The Biggest Loser came under fire during its recent US finale, when the eventual winner, a contestant named Rachel Frederickson, unveiled her new ‘improved’ body.
She had weighed in at 118kg when the show began. During the finale, she weighed in at 47kg. That was a total loss of about 70kg, or 59.6 percent of her body weight. People on social media were quick to chime in, saying she looked ‘anorexic’ and ‘sick’ and expressing dismay that she was allowed to reach this point. Two of the show’s trainers were caught on tape looking shocked she walked out on stage, and have since distanced themselves from her progress, directing further questions to producers of the show.
Much has been written about Rachel’s current Body Mass Index, her new dress size and eating habits, and when she should have stopped losing weight because she looked ‘best’ or ‘healthiest’. As a woman who is a possible candidate for the show (read: very fat), I’ve considered the concept of The Biggest Loser problematic since its inception.
Clearly there are many problems related to the show. They range from the unsafe and ineffective (for the long term) methods, reality-show-style shady processes and outcomes (like allegedly manipulating the viewer’s perception of the length of time between weigh-ins), to the total focus on weight-loss, including the over-emphasis of the connection between weight loss and health. It is also concerning that the show represents itself as existing to help contestants and ‘inspire’ viewers, when as a television show it exists solely to garner viewers and advertisers for the network. These are all the things that the logical part of my brain protests.
The part that the rest of me (heart, feelings, anger-making engine) takes issue with is the complete debasement of fat people that this show fosters. Yes, they volunteer to be on the show. People who live in a world where they are taught that being fat is almost the worst thing you can be, desperate people, people who are looking for help, they do volunteer. Then they are filmed binging. They are filmed sweating, groaning, in pain, crying, and then they are filmed being weighed. The number of kilograms swirl around, building suspense, because what fun for us all, right? The men are shirtless or in singlets; the women always in crop tops. Then it’s broadcast into the living rooms of people around the world.
And sadly, the contestants on The Biggest Loser will probably be the only fat people you see represented on your television that night, or maybe even any night. Especially if you are a woman. TV has perpetuated the myth of the perfect body. It has shown us that the only people of worth are the thin and the beautiful, and has sold us product after product designed to achieve this standard. It has created a world where fat people are barely shown on television as real people, and almost never are they presented as fully developed characters. It’s brought us to a point where (average-sized) Lena Dunham is the standard bearer for fat representation.
Television has spread misperceptions about fat people, and this is reflected in the treatment of fat people by society in general. That treatment is undoubtedly part of what brings contestants to the show. So in a twisted conclusion, the very people most affected by this system volunteer to go on a television show that perpetuates their problems, to be paraded around, ‘fixed’, and judged. They are reduced to an opportunity for people at home on their couches to feel morally superior.
Every single day people make immediate personal judgments about me based on the fact that I am fat. A show like The Biggest Loser makes people feel justified in doing so. To criticise someone like Rachel Frederickson at the start of the show for being too overweight, and then criticise her when she becomes too skinny is just another way people (women in particular) are body-shamed, another example of how they just cannot win, how we are stuck in a perpetual motion machine where the motion is industry and money and judgment and the destruction of self-worth.
If people keep tuning in to shows like this, to make themselves feel better for an hour, and to continue to feed these things into existence, we will all eventually be the biggest losers.