Is It Really Good To Be The Biggest Loser?

Millions of Americans tuned into NBC last night to watch the season finale of The Biggest Loser. As the three final contestants, Bobby, Rachel, and David stepped up to the scale, the audience held their collective breath. The contestants had been working for weeks to shed the pounds and resist the temptations of their favorite food.

When 24-year-old Rachel Frederickson was declared the winner, people were already tweeting about the young woman’s dramatic—and seemingly unhealthy—weight loss. As she walked onto the Biggest Loser stage Tuesday night, even her trainers gasped in shock. Rachel had left the ranch some weeks before, and had weighed 150 pounds. It wasn’t her goal weight, but she looked stunning—and healthy. Then Rachel appeared on the show last night weighing in at 105 pounds. She’d lost 45 more pounds. 

Viewers were stunned and wondered how could this be? While some are praising her obviously valiant efforts to lose all the weight, most others are chiming in, wondering what happened, and even noting that she stumbled a little, while stepping onto the scale.

Rachel, for all of her weight loss, no longer looks healthy. One blogger reported, "in no way do we blame Rachel for going too far in her pursuit to win the title of 'Biggest Loser'" (blog.zap2it.com). But if it wasn’t Rachel’s responsibility to watch her own weight, then whose was it? This blogger suggests the doctors should have been watching more closely, but the entire point of sending the contestants home was to see how they did on their own. Rachel went too far.

Rachel is a beautiful woman. Sadly, her new look makes her face almost skeletal-like; it is apparent that she lost more than what is healthy, so why did she? The prize for losing the highest percent of her body weight was $250,000. A desirable sum, to be sure. So did Rachel keep pushing in order to get the prize?

If so, what message is this sending to anyone, most especially teens struggling with their own weight? “The prize is worth risking your health”? Do we put so much value into the monetary gain, that the contestants—or at least this one—find it better to disregard what is healthy and normal and just continue to diet until they get as skinny as they possibly can? Some adults are pointing out that the prize was huge--we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. So what lengths to we go to for money? For fame? Teens only see the facts--Rachel got skinny. Rachel got money. Rachel won. They will see no problem with copying such reasoning.

Rachel isn’t talking yet, so it’s hard to say just exactly what her thoughts are. Already she has been updated as the female to weigh in at the lightest weight in all of the seasons of the show (in weights officially reported and verified). In actuality, it is heartening to read so many showing concern over The Biggest Loser’s appearance. We are, I think, beginning to recognize that a beautiful body is not always the slimmest.