stuff with the sphere of what they call O I'm just going to use refer to the word as o as a silent Boogeyman out to get us all and of course a show like The Biggest Loser would come to the scene guns of Blazing offering a solution and an entertaining one at that I mean who doesn't want to watch people suffer under extremely harsh gaslighting circumstances for entertainment that sounds like fun fetal now as a society we've already lived through Weight Watchers Jane Fonda's thighs and the fad diets good and bad but none of them were shown week by week on National Television this was catnip for American audiences if Americans were cats I don't know why I said that according to the neelen ratings from the time around 11 million people watched the season 1 finale that's like live at the same time in fact for the first 11 seasons of this show The Biggest Loser averaged anywhere between 8 and 10 million viewers on average per episode to put that into perspective in May 2023 this year CBS released a glowing press release about how it's going to be the most watched TV network in the US with an average of less than 6 million viewers for the whole season sorry that was the reaction television has changed hasn't it sorry not sorry and that was ahead of NBC where the Biggest Loser used to be now the whole dynamic of who watches TV and why has changed with the Advent of things like streaming services YouTube Tik Tok but it's still wild to see that more people watching 2 hours of The Biggest Loser every night than there are people watching a whole TV network in one season like I don't know if I should call that really embarrassing for CBS or astonishing for the biggest loser and sidebar during season 1 which was tbls the biggest losers most watched season it was only the 37th most watched show overall l m a o but Critics on the other hand well critics hated this sh I guess I'm one of them uh Jillian Flynn author of Gone Girl used to write for Entertainment Weekly and in a review of The Biggest Loser she wrote quote there's a loathsome mock the Effy uh undertoe to the biggest loser but what's the point of making them squeeze in and out of car windows too small for them or forcing them to build a tower of pastries using only their mouths Andrew Ryan at the Globe and Mail said quote it's one of those ideas that goes terribly wrong before it even begins David Bean Chuli for the Daily News was more blunt NBC has presented one installment of The Biggest Loser so far and one was enough to dismiss it entirely but really what did experts think about the Biggest Loser surely a show this popular must be popular because it's good to be consumed by the mass public right and you know critics be damned if the experts approve then this must be okay right right well [Laughter] [Music] yeah about that doctors were not stoked about a show that asked people to lose weight as fast and aggressively as possible now like I've said before in other docs the medical standard is usually that somebody should lose 1 to 2 pounds a week maybe even as many as five really it depends on your body type and please do consult a doctor this is something that will obviously vary from person to person and the side effects of losing more than that will also vary from person to person but people on The Biggest Loser were losing 10 lbs or even more than 15 pounds in a single week with some sources claiming contestants lost as much as 30 in one week but there are a few things you need to keep in mind about rapid weight loss before you commit to something like The Biggest Loser is asking you and basically please never commit to something like what the Biggest Loser is asking you and please talk to a doctor first of all there's the fact that most dieters will regain more than half of whatever they've lost over the next 2 years uh we see this mentioned everywhere from Healthline to Scientific American uh who also offer the sobering statement that quote roughly 80% of people who shed a significant portion of their body fat will not maintain that degree of weight loss for 12 months now something like this can be discouraging to somebody trying to lose a little weight because let's face it why try to lose if I'm just going to gain it back but you should also be asking why do you gain it back and that's the second problem with rapid weight loss I mean there's like a hundred problems with it but that's just the second one in some circumstances your metabolism could get slower like a lot slower let's go back to the Healthline article I mentioned for a second where they give an example of somebody cutting their caloric intake down from 3,000 to around 1,200 per day and please do not go out and do this I cannot stress this enough this is a cautionary bad tail this whole dock please please don't always talk talk to your doctor with that kind of calorie cut you likely see a a fast fast amount of weight loss but it's a double-edged sword because what happens is our bodies begin to panic yeah Panic internally so to speak and start adjusting to a new life with a lower caloric intake quote our body recognizes this as a sign of el limited food supply and goes into starvation mode now they go on to quote Christina aliia personal trainer at the bay club company who says when your body goes into starvation mode your metabolism will slow down to help you conserve energy and your body will hang on to more fat now this can be even worse for the body in a third way when your body goes into starvation mode you might not be losing fat you might be losing muscle big big bad according to Healthline calorie restrictive diets may cause your body to break down the muscle for energy and fuel and also a loss in muscle mass can slow your metabolism the reason why is because one pound of muscle burns more calories a day than one pound of fat so a loss of muscle means you'll burn less calories a day now are you starting to see how your diet can quickly become like a poorly stacked game of Jenga it's like each calorie is one block keeping the tower up and as you remove the blocks the tower starts to wobble a bit but it stays up right now imagine removing entire rows of blocks all at the same time and hoping the tower doesn't topple guess what the [ __ ] is going down that's basically what's happening here and it gets so much worse when you realize that you're not just removing calories or fat with these rapid diets you're also altering your State of Mind in unhealthy ways for starters this kind of diet with something called leptin levels leptin is the hormone that monitors our hunger and urges and normal leptin levels tell the brain that we're set on fat intake this is read to us as the feeling of being full but when our minds are altered through a low calorie diet and our leptin levels are thrown off we may never feel full this is what can lead to binge eating or ravenous hunger or even something as simple as the feeling of being being hangry how many of us have been hangry and that's not even taking into account the actual toll that a new body developing too quickly can have on your mental health if you don't have enough time to get accustomed to the new shape of your body you could develop feelings of body dysmorphia which according to the male clinic is a mental health condition in which you can't stop thinking about one or more perceived defects or flaws in your appearance a flaw that appears minor or can't be seen by others now this could lead to more Dr IC Solutions to reshape the body like non-essential surgeries to look more the way you had envisioned uh this road can also lead alternatively to the development of very unhealthy relationships with food and you know what I'm going to pause for a second uh I know that many of you watching including myself have struggled with body issues unhealthy relationships with food uh feeling pressure to gain or lose weight because of the stigmas society just loves to be a [ __ ] about I just want to remind you you are incredible you are powerful and you are worthy of happiness at the exact size that you are no matter what your skin sack looks like please please know your worth is not determined by your outward appearance even though there are [ __ ] opinions that try to force you to feel shame for however you look please be kind to yourself know that your mental health is important and if you're struggling to love how you look now in this very moment there are people that can help like the body dysmorphic disorder foundation with online resources and 24/7 helplines like the alliance for Ed awareness who you can call at 1866 6621 1235 you do not have to do this [Music] alone now I've been speaking about this all in Broad terms so you might be asking does it really get this bad with the contestants the biggest loser and the answer is yes yes it does it actually gets even worse for a few reasons I'll get into a little later but according to Aubrey Gordon for your fat friend some contestants lost as much as 15 lbs per week to achieve such dramatic results contestants were placed on very low calorie diets sometimes under 1,000 calories per day and were then put through strenuous 6-hour workouts on