episode 241: the biggest loser documentary: what netflix missed (and why it matters)

Aug 25

Remember The Biggest Loser? I was obsessed. That show was appointment TV if there ever was such a thing!

That show was everywhere in the 2000s—17 (!!) seasons of extreme workouts, starvation diets, and public weigh-ins packaged as “inspiration.”

Netflix just released a three-part documentary about it. And while it covered some drama behind the scenes, I was more shocked about what it didn’t cover:

The food. Contestants were eating as little as 800 calories a day—yet the show framed it as “healthy” and barely glossed over it.
The fallout. What did that kind of treatment do to contestants’ self-worth, body image, and relationship with food? (Spoiler: the doc barely touched it.)
The viewers. Millions of us—including me—were glued to it every week. What did that obsession do to us culturally? And what echoes of it are still shaping diet culture today?

I share what I think the documentary missed, my own (kinda shocking) memories of being obsessed with the show, and the ripple effects we’re still living with.

Because the real story isn’t just about a TV show. It’s about the way we’re taught to believe weight loss equals happiness—and how that belief is still sold to us in new packaging today (including by this documentary).

241
[00:00:00] Hi friends. So today's episode of the DI at Diaries. I dunno, I said it like that. It's gonna be all about my take on the Netflix documentary about the Biggest Loser. And if you somehow lived under a rock in the mid two thousands, uh, the Biggest Loser was a reality TV show that actually ran for 17 seasons, which I did not even realize it was on that long.
Um, where basically people went on to lose weight, um, and went through extreme exercise and dieting in order to do so. And it was basically, it was a weight loss competition who could lose the largest percentage of body weight, um, and. I was obsessed with it. Danny and I were obsessed with it at the time.
We were all obsessed with it. It was a huge hit. It was on NBC. Um, and so Netflix did three part documentary about the show. And what I'm gonna do today is I'm not gonna summarize or recap documentary because that's not what this is about. What I wanted to do is to kind of [00:01:00] just share my thoughts on what I took away from the documentary, what I think they.
Maybe did well or what I think was left out, um, what I wish had been included. And I think some insights that they didn't cover that I think are really important to talk about. So I'm gonna kind of dive right in here and I think you might, you know, we'll see, I don't know if you'll be surprised about some of the things I say, but, um.
Let's, let's just get into it. So I took a, I have a bunch of notes for this. Um, and hopefully I will, and I tried to put them in order and make this really structured. I'm gonna do my best not to go off on tangents. So overall, this was three episodes. They were like 35 to 45 minutes each. So not super long for a show that ran for 17.
Seasons, and I don't even remember how many episodes per season. A lot of content and a lot of contestants. I felt like there was a lot missing from this. Like, I appreciate what they did to put this out there. Absolutely. But I think that it missed the mark in a lot of ways. Um, and I think there's, well, I think there's really a lot that could have [00:02:00] been included.
I think it could have been a lot better and a lot more powerful. So number one, they basically interviewed or was around five to six contestants. There were hundreds of contestants over the years, right? 17 seasons and, but somewhere between 20, 25, 30 contestants that started off with like, I mean, do the math.
It's hundreds and hundreds of people and they only interviewed five. So that I felt was just like a really big miss. Um. I don't know why, but I think it would've been so much more interesting and a much richer story to have heard from more people about their experiences. Not that they would've been any different, but I just think it would've made for a much more kind of dynamic, um, recap of what the experience was like.
And I also wish that they had focused, or not in focused, but included a little bit more about. Where these people are now and what their journeys have been like since there was, they definitely touched on that, but not to the degree that I thought they would. The, the documentary was really focused, I think, on the drama of the show and what the [00:03:00] producers did to create that drama.
Um, absolutely. Some what the experience was like for the contestants. Um, and it was a reality TV show, right? We know reality TV shows the word reality is in the biggest air quotes of all time, right? Things are staged, things are, um, you know, producers are telling people what to say, what to do, how to create drama so that it's fun to watch.
