Following a controversial study that claims to explain why almost all “Biggest Loser” contestants regain massive amounts of weight, numerous ex-Losers reached out to The Post to dispute its findings — exclusively revealing that the show encouraged contestants to take street drugs while starving themselves and to lie about how much weight they were losing.
The federally funded study, conducted by Dr. Kevin Hall at the National Institutes of Health and published two weeks ago, says changing metabolic rates, hormone levels, and genetic predispositions explain post-show weight gain.
What’s missing, former Losers tell The Post, is any examination of the show’s secret and brutal tactics, which include providing illicit drugs to contestants and submitting them to questionable medical exams by the show’s resident doctor, Rob Huizenga, known as “Dr. H.”
Huizenga collaborated with Hall on the NIH’s study.
“People were passing out in Dr. H’s office at the finale weigh-in,” says Season 2’s Suzanne Mendonca. “On my season, five people had to be rushed to the hospital. He knew exactly what we were doing and never tried to stop it.”
I think it is well established that I hate all reality shows.
However there are a few which really earn my disgust, and this is one of them.
As a former personal trainer I know exactly how hard it is to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
And the fantasy offered by this program was potentially quite damaging to the viewers.
Anybody who thinks they can spend a couple of weeks or months changing their diet and working hard at the gym and that it will make a long term impact on their physique is buying into the snake oil sold by the producers of this program.
Yes exercise and dietary changes DO help trim the fat and build muscle, but it ALWAYS happens incrementally and only has a lasting effect if it is maintained after the initial weight loss.
I am not at all surprised that the show used some form of stimulant and starvation tactics to get the contestants to lose weight.
Not am I surprised to learn that there were long term side effects.
What I am surprised about is that this show is even still on the air.
Personal trainers are not known for their intellect or high level of education.
ReplyDeleteYou are one special kind of stupid.
DeleteOh really? And you know this how? Do you have research to back this up? I know a couple of trainers one is a HS math teacher and the other is a former analyst who always wanted to be a personal trainer. Both smart people. I guess your post was a personal diig at Gryphen.
DeleteWhy stupid? What kind of degree does it take to hang out a 'personal trainer' shingle? How intelligent are you if your solution to an obese person is to hand them drugs? I think 2:03 is right on.
DeleteAs opposed to 3.497 GPA honor students?
DeleteHi, Alicia.
DeleteHey I am 2:03 and I NO this cuz Sarah dun hired me too ghostright hur exsersize buk. Sheeps!
DeleteHopefully it won't be on for long.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think of the lucrative bariatric surgery business?
I have a 300 pound family member who ad it in Dec and has lost 90 pounds. She was/is? a closet binger...still obsesses about food.
Everyone I know who has had the surgery has not been able to keep the weight off. Thy just stretch out or reverse it if possible eith their surgical option.
Food should be eaten to live, we should not live to eat.
I think it's another scam. I know many people who have had it, and every one of them has regained most of the weight lost. There is a story in our paper every week about some 'success' after two years, but they never follow them longer than that.
DeleteIt cannot be healthy to staple your stomach off, or whatever they do.
I am trying to lose 50 pounds, and if it takes me a year, I'll be thrilled. I was never fat until I got pregnant, and then I put on 50 pounds with each child, and got as low as 160 but have put on 90 pounds over 20 years. I do not overeat, but something is off for sure. I am not trying a simple 'fast diet,' where I do not eat anything but water after dinner and make sure I fast at least 12 hours. So far, I have lost five pounds in the first month, and I am losing my sugar craving. Also trying to get more exercise.
My question with this show is-WTF are these people thinking? Are they so desperate that they accepted DRUGS as part of the process? If someone handed me drugs, I'd have been out of there so fast their heads would spin.
I don't think the surgery is a scam, unless they are being told surgery is all that is needed to lose. If someone has to go to the extent of having surgery, they have a problem that is bigger than just eating, and should get counseling to address what is causing them to eat beyond the norm.
DeleteMildred
I wonder what is going on with the ankle?
