Former 'Biggest Loser' contestant claims she was mentally and physically abused on the show.
photo credit: YahooTV
You know the season finale of "The Biggest Loser" is fastly approaching when former contestants come out and disparage the show's reputation.
Former contestant Kai Hibbard spoke to the New York Post about her experience on the show. She states that the contestants on the show hardly ate. They were only eating foods that were being sponsored by the show (Jennie O, Larabars anyone?). They worked out 6 to 8 hours a day, and were pushed excessively through the program. Hibbard also states that the trainers had a sick and sadistic side to them. They "took pleasure" in watching contestants fail to meet their goals.
Hibbard suffered severe symptoms because of her experience on the show. She states that her hair has been falling out and her period has stopped. She only sleeps three hours a night and she was diagnosed with thyroid issues.
On the show, she was told that she needed to be as thin as possible or else she would be worthless.
Hibbard told The Post that the first winner of the show was pissing blood, due to the excessive workouts and lack of food.
Here is an interview that Hibbard did on The Early Show:
Many contestants have spoken out about Hibbard's claims. Season 11 contestant Courtney Crozier took to her Facebook and released a statement:
Credit: Courtney Crozier
So, is The Biggest Loser an inspiring weight loss phenomenon, or is it an eating disorder in the making?
My Two Cents:
I have been a fan of the show since the first season. I have seen the show change many peoples' lives. Hell, it even inspired me to lose weight. I went to school with a woman who tried out to be on the show, and she had nothing but nice things to say about the process (she didn't make it).
With every weight loss program, you are going to run into people who didn't have the best experience. As someone who spent a good deal of her life in the obese category, I can tell you that 99% of the things I've tried did not work. The only thing that does work is proper diet and exercise. There is no magic pill to lose weight. Of course, if you diet the wrong way, you're going to have complications.
I don't know Hibbard's medical history, and I don't know what happened behind-the-scenes, but if something shady was going on, there would be a lot more people coming forward about it. The symptoms she mentions, could they be an underlying illness that she does not know about?
In my experience, doing my own diet and exercising, I was fine when I started losing weight, and when I got down to my goal weight, my spine deteriorated. I now have serious (and irreversible) arthritis and degeneration in my spine. Do I blame the way I dieted and exercised? Not really. It could be my body's way of reacting to being obese for so long. Perhaps I went a little too much into my exercises, I don't know. All I know is that I can't blame just one thing on my life-changing complication.
I don't want to diminish all of the hell that Kai Hibbard is going through, my heart really does go out to her. However, I would like to know if she had any health issues going into the experience that may have been accelerated because she was on the show..
I just have a hard time believing that this kind of abuse is happening. If all that she says is true, then the producers of the show, and the trainers, would have been arrested by now. If the contestants are being blackmailed to keep the abuse a secret, then there should be an investigation.
The point is, we don't have all the information. Kai Hibbard isn't alone in her experience on the show. I've seen many others come out and talk about all of the abuse that goes on behind the scenes. On the flipside, there are twice as many contestants who have had life-changing success because of the show.
Who should we believe? Former contestants shouting abuse, or the contestants who have had life-changing, positive experiences?
