15/08/2025
I’ve been waiting for this one to land; “Fit For TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser.” Although this doco is based on the American version of the show, of course we had our own version here in Australia that ran 11 seasons from 2006 to 2017 (not that long ago!! 😱)
Where do I start….
To begin with, nothing much in this show was a surprise to me. We’ve known for a while how harmful and ultimately, ineffective the show was in the long run for the participants. See https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4989512/ ……”Over the following six years, the combined effects of hormonal changes conspired to make the contestants regain much, if not all, of the weight they’d lost. But the truly shocking part was that their leptin and metabolism levels never rebounded to what they had been before the show. In fact, the more weight a contestant lost, the worse their metabolism became. This explains why weight regain was inevitable, even though they were eating less food than ever.”
So none of that was a surprise, and it was highlighted in this doco. What we also got to see in its visceral ugly form, was everything you don’t see in a study. The emotional and verbal abuse, the PTSD, the gaslighting, the eating disorders that developed in the shadow of production. The entertainment found in shaming and ridiculing fat people; not even trying to disguise it. The intentional destruction of relationships. The complete ignoring of medical advice, in favour of ratings, money, and ego. Serious injuries. Unsafe use of weight loss drugs. One person nearly died, all in the name of “health”. The desperation and sadness. As one of the producers said, “we weren’t looking for fat people who are happy, of which there’s many. We wanted the unhappy ones.” It makes for better tv.
There is so much more to say; too much for an instagram post. I think I might expand on this for my email subscribers; head to the link in my bio to sign up for my email if you haven’t already.
Some final thoughts in comments…..