Deletehttp://www.pikore.com/m/1251446343718394241_1395504853
An unknown condition or diseases?
8:15 - I wonder what's going on with your brain: an unknown condition or disease? Or just sheer stupidity?
DeleteYo 9:59, chill dood! There are no known exercises to eradicate the excess cankle pannus. Even the miracle 310 elixir will not cause that flab to flee!
DeleteWeight loss is kept off by exercise And changing your eating habits,period.Without healthy eating habits it wont stay off. You can always do the Bristol diet and that takes a rill genious! Starve,shit shakes , pills & lipo. She started young having the fat sucked out of her face and a Puck inserted for a chin. Its obvious 2:03 doesn't know anything about personal training.
DeleteI am a woman in my 50's who was diagnosed with lipedema three years ago.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia: Lipedema or lipoedema (European spelling) is a chronic disorder of adipose tissue and lymphatic vessel dysfunction "described as a bilateral, symmetrical, flabby swelling of the legs that arises from deposition of adipose tissue starting at the hips and ending at the ankles, like riding breeches"[1] In some cases, the upper arms can also accumulate distinct patterns of fatty tissue.[2][3]
More than 10% of female are believed to have lipedema. Even if you were to be anorexic, you would not lose the weight, primarily in your legs. This causes mobility issues which makes gaining weight overall almost a given.
Very few doctors much less sufferers of this disorder have heard of it which needs to change. Lifestyle changes are critical because lipedema can lead to lymphedema.
It will be interesting to see if any IMers have heard of it. I had not.
DeleteWould explain the cankles Barstool can't lose even when she's starving herself and on drugs.
DeleteI have lipedema. I eat a very healthful diet and work as a gardener in addition to walking regularly in the morning but can not lose the weight in my lower legs and upper arms.
DeleteI believe my breasts are involved and was able to obtain breast reduction surgery. This condition is very painful.
Liposuction is a viable treatment for lipedema. My health insurance actually said they would pay for liposuction. There are only about 3 centers in the country treating it this way (CA, NY, and GA). All require you to self pay and get reimbursed, if possible. The surgeon who did my breasts would not consider it because it can damage your lymph system if not done correctly.
I lost 50 pounds in a year, diet, food diary, increased exercise... 45 years later it is still off and not even during pregnancy did I regain it all. You cannot do it with quick, quack methods. It NEVER works.
ReplyDeleteBut you just didn't lose weight, you changed your lifestyle which is what is needed, barring a few medical diagnoses and even with those changing eating habits will never hurt someone.
DeleteIt seems like this program would just discourage people trying to lose weight, they watch the biggest lose, see contestants losing 15-20 lbs/week and get discouraged because they are only losing 1-2 lbs.
ReplyDeleteNext season we can look forward to the DEA raiding the place for illegal drugs.
I'm with you, Gryph, I have never understood the appeal of "reality" shows, but when it comes down to messing with people's health enough is enough. Time to pull the plug.
ReplyDeleteWhat about #310Shake?
ReplyDeleteWay better than Biggest Loser!
It's just like having a personal trainer and a dietician delivered to u by fedex. But way cheaper!
The company name is 310 Nutrition so it's like science? amiright?
The website has all sorts of sciency sounding mumbo jumbo to explain how that secret 310 stuff works miracles.
Between that and sold by a Palin- what more could you want in a celeb endorsed loser drink?
It's true: a loser drink endorsed by a loser-at-everything wannabe celeb.
DeleteAnonymous 5:16: You ask "amiright?" YES, U R RIGHT!!!
DeleteNow that you tie it all together I see what an amazing product that 310Shake really is!!!! "Nutrition" . . science . . . and a 3.497 GPA!!!
I'm off to order a six-month supply for the whole family, whether we need it or not!!!
Meanwhile, Gryph speaks of reality teevee -- the only Alaskan family that is as dumb and as phony as the Palin's is ba-a-a-a-c-k: The Browns, Alaska Bush People, back for another season.