camera so not only were the diets very low calorie they were dangerously low calorie cou with extreme workouts and this is something Physicians nutritionists and other related scientists have been worried about with the show for years Carol Woolen rickland a nutrition coordinator for the University of Texas medical school at Houston told the website Live Science quote they've been taking people who have been inactive and are not in good shape and boom automatically subjecting them to this stress things are going to happen what kind of things for starters two contestants were sent to the hospital in season 8 when the very first chall Challenge on the very first day was a 1em foot race the beach how you feel I'm not hurt my legs were so weak got you come on stand up you got this okay that's contestant Tracy yukich uh collapsing after the race she had to be airlifted to the hospital which producers said at the time was heat exhaustion but was later discovered to be rabdom mysis which is a potentially fatal condition that can be caused by overexertion on your mark get set go and then the following year season 9 started with a 26.2 M stationary bike race that ended with Dr H having to drag one contestant off her bike for severe cramps I don't care what I have to do I'm fighting for my life I cannot give up and maybe you're sitting there right now thinking hey they asked for this right but that's not really the case for the Biggest Loser see other than the extreme diets contestants go on there is an exercise program contestants are put on a strict diet and then have to work out five to six hours every single day please don't do that unless you're a professional athlete with a professional Trader which on top of the issues we outlined earlier can also lead to you losing healthy water weight which can dehydrate you remember that one mile race uh that sent two contestants to the hospital one of them got heat stroke due to severe dehydration heat stroke is very serious now the exercise can also negatively affect your heart health and put more of a burden on your bones your ligaments your tendons which may have already been stressed due to carrying certain amounts of weight now to be fair the creators and the people who work on the show know all of this to a certain degree but argue that it all is safe Dr H the celebrity Doctor Who acts as the medical consultant for the show said that it was a safe alternative to surgery or any kind of starvation diet and co-creator JD rod acknowledged that the show was extreme but quote it needs to be extreme in my opinion H what okay yeah quote uh for some of these people this is their last chance and in a country right now that is wrestling with Health Care issues and the billions of dollars that are spent on o issues per year in a way what a public service to have a show that inspires people to be healthier I'm sorry I can't read that without laughing my Petty is trying to cope because the ass Hattery is popping out everywhere in this Doc and I'm just like ring ring ring hold the phone did he just refer I can't believe I said that but did he just refer to this show as a public service am I missing something maybe I'm missing so I don't know man okay Carolyn do you do you see anything here Stefan Stefan do you know no Suzanne Suzanne I just no you don't yeah I we must be missing something why would going on an extreme reality show and collapse from unnecessary Neary heat exhaustion be someone's last chance you you trying to make it their last chance by putting them through that kind of uh and besides none of this really stands up to close scrutiny when you realize all of the times uh the people on board have admitted to going too far like when Dr H admitted that if they were able to do it all over again they straight up wouldn't have done the one M race because they weren't even keeping track of contestants body temperatures during the race or the time when trainer Jillian Michaels straight up quit the show because she was as Nikki swift.com puts it racked with guilt over the weight loss of some of the shows contestants such as Rachel Frederickson so now again some more questions what was it about what happened to Rachel that made Jillian quit wait who's Rachel and wait who's Jillian okay okay don't worry I got you babe but I think right now I need to back up and talk about something I said that I would get to and that's the trainers role in all of this especially when it comes to someone like Jillian Michaels Dan no on now so in theory and to some degree in practice to the job of the trainers on The Biggest Loser is the same job any personal trainer would have they create a comprehensive workout plan they create a nutrition plan that is actually individualized for each person and they pledge to keep each contestant on the right path to reaching their fitness goals so again in theory this is good but in practice the only way you're coming off this damn treadmill is if you die on it go go so unless you faint puke or die keep walking there's also a thin line between motivation and downright cruelty and the way that these trainers scream at the contestants disturbs me I'm not they do it Joelle stop saying all these words quit talking I'm sick of just words words words talk talk talk just stop talking and do it the man in those clips is Bob Harper who to the this day is still involved with the Biggest Loser Bob has been a personal trainer for celebrity clients for decades now including actor Jennifer Jason Lee and is considered the nicer trainer in the dynamic between him and the other trainers and when you watch the videos of Bob Bob you might even agree that he doesn't seem that bad this experience like with you this like friend I found in not just a trainer but the friend I found in you a sweetart and that's hard for me because he's held my hand every day the same thing can't really be said for the the other famous trainer from the show the infamous Jillian Michaels are you going to do it or not get on the stairs say can to me one more time and I'll break every finger in my hand are you going to die yes you are going to die when yes and you're going to feel bad no I won't I'll be so proud you'll be my first casualty now Jillian good old Jill was born February 18th 1974 in Los Angeles California the child of Joan mcra a licensed psychotherapist Now by her own account Julian had a really rough child childhood relating to low self-esteem and severe psychological issues that were further exacerbated by being picked on for being overweight quote once I was sitting at lunch and got surrounded by a bunch of kids who let me have it about how ugly I was my unibrow the size of my nose the fat rolling over my jeans it was pure hell my mom had to put me out and put me in another school and I'm just wondering Jillian I'm sorry sidebar but if you can recollect that story and call it pure hell for the psychological things that people were saying to you why would you feel as a appropriate to grow up be an adult and then do the same thing to other people and put them through the same type of psychological I'm sorry what I'm sorry I'm recording now can I get you on the record what was that I didn't think so so Jillian said going to a different school didn't help though and her psychological issues got so bad that she developed night terrors and they were so severe she would wake up in the middle of the night because she was scared that quote sharks were coming out of the drain in the bathtub I couldn't sleep at night every night waiting for aliens to come I'm not kidding you I was traumatized now her mom sent her to therapy at the age of five I practice Jillian credits for being able to overcome her night terrors and eventually take charge of her weight to help increase her self-esteem when she was 14 she began taking Marshall arts classes which helped her to tie her sense of selfworth to a new found sense of discipline quote it taught me that if I didn't respect myself no one else would respect me I wish she carried that respect onto other people now over time Jillian became a personal trainer and when she was 28 she opened up her own gym sky sport and Spa with Jackie Warner another trainer who went on to star in the Bravo reality show workout but it was in 2004 when Jullian caught her biggest break yet when she was scouted and cast as a trainer for The Biggest Loser on the show Jillian wasted no time applying some of that discipline she picked up in martial arts training into her Persona on the show being described as a tough drill sergeant style trainer who does not hesitate to use fear as a motivation tactic uh the guardian was quick to point out in 2016 uh a list they described as her Infamous insults which range from demeaning to outright violent towards contestants and here let's go over a short list of some of these insults and they're honestly so only way I can get out of it is to just take my Petty to the max so I feel like this should be in an infomercial or something are you or someone you know suffering from high self-esteem do you wake up in the morning saying I wish I could have a shitty day do you wish you could destroy some