201 - What The Biggest Loser Documentary Forgets About Weight Loss
The Biggest Loser did permanent harm to its contestants, allegedly. But it’s okay, because the show producers were trying to save the lives of obese people…right?
Two decades after The Biggest Loser made national entertainment out of obesity, a new documentary, Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser, revisits the damage left behind. In this episode, we take a hard look at how the show turned “saving lives” into a spectacle of humiliation, starvation, and long-term metabolic harm.
We’ll also discuss our original Biggest Loser episode, and judge how closely our podcast hit the mark several years before the documentary came out. We’ll look at the hormone tidal wave that hits contestants after they leave the show several hundred pounds lighter. Then we’ll discuss how Ozempic and Wegovy are changing the landscape of obesity, and ask the question; could this show even exist today? Would any sane person compete to lose weight in a national spectacle if the alternative is quietly taking a dose of semaglutide at home?
Finally, we’ll discuss how to approach weight loss the self-aware way, and investigate why both the Biggest Losers, and Ozempic patients, are statistically more likely to gain the weight back than to keep it off.
Links:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html
https://www.netflix.com/title/81670924
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/metabolism/art-20046508