Feature
- Do You Hate Your Partner, Too?
- California Teen Avoids Heavy Sentencing by Passing the Buck
- Wanna Buy Your Teenager a Padded Push-Up Bra?
- Vampires in Texas!
- These Guys Are As Bad As Westboro Baptist Church
- Funny Letters Sent to Women's Magazines
- Women's Ski Jumping: Still Not a 'Real' Sport
- Will the World Be Pro-Choice Soon?
- Are We Getting Too Lazy to Even Divorce?
- Forever 21's Maternity Line: Glamorizing Teen Pregnancy?
Weight & health blog site Body Love Wellness features today an interview with Kai Hibbard, a finalist from season 3 of The Biggest Loser, about her experiences on the show and how she’s felt about her weight and health since season 3 wrapped.
The interview basically focuses on Kai’s experiences as one of the contestants on the show but, sadly, she also makes some pretty shocking claims about the health & wellbeing of the contestants whilst they were featured on the show, and claims that her participation left her with an eating disorder.
Though we don’t have The Biggest Loser in the UK, we have shows of a very similar format, like Fat Club. From my research into The Biggest Loser, it is clear that the show is massively popular in the USA, with millions of viewers tuning in to watch each new season and spin-off shows in the works for the show’s trainers. Today’s interview with Kai, therefore, should prove interesting to a lot of people.
In the interview, Kai claims that:
‘… the dehumanization process started [early in the audition process], where they start teaching you that because you are overweight you are sub-human and you just start to believe it. Through the whole process, they just keep telling you, over and over, how lucky you are to be there. You’re being yelled at by people [whose] job is basically to keep the ‘fat people’ in line and you start to believe it… So I heard for three months [on the ranch] how lucky I was to be there and, let me tell you, my feet were bleeding, I was covered in bruises, I was beat up, but boy, I kept hearing about how lucky I was to be there.’
In addition to the ‘dehumanisation’ she describes, Kai also alleges that the contestants were made to complete fitness challenges in 100 degree heat without adequate water to drink, leading to horrendous dehydration and, to put it bluntly, suffering. She claims that she and other contestants suffered from hair loss, the cessation of their menstrual cycles and that at some points, the contestants’ ‘major food groups were water, black coffee and splenda.’ In addition to this, Kai alleges that when she or other contestants complained about the way they were being treated, they were reminded that they were lucky to be there and told that the show was saving their lives.
Kai also sadly states that there was a feeling amongst the contestants that, despite the alleged humiliation and poor treatment, the ends justified the means; in general, it was felt that if the end outcome was to be thin, their trials on the ranch were just to be endured. As a result of such ‘endurance’, Kai is left with an eating disorder that, she claims, still affects her today.
The whole piece makes for pretty difficult reading – but Kai claims that she is speaking out to warn others against the dangers of such competitive and unhealthy weight loss that is, really, impossible to attain whilst staying healthy.
I have to say that I do find shows like this a bit exploitative. Whilst I think a bit of motivation is needed for weight loss, for example a weekly weigh-in, I’m just not convinced that losing weight in competition with others is ever a healthy idea. The idea of such competition can only serve, I think, to force those seeking weight-loss to engage in unhealthy practices in their attempts to lose weight. And in the case of The Biggest Loser, it would seem that practicing unhealthy methods of weight loss have been induced, if not outright encouraged, by the show’s producers.
I also think that shows like these have a responsibility to the contestants that take part – to look after both their physical and mental wellbeing. It would be fair to say that some overweight or obese people are deeply unhappy with their weight and outward appearance, and that these people would be keen to apply for shows such as The Biggest Loser, as they seemingly offer rapid weight loss in a controlled environment. If the allegations Kai makes in the interview are true, it is clear that the producers of The Biggest Loser have neglected the duty of care they have to their applicants and contestants, and are seemingly more concerned with viewing figures than the health, if not lives, of their subjects.
What do you guys think? Can shows like The Biggest Loser actually be held up as models of healthy weight loss? Has Kai done the right thing in telling her story, or could her words only serve to encourage more unhealthy habits in those that seek to lose the amount of weight that she did?
Thoughts?
You Might Also Like ...
-
-
12
We do have The Biggest Loser UK (for quite a few years now) – I know because it is ALWAYS on when I’m in the gym, kind of as a warning: “keep up your gym membership or end up on this programme!”. Then they show the cooking programmes in which chocolatey treacly goodness is made, taunting you while you suffer on the horrendous ski-slope machine.
Anyway – back to the subject in hand. I’m generally quite unsympathetic when it comes to things like this. The participants got themselves on the show, if it was that awful they could have got themselves off it. Also, the entire premise is that you try to lose huge amounts of weight faster than anyone else – that alone does not scream “we’re going to do this the healthy way!”
I think it’s a terrible way to lose weight.
For one, I think losing weight is a terrible goal. People are not overweight. There is no such thing. They are overfat. People who are overfat should try to lose fat. Many weight-loss methods do not lose fat, and worse, cause the person to lose other things they shouldn’t be losing – like water and muscle mass.