of your rock solid confidence never fear Jillian Michaels is here that's right Jillian will crush your spirits and send you to therapy in no time with her signature phrases like I don't care if you both die on this floor you better die looking good Greg if you don't run I will pull Alex on the floor and I will break every bone in his body I don't care if one of your legs falls off or one of your lungs explode and if you're lucky Julian will deliver Classics like the only way way you're coming off this damn treadmill is if you die on it wow it's fun you know watching other people suffer like that and for those who are really committed for the low low price of your soul how about quote I don't know if Greg's proud of vomiting or not but I'm proud that I made him [Laughter] vomit yeah those are all actual quotes I mean it all seemed to be in the name of the greater good right after all this was the contestants last chance it's a privilege for them to have to put up within incessant demeaning comments like that and the constant push to hurt themselves you know that whole saying beauty is pain is taken to its worst except this is taken to its worst most up extremes Ang Jillian Michaels was the biggest soundboard for a lot of the show's worst impulses let's be honest I'm the best I am faint puke or die keep walking all I care about is that your ass gets smaller that's all that I care about fly you all the way out here to have you [ __ ] about at your arms you understand me go somehow I've become the nice one I don't know when that happened but it pisses me off all day all nights excruciating agonizing pain let's face it patience is not my thing now this all would have been bad enough if it weren't for the fact that multiple professionals called Jillian out for her unprofessional behavior on and off the screen too like in 2008 when personal trainer Jennifer Sage directly called Jillian out after she removed seats from the exercise bikes to motivate the contestants she told Jullian in a very long and very scathing letter quote what you did with your participants on The Biggest Loser last night was horrendous and very sad it showed great disrespect for your participants for the spinning program and for indoor cycling in general you showed rampant disregard for safety for biomechanics for understanding of training principles and for concern for your participants it shows that you know nothing about riding a bike either I know you think you must keep up your image as being a hard ass kick but no hold barred personal trainer but this time you went too far okay I am loving the level of petty here but I don't want to be accused of just giving out Petty University doctorates on a whim okay I am a learned [ __ ] and I don't just hand them out to nobody so I need to really see how the rest of this letter pans out quote most indoor cycling enthusiasts from around the country were watching that show they will come away from it thinking that these are acceptable moves because Jillian did it and want their own instructors to do them many of these poor instructors the who don't know they can stand up to their uneducated students and explain the real reasons why they don't do stuff like that on a bike will feel the need to offer their students what they're asking for even though they can sense that it's unsafe as a result there's going to be far more injuries and far fewer people reaching their performance goals okay yes Jennifer that is the perfect amount of informative with a little dash of petty so welcome to Petty [Music] University okay listen Petty Petty is a compliment Petty means you're like you are pissed and you are saying something about it these are all incredibly valid points Jennifer makes about the powers of persuasion and the idea of what's known as the appeal to Authority fallacy now maybe you remember this from school but as a reminder the appeal to Authority fallacy is a type of informal fallacy that occurs when someone uses Authority reputation or expertise of a person or a source as the sole primary reason to support their argument without providing any other evidence or reasoning put another way the is consistently making the case that because Jillian is the trainer she's the expert and she knows what's best for the contestants but here we have an actual expert on cycling saying that hey that advice you gave Jill bad Big Bad Boo Boo doooo advice Jillian Jilly Jill You Know Jack and Joe went up the hill to fetch a pale of [ __ ] and the best part of how Jennifer ends the letter I have a Blog devoted to safe and effective indoor cycling and if you look under the label contradictions you'll see several posts including a huge list of what not to do on an indoor bicycle and the biomechanical anatomical physiological and Common Sense reasons why not I think you should read those many of them were on the show last night oh and get yourself certified please okay Jennifer the tribe has spoken you won your doctorate come here girl come give me a a petty hug I'm here for it it's not even just one instructor though a Pilates instructor named Lisa Johnson made a straight up list of all of the things Jillian does wrong things like real trainers don't get in a client's face and scream obscenities at them the fastest way I know to lose a client is to tell them to shut the f up and get back on the treadmill or real trainers maintain high level of certifications the idea the idea health and fitness Association recently checked the certifications of the show's trainers and found them to be on the very very lowend Bob Harper has taken a weekend long course and a home study course that looked somewhat questionable Jullian Michaels has the same weekend course certification and has also taken a home study course but with a more substantial curriculum than Bob's Mo health clubs require more yeah oh did I not mention that uh when Jillian and Bob joined the show it was alleged that they had taken weekend courses to become certified not even Britney Dawn Fitness offered results that fast okay uh Lisa's list goes on for quite some time but I think you get the point uh Jillian Michaels is not only giving drill sergeant on these poor souls but she's doing it from a place that pretends to be more authoritative than it really is and Bob Harper is not off the hook either just because he does it with a smile means it's just a damn well-trained smile in my opinion to be fair Jillian later called out the LA times for publishing a story that accused her of not having proper certifications and proved that she was actually up to date on being properly certified that being said that was years after the show started it's not fully clear whether Jillian was certified early on in the show's run so chalk this all up to a big old a l l e g e d l y what does that spell class [Music] allegedly this whole alleged certific a thing makes it even worse when you hear about the one Scandal that comes out of Jillian's time on the show because it wasn't the contestant berating it wasn't the dangerous pushing beyond the limits no the Scandal came when Jillian Went A Step Beyond that and got caught giving one of the contestants caffeine pills on air in 2013 Jillian made national news after an episode of The Biggest Loser aired before you all step on the scale there is something important that needs to be addressed as the contestants started to file into the dining room for their weekly weighin host Alison Sweeney stopped everybody from stepping on the scale saying she had something important to say first last week Jillian broke the rules and gave caffeine supplements to each member of her team without the doctor's permission and because of the supplements not being approved by the doctors or the production her team received a penalty and the previous week's results were dubbed in valid Jillian defended herself by saying that a caffeine supplement is healthier than coffee while not really a addressing the actual controversy of you know giving out supplements without the approval of the doctors which is against the rules Jill I stand by my opinion a caffeine supplement is significantly healthier than unlimited amounts of coffee and it's not even the first time Jillian Michaels has been on the defense relating to pills nor will it be the last time She's accused of stuff like this in this story in 2009 Jillian was accused of giving performance-enhancing substances to contestant Felipe fa she was clear after an internal investigation so this is just an allegation but when you couple it with the confirmed caffeine pill thing it looks a little sketch a little sus maybe she belongs in the sus pool especially since Jillian Michaels made diet pills of her own and had to settle out of court a whopping four lawsuits on claims that her pills could cause gastrointestinal ulcers as well as nausea and vomiting and contain ingredients that act as a harsh lack aiive and dangerous diuretic that may cause irreversible liver damage best of all the pill as a whole quote might kill you so I don't know kind of sounds to me like Jilly and Michael's got a little problem with these little pills allegedly allegedly it's a song