It's entertaining to watch, which that show was very entertaining to watch. Um. So I really would've appreciated a little bit more of like where some of these people are Now, here's, and this is, I, I feel like maybe it got off to like a little bit boring. Start with this episode. It's, I promise you it's gonna get better.
Um, I didn't really think about the order in which I was saying things. So here's one of the biggest things that I thought was a big miss, is they barely talked about the food side of things, right? So what they said, the producer said, is that watching people work out like maniacs in the abusive way, they were forced to out, made good tv, watching [00:04:00] people eat, did not bake good tv.
You know what they're saying is that the content of the show did not have a lot in terms of like what they ate. And I don't remember this, I mean this was 2020, you know, 15, 20 years ago. But what I wish they had done in the documentary was talked more about like what these people were eating. You know, how were they feeling?
What were they being fed? There was really no talk. There was like basically one mention they were eating 800 calories a day and that was pretty much it. I think that was kind of like. A huge miss in terms of like what these people actually went through, what that looked like. What was the experience of the hunger?
What were sort of the rules and boundaries that were set in place around the food. Like I really wish that they had covered more of that, and here's why. Part of why, like I think a big miss for the documentary is that they didn't talk about, they talked about the flaws of the show in terms of like Jillian Michaels and the way these people were treated and all of this.
But they [00:05:00] didn't really talk about like, what, what these people could have actually learned and taken away, like what they could have done differently. Right. Um, and talking about, you know. Helping people understand the difference between like good and bad mindsets around food or learning skills, right?
There was no talk around like the behavior change around food, which obviously behavior change was not part of the show. What I'm talking about is as the contestants looked back and as the producers looked back and, and what's his face, Bob, the trainer, there was none of like, wow, like this is what we could have done.
This is what we should have done. Um, and I thought. I don't know. I felt like it was a little bit of a miss for me, um, not to kind of reflect back on it that way. Um, you know, there was no discussion. Or around like self-worth and body image. Um, obviously again, the show was entirely around right? Lose weight and your life will be perfect, right?
That was the premise [00:06:00] of the biggest lose of the show. I'm talking about the documentary, right? As I'm going through this, I'm not talking about the show itself. I'm talking about the documentary and the analysis and the reflection that they did and the things that I think it missed. Right. And I think to not have had any conversation and ask the contestants and ask the well the trainer, 'cause Gillian Michelson go on and talk to, they also interviewed the doctor who was on staff to this guy, Wayne Hega.
Um. Or some of the hosts around, like how do you think this impacted people's self-worth? How do you think it impacted their body image? There was no conversation around that. I mean, not none, but like minimal at best. So like, again, I think these were such missed opportunities to understand how this show impacted these people and what work they've had to do, or what work they think they still need to do in order to address some of those things.
Right? Like. You know, there was no trying to like debunk the notion with the documentary that losing weight is the only way to be happy. Right? There was none of this [00:07:00] around. Well, like what are other tools? What are other ways that people can approach this, right? Why? Why has weight loss been perpetuated as the only way to be happy?
And the documentary in some ways, I think kind of reinforce that maybe not in a. Uh, kind of overts purposeful kind of way, but I think in kind of like a backhanded kind of way by omission, by omitting conversation and analysis around the self-worth piece, around the body image piece. Um, I really wish that there had been a lot more conversation, kind of like a part two of that around the cultural impact of this show and the way that it, uh.
I mean, dramatically impacted and exacerbated fat phobia. Right? The show ran for 17 seasons. That is 17 years of a major show on major network television. Um, and there was no talk about what some of the implications of that would be culturally, [00:08:00] um, socially socio, sociologically, right? They didn't bring on anyone to analyze any of that.
I thought it was a huge miss. What I did love, and I'm gonna interject it here, was they did have Aubrey Gordon on. And she hosts the podcast ma uh, maintenance phase. And I've listened. I don't listen to that regularly, but I have listened to many episodes over the years. Um, and she is a, I don't know how she, how she refers herself.
