Thanks for this piece (and for sharing mine!). I'm realizing how healing it is to hear other people talk about how much they've changed their views since the era of this show.
Yes! Healing is a good word for it, and it makes me feel better about the world we live in to hear so many people at least now seeing how much harm came from this.
I didn’t watch it when it was on, but I definitely ingrained the myths about willpower and it being my fault I gained back all the weight I lost in my 20s. I realized on my wedding day in 2014 that I had an ED when my first thought upon seeing a side shot was “I worked too hard to have my stomach still not look flat!”
Only when I read that journal article in 2016 did I realize I had fucked up my metabolism with my restricted eating habits and thankfully I saw it when I first got pregnant and it registered with me that I never should pursue intentional weight loss again. It’s still hard, my oldest is almost 9 and approaching puberty and that’s when my twin sister developed her ED. I’m very on guard. My husband’s family is very athletic and I spend a lot of time advocating for the importance of intuitive eating and trusting our kids to know their bodies.
Kudos to you for recognizing it as early as you did, and before you had kids too. I would give anything if I could go back and do it over for my kids. It took me well into my late 40s to get there, but at the end of the day, what's important is that I did finally get there. I, too, believe with all my heart I totally wrecked my metabolism with years of yo-yo dieting, and in particular, a particularly destructive run with phentermine pills. This is why I'm so weary of the GLP-1s.
Like you, I never watched The Biggest Loser. I did watch the documentary, out of morbid curiosity, I suppose, and oh my gosh. I can't believe what these people went through. The ABUSE was rampant. A trainer should never be yelling at you and abusing you to get you to push through exercise. And you're right - no one took any responsibility, not even the producers, and it sickened me. That Jillian Michaels refused to be part of it was damning in itself.
The drill instructor form of "motivating" people was a thing, and probably still is for a lot of trainers, but in this case, it just went way too far. Abuse is the right word.
Hi there, I really enjoyed your article. I watched the biggest looser with my parents growing up as a kid (alongside when instagram first being used when I was in 5th grade). I vaguely remember my dad laughing at the contestants sometimes. Instagram even in its early stages and its glorification of the perfect body, perfect photo, amplified the implicit messages I was getting from the show. I have never struggled with weight yet felt sorely out of place in a tween girls instagram world. It was weird because since I was never able to achieve the instagram aesthetic, I implicitly felt grouped with the messages from the show - examine body, work towards change as hard as you can, fix body, finally fit in. I spend these years quietly agonizing how I could possible ever be seen as pretty, how I could overcome my awkwardness to be seen as an object of desire for boys (I’m not even attracted to boys, not that I knew that at the time). In high school I seriously cut back my instagram use (around 2017) and noticed immediate relief in myself, and have over the years complete removed myself it (aside from substack lol). I still notice my conditioning seeping through- how I am as worthy as I work to be, yet that work must seem effortless.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and being so open and vulnerable. It's so so hard to detach ourselves completely from the focus on appearance when we're just bombarded by these messages all day long. I hope there's a day when I don't care about appearance, but I just don't think it's realistic given the societal obsession with it. So instead, I work on giving it less and less space in my life. Even 5 percent, 10 percent is a step in the right direction.
Thanks for this thoughtful article. I never watched the original, nor have I been able to bring myself to watch the documentary. I’ve been listening to my clients talk about it, and that’s enough. I appreciate how you’ve compared the show to the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. That makes so much sense to me. And it’s profoundly sad.
I think about the experiment often, especially those calorie counts for men, and how many of us today think nothing of dropping down to those levels to drop a few pounds, with or without the help of a GLP-1, and don't consider for a second the harm we're doing to our bodies.
Yes, Kristi. I am deeply concerned about the consequences of malnutrition for people taking GLP-1s at the doses used for weight loss, as well as restrictive eating to drop pounds without meds, and the way that physical and mental health may be worsened because of the malnutrition, and not the opposite. Much on social media makes one believe that health comes from underfeeding. In practice, I see the opposite to be true.
Reddit is such a bad offender of this. They have a 1200 is plenty and 1500 is plenty subreddit, along with subreddits like shitty restriction food, good restriction food, etc. They are all just blatant celebrations of EDs and it’s so screwed up.
We've normalized restriction to such a dangerous level, and most of us aren't savvy enough to see it as such. There are days when it's all just so overwhelming. We can tune out as best we can, but it's so hard when it's literally everywhere and influencing everyone. The amount of pro-ana content masquerading as wellness is endless.
Thanks for this piece (and for sharing mine!). I'm realizing how healing it is to hear other people talk about how much they've changed their views since the era of this show.
Yes! Healing is a good word for it, and it makes me feel better about the world we live in to hear so many people at least now seeing how much harm came from this.
