Netflix "Biggest Loser" docu-series

[Anonymous]

I watched and was hoping they'd show more former contestants and how they are doing today. The two women who appeared to have kept most of the weight off are now on glp 1 shots. The study which showed the extreme dieting killed their metabolisms was interesting, although not repeatable. I would love updates on all of the contestants. I want to know how they were affected by being on the show.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I watched and was hoping they'd show more former contestants and how they are doing today. The two women who appeared to have kept most of the weight off are now on glp 1 shots. The study which showed the extreme dieting killed their metabolisms was interesting, although not repeatable. I would love updates on all of the contestants. I want to know how they were affected by being on the show.

I did appreciate the former contestant saying, we have to acknowledge that getting up to 400 pounds messed up our metabolism - we can’t just blame the show for that. I mean come on, are we really thinking without the show these people would’ve lost hundreds of pounds and kept it off and being previously 100s of pounds over their ideal body weight would not affected their metabolism? There are tons of studies on people that didn’t go on the biggest loser showing how difficult is to keep weight off once you were heavy and lost it. So it’s not a biggest loser phenomena.

That said, I did like Bob Harbor raising the point that we all know the key to weight loss is mostly through diet, but that is really boring to have a reality show based on watching people eat meal after meal of healthy foods. The extreme exercise was definitely a hook of the show, and of course, the extreme weight loss was also. Interestingly, to me, my favorite part of the show was when the contestants would go home and have to live their real lives and incorporate the tools they learned on the show. I could be totally wrong and I’m sure the show wouldn’t have done as well, but I think just the whole idea of transformative weight loss in a more realistic way without the extremes would’ve hooked a lot of Americans. I love the idea of people getting to the root of their issues and making life changes. That’s what I really enjoyed about the show, I always thought the extreme challenges and things were dumb.

But, I’m not in the industry and I could be totally wrong and that kind of show may have either never gotten on air or failed in the first season. But I certainly would’ve watched it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watched and was hoping they'd show more former contestants and how they are doing today. The two women who appeared to have kept most of the weight off are now on glp 1 shots. The study which showed the extreme dieting killed their metabolisms was interesting, although not repeatable. I would love updates on all of the contestants. I want to know how they were affected by being on the show.

I did appreciate the former contestant saying, we have to acknowledge that getting up to 400 pounds messed up our metabolism - we can’t just blame the show for that. I mean come on, are we really thinking without the show these people would’ve lost hundreds of pounds and kept it off and being previously 100s of pounds over their ideal body weight would not affected their metabolism? There are tons of studies on people that didn’t go on the biggest loser showing how difficult is to keep weight off once you were heavy and lost it. So it’s not a biggest loser phenomena.

That said, I did like Bob Harbor raising the point that we all know the key to weight loss is mostly through diet, but that is really boring to have a reality show based on watching people eat meal after meal of healthy foods. The extreme exercise was definitely a hook of the show, and of course, the extreme weight loss was also. Interestingly, to me, my favorite part of the show was when the contestants would go home and have to live their real lives and incorporate the tools they learned on the show. I could be totally wrong and I’m sure the show wouldn’t have done as well, but I think just the whole idea of transformative weight loss in a more realistic way without the extremes would’ve hooked a lot of Americans. I love the idea of people getting to the root of their issues and making life changes. That’s what I really enjoyed about the show, I always thought the extreme challenges and things were dumb.

But, I’m not in the industry and I could be totally wrong and that kind of show may have either never gotten on air or failed in the first season. But I certainly would’ve watched it.

You’ve got my 600 lb life for that journey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watched and was hoping they'd show more former contestants and how they are doing today. The two women who appeared to have kept most of the weight off are now on glp 1 shots. The study which showed the extreme dieting killed their metabolisms was interesting, although not repeatable. I would love updates on all of the contestants. I want to know how they were affected by being on the show.

I did appreciate the former contestant saying, we have to acknowledge that getting up to 400 pounds messed up our metabolism - we can’t just blame the show for that. I mean come on, are we really thinking without the show these people would’ve lost hundreds of pounds and kept it off and being previously 100s of pounds over their ideal body weight would not affected their metabolism? There are tons of studies on people that didn’t go on the biggest loser showing how difficult is to keep weight off once you were heavy and lost it. So it’s not a biggest loser phenomena.

