The Biggest Loser (American TV series)


The Biggest Loser is an American competition reality show that initially ran on NBC for 17 seasons from 2004 to 2016 before moving to USA Network in 2020. The show features obese or overweight contestants competing to win a cash prize by losing the highest percentage of weight relative to their initial weight.

Premise

Each season of The Biggest Loser starts the 30-week competition with a weigh-in to determine the contestants' starting weights, which serve as the baseline for determining the overall winner.
The contestants are grouped into teams of three, each wearing separate colored T-shirts. Depending on the season a team may work with a specific trainer or all trainers may work with all contestants. The trainers are responsible for designing comprehensive workout and nutrition plans and teaching them to the contestants. However, the contestants are individually responsible for implementing the principles taught.
During an episode, various challenges and temptations are featured. Those who win a particular challenge are given special privileges, such as a weight advantage for the next weigh-in or even full immunity from being voted off the show.
Each week culminates in another weigh-in to determine which team has lost the most weight for that week, in percentage of total weight lost. The team that has lost the least percentage during that week will have one member voted off. The vote is usually made by the other teams, though some episodes feature one team making the decision alone. Some episodes feature a second, "red line"; if a contestant falls below the red line the contestant is automatically off the show with no vote. Other episodes allow for the contestants, if successfully meeting a goal at the weigh-in, to all receive immunity for the week.
When the number of contestants has shrunk to a predetermined smaller number, the teams are dissolved and the contestants compete one-on-one against each other.
The season finale features both the contestants remaining on the show and those sent home early; the latter are brought back for the final show. Those sent home early compete for a smaller prize while those on the show compete for a larger prize and the title of "The Biggest Loser".

Episode format

Episodes are typically two hours long. Some episodes have been aired in a shortened one-hour format to accommodate adjacent network programming such as The Voice and the State of the Union address. Each episode features some, but not all, of the following activities :
  1. Temptation:
Contestants prepare for the first day of the week only to find a situation that involves temptation. The temptation usually requires contestants to gamble by eating or drinking delicious but high-calorie foods in exchange for what may seem to be a beneficial trade-off. The benefits may or may not be known to the contestants in advance. Examples include eating sweet foods for a chance to call their loved ones, eating a big slice of cake to win an unknown prize or giving up time with a trainer for a chance to win money. Contestants are given a set period of time before the offer passes.
  1. Reward Challenge:
Contestants compete to win a prize, first as teams and then as individuals after the teams are dissolved. After the challenge, viewers are shown the winning team enjoying their reward while the losing team accepts their loss. Prizes range from immunity- which is exemption from elimination—to exercise equipment, phone calls home or weight prizes, which allow winners of a challenge to have a greater weight loss at the Weigh-In, or losers of a challenge to have a lower weight loss at the Weigh-In. If there is an unequal number of players on each team, then the team with more players must pick an individual or individuals who will sit out until there is an equal number of players on each team. Occasionally, players have to be cleared by the show's doctors in order to participate in physical challenges.
  1. Initial Workout:
Contestants work out with the trainers. During this segment, the trainers will often speak with certain contestants, especially those who are doing poorly. Usually, underlying emotional issues are revealed at this time, often the triggering events that led to the weight gain in the first place.
  1. Last Chance Workout:
Last chance workouts are often shown as grueling, final preparations for the weigh in. This is a real test of strength and trainers push contestants to their limits.
  1. Last Chance Challenge:
Introduced in season seventeen, the last chance challenge is a variant between a reward challenge and a last chance workout. As with the last chance workout, the last chance challenge will usually take place inside the gym. The winning team will win a prize that benefits the team just before the upcoming weigh-in.
  1. Weigh-In:
Although the show depicts the weigh-in in an evening setting, the actual weight measurement occurs off-camera in a morning session and the contestants are not told of the results at that time. All contestants are weighed to determine the amount they have lost relative to their total body weight. During team-based competition, the team that loses the highest percentage wins and the losing team must send one person home. When the teams are dissolved and the show becomes an individual competition, the two contestants who lose the lowest percentage of weight are below the yellow line and eligible for elimination. A similar setup to individual-based weigh-ins happens when the two initial teams are broken up into four teams of two or three, as happened in the second and fourth seasons. In season ten, the rules changed. The contestants are now expected to weigh in before challenges. The yellow line now increases up to half of the slots depending on how many contestants there are at the ranch. Contestants below the yellow line face an elimination challenge before the vote. In addition, the Biggest Loser of the week is allowed to save a person below the yellow line from elimination. Some episodes have featured both a yellow line and a red line; a contestant who falls below the red line is eliminated outright from the competition without a vote of the other contestants.
  1. Elimination Challenge:
Introduced in season nine, the elimination challenge was for the two people below the yellow line. In the only elimination challenge of that season, the longest one standing stayed while the other went home. In season ten, the elimination challenge was re-introduced. Those below the yellow line participate in a challenge to escape from the vote. The two least successful contestants face the vote.
  1. The Vote:
The final segment of the show takes place in a dining room that has refrigerators labeled with each contestant's name and filled with that contestant's favorite tempting foods. Prior to the vote, contestants facing elimination plead their case as to why they should remain on the Ranch. The other contestants are not required to honor any requests to be sent home, though generally such requests are honored. The contestants facing elimination arrive at the dining room first; the other contestants each carry a covered plate containing the name of the person they wish to vote out. In the event of a tie, the contestant or team who lost the least percentage of weight is eliminated, except if both of the contestants or teams lost the least percentage of weight. As people are voted out, the light for their name is extinguished. After the vote, the eliminated contestant is shown at home and discusses the progress they made in their weight loss.