People lose fat at their own rates. Having some others doing it with you for motivation is great. Having competition that pushes you to lose unhealthily is terrible.
Also, it’s more important to find a balance so that you can hold off what you lose than it is to just lose vast amounts. A huge number of people on that show (most?) gain back all the weight – or at least a problematic amount of it.
When you cut back that far, and do nothing but eat little and exercise constantly, of course you’ll lose the weight. But you’ve learned nothing that can help you in real life. To go back to even a vaguely normal lifestyle will probably let you gain it back. People don’t get to these immense weights just by forgetting to exercise as often as they should. There’s a lot more to it, and I don’t think the show helps with that.
That said, I agree that people got themselves in, and could have got themselves out. A show like that is seeking a fix just like a lot of other promised miracles. Few work.
Considering how many people try to get on the show, I suppose those who make it on are pretty lucky. I occasionally get bruises when I work out too. “Keep the fat people in line” isn’t that EXACTLY what she signed up for?
Really people should not lose more than 2 pounds in a week. I mean, add it up: 3500 calories= 1lb. To lose 2lbs you must create a 7000 calorie deficit a week, or 1000 a day. BMRs run from 1400 to 1800 normally. Your BMR would take care of your deficit and then some- but you have to eat to be healthy. Conscientious people eat 1200 to 2000 calories a day, depending on their activity level, age, body type, etc. Often people tend to eat at their BMR even when being careful. So you have to exercise. A 170lb woman would have to eat 1200 calories a day and burn 670 calories in the gym, as in run 6 miles, 7 days a week to lose 2lbs. Of course it changes drastically when you are, lets say 250 lbs, then your bmr is closer to 2000 and you could eat 1200 a day and only have to burn 200 calories at the gym, or 1.25 miles. But who wants to tune in to see someone lose weight sensibly? And even then, people gain muscle and lose fat if they are exercising correctly, so their weight plateaus some weeks, what a snoozer.
Personally I have lost 35lbs in the past two years, and it has been hell trying to keep going and keep it off, and I’ve always eaten healthily and been fairly active. Now I run 3 miles a day 4-6x a week and do weight training and eat 1600 calories and I rarely see changes in the number on the scale- and I could definitely lose a lot more weight and be healthy- but I do see changes in my body. Sometimes I think there is something wrong with my health when I’m not losing weight and I’m doing the work- but that is because these shows brainwash you. It is so, so so hard to lose a lot of weight, it takes constant discipline and self-motivation.
Use the tape measure rather than the scale. The scale measures what doesn’t matter. Weight can mess with your mind, and it’s so unimportant.
Size can mess with your mind in equal amounts.
People should focus on being healthy, and strive to feel good about themselves. How ridiculous is it that someone would lament over their size 34 waist when at the same time they are able to run a 10K?
We need to drop the numbered aspect of health, and focus on actual results instead of numerical standards.
True. But if you’re *trying* to lose fat, if you want some sort of a ‘this is working!’ reinforcement, muscle takes a lot more to show up on the tape measure than the scale.
I agree that striving for health goals rather than shape goals is good. But I’m going to be realistic here. For a lot of people, how they look also matters. And physical attraction tends to matter to a lot of people to at least some degree.
They show a disclaimer at the beginning or end of every episode, I can’t remember which, that tells viewers that this is an extreme way to loose weight and that the contestants are being watched by doctors. I feel like they also mention something about one should not attempt to loose weight in this fashion without medical assistance. So, yea, the Biggest Loser weight loss plan probably shouldn’t be done by the average Joe. I’m a fan of Biggest Loser, and although I am aware that there is some sort of rubber-necking satisfaction that goes into it, you do become connected to the characters and their struggle. I can’t help but want to call bullshit on what this women is claiming. This is one experience, one person had on The Biggest Loser. Her experience obviously had a negative affect on her and she may equate her eating disorder to the show but, that doesn’t mean that is what really happens behind the scenes on the show. I call bull-shit on what this women is claiming.
she wasn’t too upset over what was going on to CASH THE WEEKLY CHECKS Keep the fatties in line at the bank
I didn’t know The Biggest Loser aired here in the UK… guess it can’t be on terrestrial TV.
The Biggest Loser only aired for a couple seasons in the UK. It’s not on regularly now since it was cancelled. The seasons are on youtube though.
Clearly this woman is getting no sympathy from the other posters…not really from me either, I guess.
It seems like she really didn’t want to be there, she really thought she was being mistreated and she really felt that she was being encouraged to lose weight unhealthily. However, she didn’t have the balls to just leave, or to just lose the weight on her own. I supposed this is her way of trying to make that right in her mind. But she really just should have had the conviction to leave and be healthy on her own if she felt that they were torturing her.
And it strikes me that either way, obese or thin, she had an eating disorder, otherwise she would have been able to maintain a relatively happy/healthy weight in the first place