for you and me I don't sorry that was awful now since we're discussing Jill the pill I want a sidebar on something really uh funny interesting about her that has nothing to do with the biggest loser but is way too absolutely ridiculous not to share Jillian Michael's ex-girlfriend Jackie Warner has straight up alleged that Jillian Michaels is such an a-hole that the two of them would get thrown out of restaurants a lot from Jillian's screaming cursing and overall being the worst why would you do that and on top of already being the worst Jackie says Jillian would straight up spit on people the audacity the acet jilli and Jill Jill the Jack and pill nursery rhyme not work for you here how about another one Peter Piper picked a patch pickles sit the down and have all of the seats Jill pill who the hell is out here spitting on people in these streets okay moving on I'm sorry now Jillian denied this over Instagram expressing disbelief that she would even have to deny something like this but Jillian Jill Jilly jillery jillery spitting come on it's just a girls talking here don't don't look at my students okay don't look around the room look look at me Joel look at me did you spit on Jackie Warner did you spit on waiters you can tell me it's okay it's okay you [Music] nasty anyway to step out of petty University and to be fair to Jillian Michaels let's talk about why she eventually quit The Biggest Loser maybe there's a positive end here uh in 2014 the winner of the year was then 24-year-old Rachel Frederickson who began the show as a 260 lb voiceover artist who ended the show by stepping on the scale and revealing she now weighed a startling 105 lb a 155 lb weight drop that startled people more than perhaps any other winner on the series now why was it so startling well that's over 60% of her body mass lost in just around 30 weeks she's 5'4 which means that even by the incredibly flawed BMI metric she's considered underweight now not so fun fact uh even fashion Industries in places like Madrid and Milan have band models that have a BMI lower than 18.5 from walking the runway yeah did you know that cuz cuz I didn't uh Rachel's BMI at this time was 18 meaning even the fashion industry would have been concerned about her so think about that the Couture fashion industry worried someone is too thin I think pigs are officially flying somewhere in the universe for that to happen now you can see in clips from the show that everybody was beyond shocked uh something reflected in tweets from the time uh with people saying things like there needs to be a red line that disqualifies finalists for too much weight loss uh based on a minimum BMI threshold or watching The Biggest Loser finale and I am seriously concerned that the confetti will knock Rachel over now and even those comments feel a little insensitive I don't think this is Rachel's fault I think this is the irresponsibility of the show producers and a number of other things and I feel just it's a lot to take in but maybe nobody was more shocked than Jillian Michaels who told the Daily Mail she was quote ashamed to be a part of Rachel's Journey saying I thought she lost too much weight without a doubt you've got to take responsibility for it I've come to a point in my career where I have to have control and that's where I'm out and I think it's pretty damn hilarious Jillian saying uh that you've got to take control as if this was the contestant's fault after all your gaslighting and extremely dangerous tactics pushed on her I think that's pretty ridiculous and I I hope that she actually didn't hear that quote from Jillian uh so between Seasons Jillian left the show and okay but in case you forgot uh that drill instructor p as a sidebar in 2020 Bob Harper was asked by US Weekly if he missed having Jillian on the show his entire response I'm good come on babo and with all of that in mind I think it's time to mention that all of this was a precursor for the really really nasty side of The Biggest Loser everything I just said bad very bad no doubt but these were really just the things we knew while the show was airing because as time went on it started to seem a little weird that we never really got to hear the contestants themselves say anything bad about the show sure there were little moments but there have been over 100 people on the show and we haven't heard from any of them yet except for Leslie who we talked about at the very beginning remember Leslie and sometimes I thought it would have been better off if I would have went with my house she said this show was worse than Hurricane Katrina are you ready to really find out [Laughter] [Music] why it's season 4 of The Biggest Loser uh one of the first things that happens before the show even begins filming is contestants get separated completely from the friends and family so no letters no phone calls no video chats though that wasn't really a thing back in the late 2000s but you get it complete separation this happens on every season of The Biggest Loser getting to speak to your family is in fact one of the many rewards that you can get from a Temptation challenge but one thing that was different was according to Leslie all of the contestants were flown out to stay together at a former Psychiatric Hospital in the Los Angeles area that was retrofitted into a kind of hotel for the contestants but the catch was they can only stay in one room according to a now deleted but still archived interview with the New York Post back in 2016 Leslie claims that 12 of them were put into the same room with no air conditioning in the middle of summer quote it was hot as hell and the smell was horrible on top of that everybody was required to shower uh together in a co-ed situation regardless of gender with no curtains or barriers of any kind and why I just why why why and if that wasn't enough none of the toilets worked either but the producers had a solution porta potties you know those things you see at concerts or at construction sites imagine 12 people having to share one of those and one room and shower together [ __ ] not today Satan as the show went on Leslie felt a little weird about the diet her trainers put her on she claims that every single day the trainers had her eat seven asparagus sticks and 3 o of turkey not per meal per day now Leslie didn't last long on the show and I think thankfully and was voted out in the second episode but per her contract with the show she was required to continue her diet and exercise r at home without any guidance this was frustrating for her because according to an interview she did after the show she didn't have a home to go to she literally lost her home because of Hurricane Katrina like can you imagine being contractually bound to keep up such a screwed up diet and exercise plan at home when you don't even have one and why she's not even on the show and when all was said and done Leslie said every contestant was contractually obligated to show up for the biggest losers finale and do a final weigh in quote I wasn't going to go but they threatened to sue you by 2016 so 8 or nine years after her time ended on the show she said she gained back all of the weight she lost on the show and had also lost her job while also suffering from depression she feels is highlighted by the thousands of dollars in medical bills she accumulated because of the trauma she went through in just a few weeks on the show a trauma that left her with an unhealthy relationship with food which is heartbreaking now we haven't heard much from Leslie since the New York Post article I found a few of her private social media accounts which I'm not going to share here and I can at least confirm that she looks happier and healthier and seems to have moved on from her time on the show and I just hope that that is the truth for her but there's someone whose experience on The Biggest Loser was so personally damaging to them that they have decided to make it their life's mission to raise awareness over the show she calls a fat shaming disaster [Music] when it comes to the long-lasting damage The Biggest Loser has done not only to its contestants but the fans of the show there is no better public story available than that of season 3 contestant Kai Hibbard hi it's me Kai um sometimes I feel like a broken record um of actually a decade long broken record uh talking about how reality TV weight loss is harmful Kai was born in 1978 and Kodiak Alaska a middle child of three daughters uh she went to college for her undergrad work in Hawaii and Alaska and after competing her undergrad work she held down a lot of random jobs like a CPS worker for the state of Alaska a law office assistant an aerobics instructor her entire life Kai says she struggled with her weight but by January 2006 she was 5'6 and weighed 265 lb still beautiful in my opinion A friend of hers told her quite nastily quote hey I love you but you're super F right now hi bar please don't ever talk to your friends like that but anyways her friend had this idea what if Kai signed up for the Biggest Loser to which Kai said what in the Pete Davidson is The Biggest Loser okay I that's not a direct quote okay that's