Weight loss regimen: risks and criticism

According to LiveScience.com, "physicians and nutritionists worry the show's focus on competitive weight loss is, at best, counterproductive and, at worst, dangerous". Contestants on the show lose upwards of 10 pounds per week, whereas the established medical guidelines for safe weight loss are between 1 and 2 pounds per week. This is true even though that weight-loss rate originates from an examination of the database from the National Weight Control Registry, where members have lost a minimum of 30 pounds and maintained that weight loss for a minimum of a year. So while researchers did find a correlation between that rate, on average, with members of the Registry, all this correlation can mean—if there is any causal correlation at all -- is that it is more likely, on average, for someone to be successful at losing a large amount of weight, and more successful at maintaining that weight loss. There is no way of stating whether this rate is more healthy than any other rate, simply because there is no comparison with any other rate, and not even any comparison between disease or mortality rates of members of this Registry and any other random group.
Other health writers take it even further, suggesting that everything from the shows dietary guidelines to workout routines are completely flawed.
Nutritionist Dr. Barry Sears sums up the wellness paradox: "First, eating less can cause stress to the system causing more hunger. Second, the more people exercise, the hungrier they become." Dr. Sears continues by claiming that "even with the most intense training, people are unlikely to add more than five pounds of muscle in 12 weeks of weight training. The reason viewers see their muscles emerging as the show goes on is because as the layer of fat surrounding the muscles is lost, muscles become more visible. Those muscles were always there but covered by a mass of fat tissue.
At the end of every telecast, the following disclaimer is shown:
Despite this claim of supervision, however, all contestants are required to sign a waiver that states: "no warranty, representation or guarantee has been made as to the qualifications or credentials of the medical professionals who examine me or perform any procedures on me in connection with my participation in the series, or their ability to diagnose medical conditions that may affect my fitness to participate in the series".
The weight-loss regimen used in the show—severe caloric restriction combined with up to six hours a day of strenuous exercise—involves risks including a weakening of the heart muscle, irregular heartbeat and dangerous reductions in potassium and electrolytes. Contestants, regardless of their weight, are required to certify that they believe they are "in excellent physical, emotional, psychological and mental health".
included a one-mile foot race in its first week, an event that led to the hospitalization of two of its contestants; Rob Huizenga, the show's medical consultant, when asked about the foot race said that "If we had it to do over, we wouldn’t it" and noted that in response, the show's producers have "changed a lot of the way do things".
One attempt to create a more healthy environment after Season 8's dangerous foot race was to include a Pool for low-impact cardio. This helped contestants to lose weight in a healthier and safer way than some previous exercise routines on earlier seasons.
Because the show is a contest that involves eliminations from it, some contestants are encouraged to take risks that endanger their health. Ryan C. Benson, the winner of the program's first season, publicly admitted that "he dropped some of the weight by fasting and dehydrating himself to the point that he was urinating blood". Also since the show Benson has regained all of his weight, but 10–12 lbs. In 2009, Kai Hibbard told The New York Times that "she and other contestants would drink as little water as possible in the 24 hours before a weigh-in" and would "work out in as much clothing as possible" when the cameras were off. She further stated that two weeks after the show ended, she had regained about 31 pounds, mostly from staying hydrated. In a June 2010 interview, Hibbard said, "I do still struggle . I do. My husband says I’m still afraid of food... I’m still pretty messed up from the show."
In a July 2011 press conference with the Television Critics Association, comedian and actor Jerry Lewis was critical of the competitive nature of The Biggest Loser, claiming that the show is about contestants "knocking their brains out trying to see how we beat the fat lady at 375 pounds, and in four months she's going to be 240. Who cares? It's ridiculous."
According to a report by The New York Post, California authorities inquired the show due to allegations of doping contestants. The show dismissed these allegations as false and without merit. The show is under internal investigation as of July 2018.

