The New York Times has an interesting article which reveals the unhealthy extremes that contestants on The Biggest Loser go to in order to drop weight every week. One of the most dangerous things they do is to restrict water to dehydrate themselves so they weigh less.
When more than 40 former contestants from The Biggest Loser gather Wednesday for a reunion television special, the winner of the program's first season, Ryan C. Benson, who lost 122 of his 330-pound starting weight, will be absent. Mr. Benson is now back above 300 pounds but he thinks he has been shunned by the show because he publicly admitted that he dropped some of the weight by fasting and dehydrating himself to the point that he was urinating blood.
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The series also highlights the difference between the pursuit of engaging television and the sometimes frenzied efforts of contestants to win, perhaps at the risk of their own health. Doctors, nutritionists and physiologists not affiliated with The Biggest Loser express doubt about the program's regimen of severe caloric restriction and up to six hours a day of strenuous exercise, which cause contestants to sometimes lose more than 15 pounds a week.
At least one other contestant has confessed to using dangerous weight-loss techniques, including self-induced dehydration. On the first episode of the current season, two contestants were sent to the hospital, one by airlift after collapsing from heat stroke during a one-mile race.
New contestants are entering the show more out of shape. Each of the last two seasons has broken the record for the heaviest contestant ever, at 454 and 476 pounds.
Medical professionals generally advise against losing more than about two pounds a week. Rapid weight loss can cause many medical problems, including a weakening of the heart muscle, irregular heartbeat and dangerous reductions in potassium and electrolytes.
"I'm waiting for the first person to have a heart attack," said Dr. Charles Burant, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Health System director of the Michigan Metabolomics and Obesity Center.
The article says that the show keeps contestants from speaking with reporters without a show representative there. The contracts each contestant signs says they can be fined up to a million dollars for doing unauthorized interviews. Here's what Ryan C. Benson had to say about how he really won season of the show:
I wanted to win so bad that the last ten days before the final weigh--in I didn't eat one piece of solid food! If you've heard of "The Master Cleanse" that's what I did. Its basically drinking lemonade made with water, fresh squeezed lemon juice, pure maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. The rules of the show said we couldn't use any weight-loss drugs, well I didn't take any drugs, I just starved myself! Twenty-four hours before the final weigh-in I stopped putting ANYTHING in my body, liquid or solid, then I started using some old high school wrestling tricks. I wore a rubber suit while jogging on the treadmill, and then spent a lot of time in the steam room. In the final 24 hours I probably dropped 10-13 lbs in just pure water weight. By the time of the final weigh-in I was peeing blood.
Ryan said he knew it wasn't healthy, but he didn't care because he wanted to win. He said in the five days after the show he gained 32 lbs, not from overeating, but just from getting rehydrated and eating normal food again.
