I don’t even think I realized that people still watched Biggest Loser. I’ve never seen an episode. I’ve never even seen part of an episode. The closest I’ve come to watching Biggest Loser was when I dropped (some) of my college beer weight after graduation.
One thing I never understood about Biggest Loser is how they dropped all the weight so quickly. Yeah, they had personal trainers and dieticians, but we’ve all tried to lose weight. It’s easier said than done. Why? Because bars are fun and gyms suck. It’s science (math?). You can’t argue with that.
Well, the New York Post revealed today that there may have been more going on behind the scenes on set for contestants of the Biggest Loser. Namely, they were given drugs.
Allegedly, the show’s onsite doctor and chief medical consultant, Rob Huizenga (or. Dr. H) willingly gave contestants weight loss drugs, encouraged them to purge after meals and strace themselves as well as instructed said contestants to lie about the practices of the show.
Via New York Post:
““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.””
On top of driving contestants to this state of mind on his own, he employed his staff members to deliver contestants the drugs and instructions to keep himself unassociated with it all.
“This source confirms that show trainer Bob Harper and one of his assistants have supplied contestants with Adderall and “yellow jackets” — pills that contain ephedra extract. Ephedra is used to promote weight loss and boost energy, and was banned by the FDA in 2004.
“Bob Harper was my trainer,” says Joelle Gwynn, of 2008’s “Couples” season. “He goes away and his assistant comes in. He’s got this brown paper bag that’s bundled up. He says, ‘Take this drug, it’ll really help you.’ It was yellow and black. I was like, ‘What the f- -k is this?’ ””
While a normal person would probably not take a random, unmarked pill that someone they didn’t know handed to them, these contestants were 1) Under contract to listen to Dr. H and 2) You know…the guy’s their doctor and they were there to lose weight. So of course, Gwynn took the pill.
““I felt jittery and hyper,” she says. “I went and told the sports medicine guy. The next day, Dr. H gave us some lame explanation of why they got added to our regimen and that it was up to us to take them . . . People chastise Bill Cosby for allegedly offering meds to women, but it’s acceptable to do to fat people to make them lose weight. I feel like we got raped, too.””
Nothing like fat people getting mindraped to ruin your Sunday. Along with giving the contestants pills, Dr. H attempted to manipulate them by forcing them to lose as much weight as possible, even if the means weren’t always medically proven.
“Harper, Gwynn says, told her off-camera to lie about how much she was eating and losing. In keeping her daily log, Gwynn says Harper told her, “Lie and say you were following the directive of intaking 1,500 calories — but I want you to do 800 calories or as little as you can.”
“People would take amphetamines, water pills, diuretics, and throw up in the bathroom,” Season 2’s Mendonca says. “They would take their spin bikes into the steam room to work up a sweat. I vomited every single day…tells people to throw up: ‘Good,’ he says. ‘You’ll lose more calories.’ ””
In addition to manipulating the contestants once they were on the show, Dr. H and casting directors would often…frontload the potential contestants before they even arrived.
““When I was going through the applicant process, they told me, ‘You’re not fat enough,’ ” Mendonca says. She was 5-foot-6 and says she weighed 229 pounds, morbidly obese by NIH standards.
“They said, ‘You need to gain 40 pounds. Keep eating.’ ” Mendonca entered the show at 255 pounds.”
Imagine being told you can’t get help changing your life unless you make it worse first? Plus, allegedly, once the contestants were on the show, they were treated like animals, mostly just for the ratings.
“Like all participants, Donahue was separated from family and friends, contact completely cut off. For her season, producers installed contestants in a former psychiatric hospital and put 12 obese contestants in one bedroom in the LA heat, with no air conditioning.
“It was hot as hell, and the smell was horrible,” Donahue says.
The contestants were forced to shower together with no curtains or barriers of any kind. There were also no working toilets during Donahue’s season, so producers made these severely overweight contestants squeeze into Port-a-Potties — a challenge even for thin people, and yet another humiliation.
Donahue’s daily food intake consisted of seven asparagus sticks and 3 ounces of turkey. Once eliminated, all contestants go home and are expected to keep losing weight, with no support from the show. They’re contractually obligated to weigh in on the show’s finale.”
7 sticks of asparagus and 3 ounces of turkey. I’ve fed dogs more food than that. How much does an asparagus weigh? That’s probably 4 ounces of food. People in third world countries need more than 4 ounces of food. A recovering fat person definitely needs more food than that.
There has been no word yet on whether or not NBC will renew Biggest Loser for next season but, you know, this can’t help matters.