Longitudinal study

In 2016, the results of a long term study by the US National Institute of Health were released that documented the weight gain and loss of contestants in Season 8, which aired in 2009. The study found that most of the 16 contestants regained their weight, and in some case gained more than before they entered the contest. Their metabolisms had slowed to the point where they were burning hundreds of calories a day less than other people of their new, reduced, size. The New York Times reported: "What shocked the researchers was what happened next: As the years went by and the numbers on the scale climbed, the contestants’ metabolisms did not recover... It was as if their bodies were intensifying their effort to pull the contestants back to their original weight." The article quoted Dr. Michael Rosenbaum who said, "The difficulty in keeping weight off reflects biology, not a pathological lack of willpower."
After the study results were revealed, former contestants demanded NBC cancel the show.

Location

Seasons two and three of The Biggest Loser have been filmed at the Hummingbird Nest Ranch. The ranch is an equestrian estate in Simi Valley, California, northwest of Los Angeles. Recent seasons have been filmed at King Gillette Ranch on Mulholland Highway near Malibu Creek State Park.

Series overview

Trainers

Winners

Grand Prize

At-Home Prize

Given to the person losing the most percentage of body weight under the eliminated contestants.
SeasonContestantAgeHeightStart
BMI		Start
Weight		Recent
BMI		Recent
Weight		Lbs
Lost		Percent
1Dave Fioravanti39
2Pete Thomas36
3Brian Starkey33
4Jim Germanakos40
5Bernie Salazar27
6Heba Salama30
7Jerry Hayes63
8Rebecca Meyer25
9Koli Palu29
10Mark Pinkhasovich31
11Deni Hill59
12Jennifer Rumple39
13Mike Messina41
14Gina McDonald47
15Tumi Oguntala41
16Jordan Alicandro32
17Luis Hernandez36
18Megan Hoffman35

;BMI

Television ratings

Records

The following table contains records for the American version of The Biggest Loser. Only records which were officially announced on the show are included.
CategoryRecord holdersResults
Most Weight Loss in a Season ESMichael Ventrella 264 lbs/119.8 kg
Most Weight Loss in a Season ESAshley Johnston 183 lbs/83.0 kg
Heaviest starting weight Michael Ventrella 526 lbs/238.6 kg
Heaviest starting weight Shay Sorrells 476 lbs/215.9 kg
Heaviest starting weight John & James Crutchfield 969 lbs/439.5 kg
Biggest Percentage Weight Loss in a Season ESDanny Cahill 55.58%
Biggest Percentage Weight Loss in a Season ESRachel Frederickson 59.62%
Biggest Percentage Weight Loss in a Season ESKoli Palu 53.35%
Biggest Percentage Weight Loss in a Season ESTumi Oguntala 54.86%
Most Weight Lost in a week Moses Kinikini & Mark Pinkhasovich 41 lbs/18.6 kg
Most Weight Lost in a week Patti Anderson & Sonya Jones 23 lbs/10.4 kg
Most Weight Lost in a week Neil Tejwani 33 lbs/15.0 kg
Most Weight Lost in a week Shay Sorrells 17 lbs/7.7 kg
Fastest to Lose 100 Pounds Moses Kinikini & John Rhode 6 weeks
Fastest to Lose 100 Pounds EWShay Sorrells 9 weeks
Youngest Contestant Mike Morelli 18
Youngest Contestant Blake Benge 18
Oldest Contestant Johnny Forger 66
Oldest Contestant Estella Hayes & Bonnie Griffin & Nancy Rajala 63
Most Weight Lost on Campus ESMichael Ventrella 204 lbs
Most Weight Lost on Campus ESAshley Johnston 143 lbs
Highest percentage of weight loss on Campus ESDaris George 43.64%
Highest percentage of weight loss on Campus ESIrene Alvarado 43.53%
Longest Time Gone Without Falling Below the Yellow Line ESTara Costa 18 weeks
Most Time Losing Double Digits in a row in the Weigh-InsDanny Cahill & Michael Ventrella 7 weeks
Longest Running Couple ESMike Morelli and Ron Morelli 18 weeks
Longest Running Couple ESOlivia Ward and Hannah Curlee 20 weeks
Longest Running Couple ESConda Britt and Jeremy Britt 15 weeks
Longest Time Gone Without Facing EliminationTara Costa 18 weeks
Most Challenges WonTara Costa 11
Worst First NumberJulie Hadden 2 lbs