I would call her like a, a fat activist. Um, she lives in a bigger body and a fat body. And again, when I say the word fat here, I'm not, I'm using that as like a physical descriptor, right? Um, I'm not using that. In obviously a, um, in a derogatory way that that word was used on the show. Um. And I appreciated all of her analysis.
I would guarantee you that she had a lot more to say that they did not, that they cut, that they did not edit into the documentary. Um, and I would love to see the B roll of that or whatever it's called, the, the, the cutting room floor. [00:09:00] Um, because I bet she said a lot more that they chose not to include because it didn't necessarily maybe fit the narrative of what they were trying to do with the documentary.
Um, but again, kind of going back to that like. I think the implications of this show, and this is where I'm gonna talk a little bit personally, right? So I was watching this, this show premiered, it was like 2005, 2006, right? So ONM 25, 26. I remember watching this show with Danny in our apartment in Jersey City with like, like wrapped attention.
I mean, everyone did, I couldn't remember like conversations with friends and cousins about this show. And at one point they talked in the documentary about some of like the branding and all the offshoots of stuff that was created. And one of the things was a hotel, I think Danny, I think it was in Utah, and they, they mentioned the name of it, something like ranch and not the ranch that they went to on the show.
Like a biggest loser branded hotel where like anyone could pay to go and have like a wellness experience. And Danny and I, I remember this vividly, literally [00:10:00] sat. On our couch and we're looking this up on Google and we're like, oh my God, how amazing would it be to do this and eat 1200 calories a day and work out for like four hours a day and lose a ton of weight and come home and like everything would be great like, right.
So that's just an anecdotal example of the way in which this fueled. People's, our culture's obsession with disordered eating and dieting. Right. And I think that the, the ramifications of this over the years, the ripple effect cannot be underestimated. And I was shocked that they did not bring on anyone to speak to that.
Um, I think it was a huge miss. And I kept waiting for it to come. I'm like, are, can they stop talking about the drama between these two women and what the producers said? Like, I'm over it. I get it. Like, what about all the other shit? Because to me like that's a lot more interesting and a lot more valuable and fine.
Like if you were like, you made some of these women out to be like villains. Right? And that sucks. But I get it. Like can we talk about how this impacted all [00:11:00] the people who were watching? Right. I think that's a kind of a way to capture it. The documentary did not address in any way the people who were watching the show.
It only addressed the people who were on the show, which is obviously tremendously important, but it also only spoke to five of those people. So I think there's just this huge, it only addressed this little teeny tiny pie slice of the impact of this show and the people who were on it and the people who watched it.
Um, and as someone who watched this show religiously and was obsessed with it, and as someone who was already suffering from really severe disordered eating at this time, I can speak to the fact that like. This obviously only fueled that, but it was like, I'm gonna jump around here with some of my notes.
Right. It was so normalized, right? Like, it's like the air that we breathe like this, this mindset and this approach and this, um, language around people's bodies and this language around food and what happiness means and what's considered acceptable and attractive. [00:12:00] Is like the sky is blue. It was accepted as fact in the way the sky is blue and you know the grass is green.
We just accepted these things as factual, inherent truths of being alive, and the way the show reinforced that, again, like the impacts of that kind of blow my mind. I don't even think they can be fully understood, but I think it would've been helpful to attempt it. Um. Like, and you know, I have some notes around like, why were we all so obsessed with this show?
It was such a huge hit. I remember talking about it with my sister-in-law and. And my cousin and friends and like at work and looking forward to it. I think it was on, on Tuesday nights. I don't know the way we would like, you know, DVR it and like all the stuff, like we were obsessed with this show. Um, like why were we so obsessed with it?