I must confess, I love Survivor
ReplyDeleteI like Naked and Afraid and Project Runway, a pretty strange combination I know :)
DeleteAmerica's Next Top Model was my secret show for all 22 seasons.
DeleteHaha now the secret is keeping up with the winners year after year ~ *Go Nyle! :)
(... refuse to watch DWTS, even for Nyle DiMarco, since Bri$$y ruined it for everyone.)
Dating Naked anyone?
DeleteSCARY>
ReplyDeletehttp://www.salon.com/2016/05/23/donald_trump_is_going_to_win_this_is_why_hillary_clinton_cant_defeat_what_trump_represents/
This is one persons opinion. It means nothing.They also posted an article by Camille Paglia and she is crazy and always wrong.
DeleteTrump will lose. I have 4 degrees. I'm smarter than anyone still writing for Salon. But everyone needs to work for it and VOTE!
DeleteSurprise! Reality shows are not real. We knew that when we watched Sarah Palin's Alaska where she tried to show that she was an all around great outdoorsy type when she was anything but. The Duck Dynasty bunch were really cleaned up MBA types until their duck whistle caught on and they grew their beards.
ReplyDeleteI confess I used to watch 19KAC but quit by the time Jill Duggar got married. I watched it mainly to snark on them.
ReplyDeleteI refused to watch The Duggars and regularly told my children whenever a promo came on that those people were, in actuality, pimping their children and causing them great harm.
DeleteI confess I like the music shows but I'm sure they hand pick the winners before the shows start. I fast forward thru all the Crap and just listen to the performances.
ReplyDeleteThat is a nice picture of your most loyal followers.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to lose weight and keep it off is to make some serious life style changes.
ReplyDeleteDieting does not work.
I got off a lot of meds including antidepressants and lost weight using low carb diet ie 240 now 170. I have 20 more to go.
ReplyDeleteWhile the antidep., seem like a good idea, frankly they gave me an insatiable appetite. Without them life is fine.
2:58 here
DeleteI also take anti-depressants which is common for people who have lipedema. The disorder is totally depressing because people are so ignorant about why you can't lose weight. I do everything I can to stay healthy.
Surprisingly, people with lipedema rarely get diabetes. I have low blood pressure, low blood sugar, and low cholesterol.
2:58
DeleteOne thing I noticed was that I still liked myself fat or thin. I have always been content. I am assuming that you feel the same.
From the same network that once proudly gave America Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law, Law & Order, Cheers, Golden Girls and Seinfeld. What's worse, Americans actually made this piece of shit a ratings hit - all the proof you need of my earlier claim of how calculatedly we've been dumbed down. Fear Factor anyone...?
ReplyDeleteThey're all scams, weight watchers, neutrasystem, hydroxicut and whatever killed Anna Nichole Smith. Yeah, Marie Osmond lost fifty lbs. But she also performs in Vegas seven days a week, poor thing fainted while on another unreal reality show.
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember the sister show to the biggest loser? They'd take some random butt fugly girl with poor self esteem, give her liposuction, tummytucks, new teeth, dermabrasion, and any other fads the rich pay good money for, and change them to sex vixens, the perfect body proportion for men's fantasies. It was like watching butchers working, and served no purpose at all.
The only "reality show" I watched with any frequency was "The real world" on hbo. Whoever invented gastric bypass surgery needs to have their license taken away. I lost a dear friend twice. Once when she had the surgery and was "too hot" for normal looking friends her age, and the final time when some dick she was dating verbally abused her, called her fat, ugly, and pushed her to lose more. She died from sepsis because her stomach literally popped when five cc's of food were eaten in one meal (the size of a jar of baby food) If you gotta "Doctor Shop" for surgery, you find the worst and probably didn't need it in the first place.
Inclined to agree with you. I lost via low carb diet with help from doctors at johns Hopkins. I have heard "you'd be so pretty if you lost weight." Amazing.
DeleteI'm not surprised you know way to much about this tabloid program G.. This kind of garbage is just like you and your Palin trailer trash blog.
ReplyDelete