Netflix "Biggest Loser" docu-series

[Anonymous]

None of it was really surprising. Except learning that Jillian Michaels never reached out to Bob Harper after his heart attack? Although not surprising, since she's gone full MAGA now. Does anyone know what their falling out was about?

[Anonymous]

Can't find it, but didn't she abuse her ex? She's on marriage 3 now... I think maybe she's just a crap human being who got paid to be skinny and mean.

[Anonymous]

I watched it. Didn't really get much from it.. May be because I only watched the show a couple of times.

[Anonymous]

I am watching and there is a woman who was kicked off for losing the least, went on the Jay Leno show and he asked:
Jay: What did you weigh at your heaviest?
Tracey: 254lbs
Jay: And what size is that in clothing?
Tracey: Size 22

I knew vanity sizing existed, but I thought that was for regular sizes - my heaviest was 254 and I was wearing 18-20. That is really the only thing that surprised me.

When Biggest Loser aired, I watched enough to know I couldn't watch - Jillian Michaels screaming in people's faces? Telling them to keep going when they're puking and collapsing? Where was the doctor?! I knew instinctively that was not healthy for them.

[Anonymous]

It was kind of a nothing burger. It was really always obvious that it was manipulative and extremely dangerous. You can not work out with trainers for 3+ hours a day for months and be surprised that they can’t keep it off.

[Anonymous]

I was pretty young and arguably anorexic when Biggest Loser first aired.

What I don't remember is how outrageous it was for people to lose 15 lbs a week. 300 lbs in 6 months? I mean bariatric patients don't even do that. Even in the age of Ozempic it doesn't happen like that. How was there no backlash at the time?

[Anonymous]

Melt the fatty?

Honestly I felt that show was one of the harbingers of the cultural apocalypse. We tuned in while eating our family popcorn to prey on the minds and health of obese people in some sort of national collective shame competition. It was like the coliseum but they didn’t die they just ran more on the treadmill demolishing their knees bodies and minds.

[Anonymous]

They really are lucky they didn’t kill some one. People that size losing weight really just need to be focused on diet and gentle cardio. When you are big your joints hurt terribly and are pushed to the max, and injury as a major set back and can cause permanent damage. This was so unsafe.

[Anonymous]

I just watched it and I’m appalled that millions of people thought this degrading and abusive show was entertaining. I didn’t watch it when it was popular so this was all new to me. How were people not outraged at how abusive Jillian Michaels was? Just disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None of it was really surprising. Except learning that Jillian Michaels never reached out to Bob Harper after his heart attack? Although not surprising, since she's gone full MAGA now. Does anyone know what their falling out was about?

I know people want to blame the “full MAGA” thing, but TBH I think the falling out was him not accepting that she did not embracing his full-off-the-deep-end-leftist ideaology. And being the “tolerant” leftist that he is, he shut her out. And then when he fell ill she did not reach out because he had already made it clear that he no longer wanted to be friends with someone who did not match in lock step with him politically.
Not impressed that he threw her under the bus for respecting his privacy. She may have felt hurt by his rejection and didn’t want to risk looking like an oportunist for reaching out when he was sick. After all, if he had already shut down the friendship, that would have made it seem that she was stalkerish and trying to use his illness as a way to
get back into his good graces—and she could have been accused of making it all about her.
I’m sure she now wishes she had reached out—especially since he’s publicly blasted her for it. But chances are he would have found a way to vilify her for that regardless because like the PP, he only sees her as an oppressor with an opposing (aka unapproved) political view rather than just a person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just watched it and I’m appalled that millions of people thought this degrading and abusive show was entertaining. I didn’t watch it when it was popular so this was all new to me. How were people not outraged at how abusive Jillian Michaels was? Just disgusting.

Not only were they not outraged, they were cheering her on and tuning in to see it.
Much in the same way that people tuned in to see Heidi Klum and team throw shade at Project Runway contestants or Tyra Banks humiliate young hopefuls on America’s next top model or Simon Cowell eviscerate poor singers on American Idol, or Gordon Ramsay yelling at aspiring chefs!
Reality TV show Audiences in the early 2000s had a mean streak. And there were no guardrails. Every producer wanted a financial piece of that ratings gold and no one had put a mirror up to the culture yet to encourage us to appeal to our better selves and reject it!
To put it another way…the culture was just different in that era.
The meanness was rewarded handsomely.
You can say “it was never okay” but that would be denying the reality that it obviously WAS “okay” with the masses at the time because many, many wildly successful shows followed a very similar outrageous-shaming model that made millions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of it was really surprising. Except learning that Jillian Michaels never reached out to Bob Harper after his heart attack? Although not surprising, since she's gone full MAGA now. Does anyone know what their falling out was about?

I know people want to blame the “full MAGA” thing, but TBH I think the falling out was him not accepting that she did not embracing his full-off-the-deep-end-leftist ideaology. And being the “tolerant” leftist that he is, he shut her out. And then when he fell ill she did not reach out because he had already made it clear that he no longer wanted to be friends with someone who did not match in lock step with him politically.
Not impressed that he threw her under the bus for respecting his privacy. She may have felt hurt by his rejection and didn’t want to risk looking like an oportunist for reaching out when he was sick. After all, if he had already shut down the friendship, that would have made it seem that she was stalkerish and trying to use his illness as a way to
get back into his good graces—and she could have been accused of making it all about her.
I’m sure she now wishes she had reached out—especially since he’s publicly blasted her for it. But chances are he would have found a way to vilify her for that regardless because like the PP, he only sees her as an oppressor with an opposing (aka unapproved) political view rather than just a person.

That’s quite a take. And you’re allowed to say it. But I disagree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just watched it and I’m appalled that millions of people thought this degrading and abusive show was entertaining. I didn’t watch it when it was popular so this was all new to me. How were people not outraged at how abusive Jillian Michaels was? Just disgusting.

Well, hating on fat people and discrimination against fat people is sometimes said to be the last acceptable way to be discriminatory. These were grown adults with no cognitive disabilities- and they didn't choose to say "I won't tolerate you screaming at me, so I'm leaving." They stayed, knowing they would take more of Jillian's abuse. Why? Because that's how desperate fat people are to lose weight, and the results kept rolling in.

[Anonymous]

It’s reality tv and I have low expectations. Even My 600 Pound Life is entertaining to watch for a minute. I am curious what Dr Now thinks of Wegovy and other drugs.

[Anonymous]

The guy who won and regained all the weight, obviously he just wanted to be famous. Why audition 3 times and not just commit to it yourself after the first rejection? If your motivation is to just get your fifteen minutes, of course you’re going to gain it all back.