I didn’t watch it when it was on, but I definitely ingrained the myths about willpower and it being my fault I gained back all the weight I lost in my 20s. I realized on my wedding day in 2014 that I had an ED when my first thought upon seeing a side shot was “I worked too hard to have my stomach still not look flat!”
Only when I read that journal article in 2016 did I realize I had fucked up my metabolism with my restricted eating habits and thankfully I saw it when I first got pregnant and it registered with me that I never should pursue intentional weight loss again. It’s still hard, my oldest is almost 9 and approaching puberty and that’s when my twin sister developed her ED. I’m very on guard. My husband’s family is very athletic and I spend a lot of time advocating for the importance of intuitive eating and trusting our kids to know their bodies.
Kudos to you for recognizing it as early as you did, and before you had kids too. I would give anything if I could go back and do it over for my kids. It took me well into my late 40s to get there, but at the end of the day, what's important is that I did finally get there. I, too, believe with all my heart I totally wrecked my metabolism with years of yo-yo dieting, and in particular, a particularly destructive run with phentermine pills. This is why I'm so weary of the GLP-1s.
Like you, I never watched The Biggest Loser. I did watch the documentary, out of morbid curiosity, I suppose, and oh my gosh. I can't believe what these people went through. The ABUSE was rampant. A trainer should never be yelling at you and abusing you to get you to push through exercise. And you're right - no one took any responsibility, not even the producers, and it sickened me. That Jillian Michaels refused to be part of it was damning in itself.
The drill instructor form of "motivating" people was a thing, and probably still is for a lot of trainers, but in this case, it just went way too far. Abuse is the right word.
Hi there, I really enjoyed your article. I watched the biggest looser with my parents growing up as a kid (alongside when instagram first being used when I was in 5th grade). I vaguely remember my dad laughing at the contestants sometimes. Instagram even in its early stages and its glorification of the perfect body, perfect photo, amplified the implicit messages I was getting from the show. I have never struggled with weight yet felt sorely out of place in a tween girls instagram world. It was weird because since I was never able to achieve the instagram aesthetic, I implicitly felt grouped with the messages from the show - examine body, work towards change as hard as you can, fix body, finally fit in. I spend these years quietly agonizing how I could possible ever be seen as pretty, how I could overcome my awkwardness to be seen as an object of desire for boys (I’m not even attracted to boys, not that I knew that at the time). In high school I seriously cut back my instagram use (around 2017) and noticed immediate relief in myself, and have over the years complete removed myself it (aside from substack lol). I still notice my conditioning seeping through- how I am as worthy as I work to be, yet that work must seem effortless.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and being so open and vulnerable. It's so so hard to detach ourselves completely from the focus on appearance when we're just bombarded by these messages all day long. I hope there's a day when I don't care about appearance, but I just don't think it's realistic given the societal obsession with it. So instead, I work on giving it less and less space in my life. Even 5 percent, 10 percent is a step in the right direction.
I think you nailed it here and I agree- we haven’t come as far as we think when it comes fatphobia. Great piece, Kristi.
Thanks, Pam!
I’ve gone from obese to a healthy weight in 13 months of tirzepatide. I’d like to lose about 10 more pounds but it’s ok if I don’t.
All my bloodwork is perfect. So is my blood pressure. My mobility is far better.
My weight was never a moral failure.
Moral failures aren’t fixed with a weekly shot.
Metabolic issues are.
Now that we’ve settled the fact that weight usually has nothing to do with discipline, let’s talk about poverty.
Hell yes!!
Thanks for this thoughtful article. I never watched the original, nor have I been able to bring myself to watch the documentary. I’ve been listening to my clients talk about it, and that’s enough. I appreciate how you’ve compared the show to the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. That makes so much sense to me. And it’s profoundly sad.
I think about the experiment often, especially those calorie counts for men, and how many of us today think nothing of dropping down to those levels to drop a few pounds, with or without the help of a GLP-1, and don't consider for a second the harm we're doing to our bodies.
Yes, Kristi. I am deeply concerned about the consequences of malnutrition for people taking GLP-1s at the doses used for weight loss, as well as restrictive eating to drop pounds without meds, and the way that physical and mental health may be worsened because of the malnutrition, and not the opposite. Much on social media makes one believe that health comes from underfeeding. In practice, I see the opposite to be true.
Could not agree more with you!
Also, I am slowly getting back to a regular writing rhythm and working on reviews for Nourish and Nurture!
Thank you so much! 💕
Reddit is such a bad offender of this. They have a 1200 is plenty and 1500 is plenty subreddit, along with subreddits like shitty restriction food, good restriction food, etc. They are all just blatant celebrations of EDs and it’s so screwed up.
We've normalized restriction to such a dangerous level, and most of us aren't savvy enough to see it as such. There are days when it's all just so overwhelming. We can tune out as best we can, but it's so hard when it's literally everywhere and influencing everyone. The amount of pro-ana content masquerading as wellness is endless.