That said, I did like Bob Harbor raising the point that we all know the key to weight loss is mostly through diet, but that is really boring to have a reality show based on watching people eat meal after meal of healthy foods. The extreme exercise was definitely a hook of the show, and of course, the extreme weight loss was also. Interestingly, to me, my favorite part of the show was when the contestants would go home and have to live their real lives and incorporate the tools they learned on the show. I could be totally wrong and I’m sure the show wouldn’t have done as well, but I think just the whole idea of transformative weight loss in a more realistic way without the extremes would’ve hooked a lot of Americans. I love the idea of people getting to the root of their issues and making life changes. That’s what I really enjoyed about the show, I always thought the extreme challenges and things were dumb.

But, I’m not in the industry and I could be totally wrong and that kind of show may have either never gotten on air or failed in the first season. But I certainly would’ve watched it.

I think it would just be too slow-paced to keep most viewers interested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watched and was hoping they'd show more former contestants and how they are doing today. The two women who appeared to have kept most of the weight off are now on glp 1 shots. The study which showed the extreme dieting killed their metabolisms was interesting, although not repeatable. I would love updates on all of the contestants. I want to know how they were affected by being on the show.

I did appreciate the former contestant saying, we have to acknowledge that getting up to 400 pounds messed up our metabolism - we can’t just blame the show for that. I mean come on, are we really thinking without the show these people would’ve lost hundreds of pounds and kept it off and being previously 100s of pounds over their ideal body weight would not affected their metabolism? There are tons of studies on people that didn’t go on the biggest loser showing how difficult is to keep weight off once you were heavy and lost it. So it’s not a biggest loser phenomena.

That said, I did like Bob Harbor raising the point that we all know the key to weight loss is mostly through diet, but that is really boring to have a reality show based on watching people eat meal after meal of healthy foods. The extreme exercise was definitely a hook of the show, and of course, the extreme weight loss was also. Interestingly, to me, my favorite part of the show was when the contestants would go home and have to live their real lives and incorporate the tools they learned on the show. I could be totally wrong and I’m sure the show wouldn’t have done as well, but I think just the whole idea of transformative weight loss in a more realistic way without the extremes would’ve hooked a lot of Americans. I love the idea of people getting to the root of their issues and making life changes. That’s what I really enjoyed about the show, I always thought the extreme challenges and things were dumb.

But, I’m not in the industry and I could be totally wrong and that kind of show may have either never gotten on air or failed in the first season. But I certainly would’ve watched it.

I came away with a similar feeling. The show wasn't great, but these people had super messed up metabolisms going in and if they never lost the weight, they might be even worse off than they are now. Based on online googling, it seems like at least half the folks kept at least half the weight off. That's not nothing. It's not actually clear to me that these folks aren't better off than they would have been if they never went on the show. Especially all of the people who auditioned multiple times. They clearly weren't going to do it on their own. The show itself was the motivation.

[Anonymous]

^^ I used this list and google the folks' social media to follow up. At least among the winners, the track record for staying at a MUCH healthier weight than they started is actually pretty good: https://healthyeater.com/biggest-loser-then-now

[Anonymous]

I never did watch biggest loser (just never understood why anyone would or what the draw was). So I had no idea what Jillian Michaels was from - I have seen her here and there on talk shows or as a talking head- but man she is annoying. And confusing. Is there a gay version of an Uncle Tom? That would be her. Isn't she the one that complained about the rainbow flag at Smithsonian but also has a wife? She seems to hate herself and turns that hate on others.

The thing that shocked me was some of the 'games' they played on the show make no sense and are a setup 'eat as much unhealthy food as you can to see your family'? So disordered. A real mindeff. They signed their lives away to be on the show to not be able to sue but this is abuse by so-called experts. And being verbally abused by Bob the trainer guy as Jillian the trainer fake-looked shocked and laughed. It was so high schoolish and I felt so badly for that poor lady. They really dog-piled on her.

[Anonymous]

I was very disappointed that they didn't spend more time on the long term study done on some of the contestants. The Post or NYTimes did a big article back in the day and it was stunning. They brought in all kinds of equipment and monitored them and the small amount of calories the one guy would be allowed to eat to not gain weight was insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watched and was hoping they'd show more former contestants and how they are doing today. The two women who appeared to have kept most of the weight off are now on glp 1 shots. The study which showed the extreme dieting killed their metabolisms was interesting, although not repeatable. I would love updates on all of the contestants. I want to know how they were affected by being on the show.

I did appreciate the former contestant saying, we have to acknowledge that getting up to 400 pounds messed up our metabolism - we can’t just blame the show for that. I mean come on, are we really thinking without the show these people would’ve lost hundreds of pounds and kept it off and being previously 100s of pounds over their ideal body weight would not affected their metabolism? There are tons of studies on people that didn’t go on the biggest loser showing how difficult is to keep weight off once you were heavy and lost it. So it’s not a biggest loser phenomena.