me paraphrasing so her friend explained the show and Kai thought it could be worth a shot she figured out what she had to do to be considered made an audition tape and to her surprise got a response from NBC who wanted her on Kai was admittedly excited but had also never seen the show before in her life my gosh okay little sidebar like I can't fathom auditioning for a show that I've never watched uh this isn't shade at all but like but like I remember when a producer for The Voice asked me to audition and so I did and then they asked me to be on the show I was asked to be on the voice and I had I don't even remember like a week or so something like that uh to decide so I spent that time consuming every episode I could possibly watch there's just like no way that I would have been okay doing a show that I had never seen now ultimately I turned the producers and the show down looking at the contracts they were way too much of a controlling disaster and so I said no uh so but I can only imagine what the contracts were like on The Biggest Loser especially with what we discussed earlier anyway sidebar done so soon after being selected for the show Kai got flown out to Los Angeles now unlike lesle she was actually put in a pretty decent hotel uh in the downtown Los Angeles area with 50 other finalists for the show also staying there but as soon as she got there a production assistant came and told her to hand over her key card and stay in her room at all times when they weren't filming uh she was told that the hotel was given strict instructions to inform producers if anybody left their rooms because they wanted to make sure contestants didn't talk to each other between filming now this was confirmed by an anonymous contestant the post spoke to who says when she checked in the PA also took her cell phone and laptop from her alleging that she believes the production bugged her Computer quote the camera light on my MacBook would sometimes come on when I hadn't checked in it was like big brother was always watching you wow after 5 days in the hotel the 50 finalists were narrowed down to 14 and taken to the ranch which is where the show prominantly takes place from here phones and computers are taken away and contestants are given strict instructions not to call or write home for anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks when they're allowed a brief 5minute call monitored by producer as if they were literal prisoners like kaisa's producers told her that this was because you know you might give away show secrets and even when contestants were finally allowed to read their mail it was opened and redacted like some kind of weird government document I get through a Foya request like what I understand that there is this desire to be thin it's everywhere in our culture and I can understand why a former contestant might want to be back on TV there are pieces out out there written by other reality TV participants about how participating in reality TV can become somewhat addictive you like being on TV you like being known you like that little bit of pseudo fake Fame the data shows what you're participating in is harmful then the real fund starts with a medical exam to get everybody's vitals but as soon as the exam ends Kai alleges that the contestants are immediately sent to work out for anywhere from 5 to 8 hours at a time remember these are people who likely have never worked out that many hours in a day because who works out that many hours in a day now the anonymous contestant says her first workout was only 4 hours which is still more than 3 hours longer than exercise you should start with but Kai said she didn't take to the exercise routine right away her feet allegedly bled through her shoes on that first day as well as every day she exercised on the show the other contestants said something similar providing a list of what the day one routine was like for her uh which was rowing body weight work lifting pedal Bells treadmill interval training StairMaster outdoor Tire lift for 4 hours which made her actually collapse I mean of course like who wouldn't right and that's where old Jillian comes back into the frey who allegedly screamed at the contestant to get up before making a comment about one of her relatives being sick from being overweight the contestant couldn't believe it but as she puts it quote I got up you're just in shock your body's in shock all the contestants would say to each other what the f just happened and that's because the trainers quote get a sick pleasure out of it theyd say it's because you're f look at all of the F you have on you and that was our fault so this was our punishment reading these stories is just is just heartbreaking this is backed up by Kai who said that the trainers not just Jillian would say sick things like you're going to die before your children grow up or you're going to die just like your mother uh she alleges that one time she was texted we've picked out your overweight person coffin and if they wanted to turn to the production assistant well one of the the PA's lovely nuggets of wisdom was I do not for Kai to pick up smoking because it would cut her appetite in half an appetite that by the way would have been fulfilled with somewhere around 1,600 calories per day on a normal weight loss diet a risky number for sure as I've gone over but a normal weight loss regimen nonetheless uh Kai says that all of her fellow contestants were eating less than 1,000 calories per day and I'm only halfway through Kai's story because yeah it gets worse according to Kai all of the fi8 was given to the production by sponsors for the trainers to pass on them but actually had next to no nutritional value uh she said that during her season everybody ate what she called Franken foods like I Can't Believe It's Not Butter like does that even still exist or craft fat-free cheese or Jello or effing Rockstar Energy drinks so like on the one hand it's better than Leslie's asparagus and turkey I guess I don't I even know if it's better but on the other hand like y'all forced to drink Rockstar on your diet like the same Rockstar that literally looks and feels like a dragon is pissing down your throat one of the gnarliest allegations Kai makes is a lot of what you see on TV was done because of how exciting it would be on TV not for the contestant's health for example she says that one of her peers had a torn calf muscle and a case of btis in her knee the doctor on the show said she needed rest but she had to tell the doctor producers said she couldn't now shortly after one of the competitions was a running competition now the contestant to her credit stood up for herself and said she couldn't run because she was seriously injured to which Kai alleges The Producers edited the show to make it seem like her peer was just lazy yeah that's reality TV for you there was allegedly a registered dietitian on the show that the production constantly undermine who would try to act in defense of the contestants only for producers to tell the contestants they shouldn't listen to anyone except the trainers I mean this is just such a nightmare in an interview with ABC Kai said that it never got any easier as the show went on and as she was so desperate to stay above the yellow line she started targeting her own water weight to make herself sweat more she would dress from head to toe in a sports bra tank top t-shirt sweatshirt spandex shorts pants sweatpants and a baseball cap and then zip it all up in a gym with no AC and work out for as long as she could without drinking water at all something she says her peers also did some would even swish the water around in their mouths and spit it out but Kai says she couldn't do that or she would actually drink the water all of this hell got worse for Kai when she got voted off the show and like Leslie was contractually obligated to keep up her diet daily emails from producers asking her what have you done today are you working out enough uh reminders to stay on a low calorie deficit and anytime she tried to push back on how intense it all was she would be met allegedly with constant gaslighting like quote 200,000 other higher weight girls were in line right behind you how dare you waste this experience how dare you let anybody down one of Kai's friends told her this sounded like Stockholm syndrome and the sad part is both Kai and the contestant admitted that gaslighting worked Kai told the post quote I was thinking dear God don't let anybody down you will appear ungrateful if you don't lose more weight before the season finale and the other contestant who had once lost 7 lbs in one week apologized to producers because quote I wanted to please them I'd lost 12 lbs the week before and maybe the saddest thing Kai admits in an interview with bodyw wellness.com is about her most painful way in when the show was down to five contestants she says she was on the elliptical so exhausted that she burst into tears even while she was crying she was working out which led to a chain reaction of everybody in the gym also breaking down into tears but that's not even the fully effed up part the the effa part is that Kai