That said, I did like Bob Harbor raising the point that we all know the key to weight loss is mostly through diet, but that is really boring to have a reality show based on watching people eat meal after meal of healthy foods. The extreme exercise was definitely a hook of the show, and of course, the extreme weight loss was also. Interestingly, to me, my favorite part of the show was when the contestants would go home and have to live their real lives and incorporate the tools they learned on the show. I could be totally wrong and I’m sure the show wouldn’t have done as well, but I think just the whole idea of transformative weight loss in a more realistic way without the extremes would’ve hooked a lot of Americans. I love the idea of people getting to the root of their issues and making life changes. That’s what I really enjoyed about the show, I always thought the extreme challenges and things were dumb.

But, I’m not in the industry and I could be totally wrong and that kind of show may have either never gotten on air or failed in the first season. But I certainly would’ve watched it.

You’ve got my 600 lb life for that journey.

That show is too extreme for me and is essentially a medical show was many scenes set in Dr. now’s office. The biggest loser contestants seemed more relatable. I don’t know, I think if you are a woman and you are 300 pounds you are in a different stratosphere than a woman being 600 pounds.

Most of the 600 pound life people were homebound. A lot of of the BL contestants had jobs and were mobile.

[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.

Because people were obese and nobody cares if you're abusive towards fat people. Everybody thinks they're not real people, everyone treats obese people like crap. They deserved it, is what people thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Or Donald Trump abuse young entrepreneurs on his show.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Because people were obese and nobody cares if you're abusive towards fat people. Everybody thinks they're not real people, everyone treats obese people like crap. They deserved it, is what people thought.

I think people forget that back then that sort of drill sergeant approach to training was considered acceptable. That was the era of Bobby Knight and Coach K and about a billion "feel good" movies where someone screams at someone until they win whatever championship.

[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.

Well
MAGA given your side wants zero tolerance you got it backwards.

The reality of maga being tolerant is absurd . They want to be controlled by a facist dictator that isn’t tolerance! They are voting for hate . They want the Kkk back that’s not tolerance.
Losing all the freedoms the constitution grants you is not tolerance. Supporting ice is not tolerant . Spewing screaming from you car wishing people death is not tolerance. Putting kids in T shirts that say things like death to Biden or with photos of Harris being hung is not tolerance.

Take your propaganda and lies to Russia fool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watched and was hoping they'd show more former contestants and how they are doing today. The two women who appeared to have kept most of the weight off are now on glp 1 shots. The study which showed the extreme dieting killed their metabolisms was interesting, although not repeatable. I would love updates on all of the contestants. I want to know how they were affected by being on the show.

I did appreciate the former contestant saying, we have to acknowledge that getting up to 400 pounds messed up our metabolism - we can’t just blame the show for that. I mean come on, are we really thinking without the show these people would’ve lost hundreds of pounds and kept it off and being previously 100s of pounds over their ideal body weight would not affected their metabolism? There are tons of studies on people that didn’t go on the biggest loser showing how difficult is to keep weight off once you were heavy and lost it. So it’s not a biggest loser phenomena.

That said, I did like Bob Harbor raising the point that we all know the key to weight loss is mostly through diet, but that is really boring to have a reality show based on watching people eat meal after meal of healthy foods. The extreme exercise was definitely a hook of the show, and of course, the extreme weight loss was also. Interestingly, to me, my favorite part of the show was when the contestants would go home and have to live their real lives and incorporate the tools they learned on the show. I could be totally wrong and I’m sure the show wouldn’t have done as well, but I think just the whole idea of transformative weight loss in a more realistic way without the extremes would’ve hooked a lot of Americans. I love the idea of people getting to the root of their issues and making life changes. That’s what I really enjoyed about the show, I always thought the extreme challenges and things were dumb.

But, I’m not in the industry and I could be totally wrong and that kind of show may have either never gotten on air or failed in the first season. But I certainly would’ve watched it.

You’ve got my 600 lb life for that journey.

That show is too extreme for me and is essentially a medical show was many scenes set in Dr. now’s office. The biggest loser contestants seemed more relatable. I don’t know, I think if you are a woman and you are 300 pounds you are in a different stratosphere than a woman being 600 pounds.

Most of the 600 pound life people were homebound. A lot of of the BL contestants had jobs and were mobile.

I remember the people on the show as being morbidly obese and was struck by how relatively light they were, especially in the early seasons. Some of the women were not much over 200 lbs. I weighed less when it aired so that might be a factor, too.