tried and successfully comforted her teammates by saying well at least we're losing more water weight by crying and unfortunately the gaslighting continued to keep on working even after the show ended for her it's just heartbreaking just so we're clear I'm not about weight loss reality TV I haven't been for a decade now sometimes I was the Lone person speaking out against it and subjected to tons of hate mail if you want to send me more hate mail just comment down there I'm used to it and I'll get back to you in the meanwhile mind your own body Kai told the New York Post that during her contractually obligated diet she was eating 1,000 calories a day working out 5 to 8 hours every single day and when she was in the shower she noticed that her hair started to fall out uh when she looked in the mirror she didn't even recognize who she saw anymore dark circles under her eyes and her period stopped altogether uh she was sleeping 3 hours per night she was concerned so she told producers who said and I quote save it for the camera you know it's instances like these when I hear stories like this and it's just where's the humanity like these shows these producers the advertisers all of it it's just where's the humanity like these are people these are real living breathing people who are beautiful who just don't deserve any of this it's just it it just makes me so so so mad thankfully Kai had a solid support system at home who also noticed what was going on uh her then boyfriend now husband staged an intervention telling her she was going to die if she didn't make a change and he pointed out that all she was really consuming was water black coffee and Splenda and she told him this was because the idea of gaining weight made her so nervous that she couldn't keep food down anyways that her body was just literally just reacting in that way and Kai's partner was able to uh take her to the doctor right away please if anyone is ever experiencing anything remotely if you if you are mentally feeling this way in any way about food please please please please please know that this is not your fault there's nothing wrong with you Society people around you have led you to believe a lie that the way you look your body determines your worth and you are worthy of feeling safe and happy and healthy in your body please reach out to the resources that I mentioned earlier I cannot stress that enough it is so important you deserve to be happy and comfortable you really do now when Kai went to the doctor uh they said that they were astonished by how bad her sh splints had become after all the exercise asking her how she was even able to walk the doctor then informed the once 260 lb Kai that she was down to just 121 lb now today Kai says she's regained almost 2/3 of the weight that she's lost but feels healthier than she did the entire time she was on the show so we are thankful for that uh she recognizes what the show has done to her and other contestants and feels a responsibility to expose the show for what it is but she's hoping that by continuing to speak up that she can counteract some of the harm The Biggest Loser quote because I took a piece of being that problem I now own a piece of being the solution uh it's so sad to me that Kai ever felt like she was part of the problem but Kai took her pain and turned it into something healing and even today more than a decade removed from her experience on the show Kai is a body positivity activist who speaks out against The Biggest Loser as well as several other weight shaming shows and organizations and we applaud that one of the biggest questions I had at this point was why was Kai hi one of the only notable people who spoke up about her time on the show for so long now keep in mind Leslie's story came out years after Kai's and I have a few other examples that come out I'll talk about in a bit but if it were really so bad on The Biggest Loser why did nobody speak up well that's really simple because NBC would sue the shittle bits out of them if they did uh even as far back as November 2009 n the New York Times published an article about the contracts contestants were made to sign which even nyt said stand out even in the waiver intensive world of reality television so what do I mean well I mean that when the New York Times reached out to former contestants for comment they were forwarded an email by a talent producer for the show who reminded them that serious consequences could arise if any of them spoke to the times without permission because guess what it says in their contract that if they do they would owe NBC anywhere between 100,00 th000 to a million dollar that means for the entire New York Times piece the only contestants who went on the record were contestants NBC picked out and had an NBC publicist listen in on dude this is some creepy but it wasn't just contestants being forced into silence the contracts also strangely made the production not liable in case of injury by having people they were painting as unhealthy sign a contract saying they were healthy quote no warranty representation or guarantee has been made as to the qualifications or credentials of the medical professionals who examine me or perform any procedure on me in connection with my participation in the series or the ability to diagnose medical conditions that may affect my fitness now to participate in the series it continued saying that contestants had to agree they believed themselves to be an excellent physical emotional psychological and mental health which is a whole ass forced lie if they really believed themselves to be an excellent shape and blah blah blah then why are they on a show to get in shape like what the hell and B now to be completely fair to The Biggest Loser which that's the maybe the only time I'm going to say that despite all the positions and the experts and the contestants and the people with eyes and the swoops and the kai Hibbs and the Leslie donus and the rational people with a pulse there are some people who are willing to go to bat for the show after all Michelle Obama popped up on the show twice welcome back all right we're ready all right we're going to be working out with the first lady everyone yeah but to play devil's advocate for a second our whole perspective thing let's talk about an article from the guardian back in 2016 that mentions in passing that there are many contestants on the show who not only kept their weight off but were thankful for the show it specifically names a man named Danny kill who at the start of the show weighed 430 lbs and managed to break Biggest Loser records by dropping two 239 lb to a weight of around 191 lb the most any single contestant had ever lost now I dug a little deeper passed this article and discovered that in the years after the show Dany became a motivational speaker and even wrote a book about his weight loss journey and if that were where Danny's story ended I'd say okay fair enough big loser because the truth is there are a lot of contestants who are publicly grateful to the healthy decisions they feel TBL empowered them to make and that's great but it probably isn't a great idea to say that Danny K Hill is one of those [Music] people not even 5 months after that article in the guardian came out a New York Times article began with an anecdote over Danny kahill winning season 8 of The Biggest Loser it follows with the words Mr kahill left the show stage in Hollywood and flew directly to New York to start a triumphal Tour on the talk shows chatting with Jay Leno Regis filbin and joy bear as he heard the fans from all over the world his Elation knew no bounds but in the years since more than 100 lbs have crept back into his 5'11 frame despite his best efforts in fact most of that season's 16 contestants have regained much if not all of the weight they lost so arduously some are even heavier now yet their experiences while a bitter personal disappointment have been a gift to science it turns out that Kevin Hall a a scientist had a groundbreaking idea that he brought into the world starting the Year Danny kahill won he realized that most of the contestants on the show saw huge losses but then also huge regains of their weight uh he wanted to know why so for six years he followed multiple contestants from The Biggest Loser and found out that the way bodies slow metabolisms down after an intense weight loss was much much worse than we had previously imagined the way Hall explains it is that everybody on the show begins with a really relatively normal metabolism uh even though they are above a certain weight but due to the way the body was uh consistently in Starvation mode the contestants all struggled uh to keep up with the burning enough calories to keep their bodies thin uh meaning no calorie deficit or even amount of exercise was enough to keep the pounds off now that's nothing new this is something that researchers have known for decades will happen after a diet ends now what was new was that after 6 years the contestants metabolisms never recovered actually getting slower and slower as if the bodies wanted to be the original weight again now out of all of the contestants Hill says that Danny kahill had the worst at 295 PBS having to eat 800 calories less per day than somebody his size to stay in shape otherwise it all turns into fat again now the report of this was massive and even though it began as they look into the science of The Biggest Loser it actually became something of a massive stepping stone in the science of weight loss period uh the results found that 14 of the original 16 contestants from season 8 went to the National Institute of Health and had yo-yoed back to near their original weight like sha aler a pastor from North Carolina uh whose transformation on the show took him from 444 lbs to 289 to 6 years later being over 450 while his metabolism Burns 458 fewer calories per day than someone similar to his side he told the times quote it's kind of like hearing you have a life sentence other than their metabolism the study also found that the contestants leptin levels had plummeted and by the time their weight came back had only gone up to half the level it was before the show except that's not all there was to the story here I am again because yet again JD Roth and some former Biggest Loser contestants have a new reality weight loss TV show for you the point of this show is apparently to tell you that the scientist ific study that the NIH conducted showing that participation in The Biggest Loser damaged the participants metabolism was incorrect and now the producers of that show and some of these former contestants have a brand new product to sell you that's going to be the Cure and the key to weight loss this time here's how I feel about that it's reality TV versus science anybody with half a brain is going to go with [Music] science [Music] enter stage left our old friends at the New York Post who are kind of like the New York Times evil twin brother right like when the New York Times says the professional you know Dr hazinga said this the New York Post is like lol this [ __ ] did crimes Yo which is to say that not even a month after the New York Times story came out the New York Post released a bombshell directly in response that saw Kai Hibbard and for the first time ever half a dozen other former Biggest Loser contestants speak out about the reality of being on the show specifically in the first sentence of the article they reveal that quote the show encouraged contestants to take Street substances while starving themselves and to lie about how much weight they were losing the contestants go on to tell the post that although Kevin Hall's research may have some Merit it doesn't take into account that the show's producers were allegedly giving substances to contest contestants and Dr H was giving what they called questionable medical exams uh Suzanne mandanka a contestant back in season 2 said quote people were passing out in Dr H's office at the finale weighin on my season five people had to be rushed to the hospital he knew exactly what we were doing and never tried to stop it and shockingly it only gets worse from there after an anonymous source calls the show corrupt it alleges that one of the trainers gave contestants Aderall and yellow jackets which are pills containing a ET uh that's a weight loss supplement banned by the FDA back in 2004 and I know what you're thinking it's not that trainer okay I'll let Joel Gwyn from the 2008 season tell you who it was a hem Bob Harper was my trainer he goes away and his assistant comes in he's got this brown paper bag that's bundled up he says take this substance it'll really help you it was yellow and black I was like what the f is this bobu bab not you you're supposed to be the nice one babo uh Joelle claims that she took the pill she was given once but it made her hyper and jittery so she told Dr H who gave her a lame explanation of why she was given the pill and then she says quote people chastise Bill Cosby for allegedly offering meds to women but it's acceptable to do to F people to make them lose weight I feel like we got our worded too according to Joelle Bob told her she had to lie about how much she was eating and losing Li and say you were following the dire of intaking 1500 calories but I want you to do 800 calories or as little as you can now Suzanne backed this up saying people would take amphetamines water pills diuretics and you know lose it in the bathroom they would take their spin bikes into the steam room to work up a sweat I lost it every single day Bob Harper tells people to do that and says good you'll lose more calories uh Dr H formally denied all claims uh to the New York Post saying nothing could be further from the truth contestants are told at the start of the show that there is zero tolerance any weight loss substances urine screens and the evaluation of Serial weights are repeatedly used to flush out possible illicit use and Bob Harper didn't respond for comment Bob shortly after the article went live Southern California authorities began investigating the allegations made by Joel Gwen and the other contestants and unfortunately Bob Harper wrote to People magazine adamantly denying the allegations saying that they uh were in direct conflict with my lifelong Devotion to health and fitness and with that sort of backup now behind him Dr H went on the offensive and sued the New York Post as well as former contestant Joel Gwyn for alleging that he gave the contestants substances uh he was suing on the grounds that the post and Gwen had defamed him knowing by publishing uh Gwen's allegations uh even though he told them ahead of time that they were false allegations you know reality TV is fun uh and then as the years passed something interesting interesting happened The Biggest Loser didn't come back for a season 18 and after the Post article it slowly disappeared almost as if it never existed at all NBC never announced it had been cancelled and nobody spoke publicly about the show until 2018 when documents were Unearthed from the discovery process of Dr H's lawsuit against the post uh that revealed a number of very interesting things according to the Hollywood Reporter haena insists these are false statements that caused him lost business relationship ship with not only NBC but also ABC Bravo MTV oxygen Spike TV Fox the CW Discovery Univision National Geographic Netflix and on and on it also revealed that NBC in light of the lawsuit very quietly cancelled the Biggest Loser uh it's interesting to note here that for the entire year of 2018 the most dominant source of news about the show related to Dr H's lawsuit uh attorneys for the Post were pursuing what seems to be a pretty standard inquiry in the lawsuits like these uh they wanted to see if the claims were you know like true so they sent NBC Universal a subpoena to look into any relevant documents surrounding Biggest Loser substance use medical concerns compensations and cancellation but according to a letter that one of NBC's attorneys sent in response that information is allegedly shielded by attorney client privilege as well as consisting of Trade Secrets and other sensitive materials and that makes sense what doesn't make sense is that some of the privileged emails listed as being unable to be sent were dated back to 2008 8 years before allegations even popped up in the Press now for the rest of the year there was a lot of mysterious back and forth on whether those emails would see the light of day but by 2019 it seemed like they probably never would because The Hollywood Reporter came out in 2019 that US District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain ruled that Dr H's claim against Joel Gwyn had actually failed because Dr H could not prove that she had committed actual malice Dr H quote has not AED any facts regarding his conversations or interactions with Gwen or even about the existence or nature of the allegedly illicit pills that would permit the court to draw a plausible inference that the Gwen's statements were untrue such that Gwen acted with knowledge of their falsity when making them translation [ __ ] you allegedly be pushing the pills stop lying but of course she's a lady of the highest court and therefore she handled this quite classy and regally but [ __ ] did did you push cuz it looked like you pushed okay let me stop allegedly now as far as I know the lawsuit against the New York Post even four years later is still ongoing but Joel Gwen can at least rest assure that she spoke her truth and didn't have to suffer any further for it I hope [Music] not now the Atlantic put it back best back in January 2020 when The Biggest Loser debuted on NBC in 2004 George W Bush was about to be elected to a second term The Apprentice was a brand new hit and Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were fronting one of TV's most popular reality shows amid all this nebulous cultural toxicity of Moguls and ayses a series in which contestants were isolated from their families weighed shirtless on National Television forced to exercise for as many as 8 hours a day and taunted with challenges involving cinnamon buns and cupcakes might not have seemed so obviously offensive or maybe the cruelty was just part of the spectacle over the course of the following 16 or so Seasons across 12 years The Biggest Loser became a cultural icon and a weight loss Empire consisting of cookbooks Fitness videos uh video games protein drinks and so much more uh creating celebrities out of people like Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper I'm bored with the pathetic story it bores me what the am I here for on and then suddenly it was God and in the time since that first left the air a lot has changed uh Fitness is less about Fitness and more about Wellness uh living a healthy life led by encouragement rather than a life ruled by the toxicity of diet culture uh TV is changed calling shows like The Biggest Loser out for rampant weight phobia all while younger generation supported movements such as body positivity and even if you want to talk about the symbolism of what a d The Biggest Loser looks like in 2023 Jillian Michaels was widely and viciously denounced back in 2020 because she made these comments about singer lizo and then proceeded to double down on the comments all while celebrities Twitter users and the general public denounced her ridiculous comments now lizo to her credit never directly responded to Jillian she did however post a video of her simply saying if my name is in your mouth so is my [ __ ] enjoy the flavor uh and still despite a changing world uh despite the allegations despite the now widely known truth that a show like The Biggest Loser should not exist it was brought back FAL I'm Bob Harper I started out on The Biggest Loser as a trainer and now I'm back as the host a couple of years ago I had a heart attack and it was a life altering experience go I realized that strength isn't about being the toughest good job strength is reaching inside to find the courage to make a change to be the best you that you can be the worldwide phenomenon is back let's make a change together this time it's on USA Network instead of NBC and promised a holistic 360° look at Wellness some things have changed for instance the wein voting doesn't happen surrounded by fridges filled with junk food anymore and contestants don't uh vote their fellow teammates off anymore all of the advantage challenges are now gone and strangely there isn't really much discussion about food at all which sidebar seems like I don't even know what to make of that but you know what they say the more things change the more people misuse the sh out of you I'm The Biggest Loser uh the Atlantic calls the new trainers Steve Cook and Erica Lugo lug Lugo uh slightly gentler than Harper and Michaels while also saying both are entirely committed to The Biggest Loser premise that O is just a form of mental weakness and treadmills are the cure my gosh somebody please make it go away contestants still go straight into training right away they still cry uh one contestant says she feels laded Erica tells her to keep pushing you know some things change most of it stays the [Music] same all right it is time for the kitty palette cleanser to rest our little Souls uh be sure to grab your pieces from the brand new valid Social Club collection be part of the royal Squad by tapping the link below and in the pin comment these items are available for a limited time the clock is ticking especially if you want to get them in time for the holidays uh there are also a couple of days left on my first ever Cyber Monday sale I truly believe you're going to love these pieces as much as I do and I hope they are a constant reminder of just how valid and accepted you are uh please keep tagging me in your photos so I can share you on my Instagram stories I love doing that oh my gosh also we hit 100,000 followers on Instagram thank you so much let's keep it going to 150,000 strong uh please do follow me on Instagram and on Twitter it's where I post most often and respond to a lot of comments and DMS and questions uh also I have a new video on my brand new second Channel swoop to it's to o o uh it will be linked below and a brand new video coming out to that channel in a couple of days over there we're getting into some wild mindbending spooky stuff uh so you don't want to miss out hi there Hello friends my name is Swoop and welcome to the sus pool the place where everything and everyone is sus maybe even us come on in the water's fine a couple of shout outs from my Sniper Wolf Dog what's up guys I don't know how to start off this video I'm just going to start it off today is the video that you guys all been waiting for the video where I talk about jail if you haven't watched that one I highly recommend it it is linked below uh first shout out goes to Tracy Anne who says Leah doxing Jack for having the audacity to criticize her is Peak it's not drama it's dangerous so glad you talked about this swoop and I couldn't agree with you more I was just shocked by her doing that uh Second shout out goes to Nickel who says it's insane how truly narcissistic someone needs to be to not only be this blatantly stealing but also lying when they get caught and to dock someone over being criticized by them is so toxic but it seems to run the family I guess thank you swoop for piecing this together you are absolutely welcome if you haven't seen that one please do check check it out it is such a wild story be sure to treat yourself or a loved one this holiday season and get premium audio and power Tech at a great price and save even more doing it go to bon.com swoop to get 15% off sitewide you deserve it [Music] honey you know time is a flat circle history repeats itself and a million other cliches like I'm so tired uh what's the value in having a show like this in 2023 like I'm of the mindset that people should seek Wellness however they see fit uh there are problems with diet culture there are also problems with being told to ignore your own body when it's telling you it's in pain and you need to do something to fix it uh I believe there are ways to seek betterness of Health while also prescribing to body positivity and a manipulative show like The Biggest Loser just ain't it uh the only thing the Biggest Loser is useful for in my opinion in 202 23 is exposing just how incredibly flawed the American idea of Health and Wellness is uh as the Atlantic puts it wein loss culture in the US is defined by excess rather than moderation working out so hard that you physically purge yourself of food and water training pain is an affirmation instead of a warning following diets that eliminate entire food groups instead of encouraging balance in one scene in the third episode Steve and Erica briefly gather the contestants to give them diet advice which includes bringing your own mustard to Gathering so that you don't slip and accidentally ingest a tablespoon of ketchup these aren't Wellness tips for a well-rounded life they're expressions of such Obsession that humble condiments can threaten to derail a whole week of workouts now I'm going to end my thoughts on this by passing the mic over figuratively speaking to Kai Hibbard again uh when The Biggest Loser announced its comeback she wrote a very long very thoughtful blog post about how basically the fight is far from over it ends with her saying quote quot the show no matter how they reframe it to pretend that it isn't a perpetuation of fat phobia diet culture and unhealthy relationships food and exercise is still perpetuating those things and is still dangerous to participants and those who watch the show was harmful to me personally I personally harmed people with my participation I helped to glorify unhealthy and disordered habits I'm still here I'm still recovering and I will still fight the biggest losers existence this time though I'm not alone I'll see you out there and we're right here with you Kai lifting you up and others up who have experienced this sort of pain and also I want to lift all of you up watching who've ever battled with self-esteem challenges and how you feel about your mind and your body I hope that you know how truly valuable and valid you are you know at the end of the day I believe Wellness shouldn't be defined by whether or not I can enjoy that damn mustard on my burger uh it should be defined by how kind I'm being to myself which admittedly is someone who who struggles with self-hate can be very hard to do sometimes but it's always worth it when I try and I want that for all of you too please be kind to yourselves and to your bodies we have this one body in this one life on this one Earth and this one body deserves to be loved no matter what size shape or color it comes in don't ever let anyone else tell you differently and if they try well you know what Stay Ready stay Petty class dismissed whooop

Channel: SWOOP

Views: 645,321

Keywords: the biggest loser, downfall of the biggest loser, jillian michaels biggest loser, the biggest loser worst show on tv, the biggest loser drama, the biggest loser exposed, the biggest loser elimination, the biggest loser cancelled, swoop, we need to talk about, jillian michaels, jillian michaels workout, jillian michaels the biggest loser, worst reality tv show

Id: kWxQ_-1xlY0

Length: 102min 41sec (6161 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 04 2023