Because we all. Wanted that, right? We were like, oh, what can I do? How can I replicate what they're doing? If I [00:13:00] do what they're doing? Can I lose weight? Can I be thin? Right? And watching these dramatic, drastic transformations, right? These people come on, and the videos of them like being so cruel to themselves and so mean, and talking about like the way their bodies look and what their lives are like with such cruelty and that losing weight would fix everything, would make their life better, right?
And sidebar. Losing weight can make some people's lives better. A thousand percent, yes. But that in isolation in and of itself, no. That comes along with a lot of other work mindset, work skills and behaviors. Losing weight in and of itself, in isolation, in a vacuum in many cases, actually will not change her life.
Um, and I think that's kind of what this show proves in a little bit of what this documentary proves. Um. You know, and I think it just begs the question of like, what do we not even realize? How do we, [00:14:00] how are we, how are these things so insidious and so like seeped into the ground underneath us and the air around us that we don't even realize how it's impacting us, right?
Because that's what this show was, and now 20 years later we can watch this and be like, oh my God, what the fuck was wrong with? That's literally what I was saying is I was watching, I was like, what the fuck was wrong with me? How could I have watched this? And like been so obsessed with it and been so into it and thought that it was okay, I was like appalled.
And then it made me think about what, what's happening today that's doing the same thing that I don't realize. I think that is such an interesting question. Um, what are some of the things that we are being told and sold that we are accepting? As inherent or standard or as facts that aren't because of the way it's being offered to us because of, um, the [00:15:00] intensity and the, um, and the frequency and the consistency of those messages.
Um, I think that that's, that's something that we cannot underestimate. Um, it's kind of like the analogy to like, if you think about like an old photograph. And like if you look back at an old photograph when you hated your body and were trying to lose weight, and you look now and you're like, oh my God, what the fuck was wrong with me?
I don't even know what I was talking about. It's kind of the same kind of thing. But then if you try to apply that to a photo now, and it's hard, you have to be like, well, if that's true for a photo, then is it possible that I am not seeing the reality, that I'm not able to look at this objectively, that I don't have the skills to look at this now in a way that actually.
It reflects my values, reflects reality, right? The answer is yes. How does that apply to these bigger picture things? Right? How does that apply to things that are going on right now? Right. I think one of the things specifically is the impact of GLP ones, right? And I am very pro glp. One for the people who need [00:16:00] it.
But there is also people using a lot of people using GLP ones that don't need it or using it for reasons that I think are out of alignment maybe with values, certainly out of alignment with health in certain cases. Um, and are using it because of pre societal and cultural pressure and expectations.
Right. So I think this is one of those things where in 5, 10, 15 years we're gonna look back as to when these drugs really went on the rise and start to really see like. What was the impact of these? Right? And there are gonna be a lot of phenomenal impacts for people who needed them. And I think there's also gonna be a lot of downsides for people who use them that didn't need them.
Um, you know, I'm looking at my notes. I think that some another big thing, and these, these topics are no particular order that I wanted to talk about and I probably should have led with this, the most alarming thing to me on that show. That I can't remember. I remember seeing it, but I don't remember having a negative [00:17:00] reaction to it where those, what they called quote eating temptations, where they put out like a massive buffet style of breads and sweetss and either challenged people to eat large quantities of them, which would earn them a prize or force them to pick up a donut in their mouth without eating it and move it around in order to win a game.
That is straight up emotional abuse. I mean, there was a ton of emotional abuse on this show, and the word abuse was used a couple of times, but I don't think the words, the language, emotional abuse was used and it really just stopped me in my tracks. I, I couldn't even believe that this was what was put on these people and that we watched it and cheered it on.
It's, it makes me feel gross and it makes me realize like, how. Fucked up. I was how fucked up all of us were to have watched that and not seen a [00:18:00] problem with it. Um, it, it, it, it blows my mind. Um, and the damage that this had to have done to the vast majority of these people, right. And the, the five people they had on it was kind of split.
Some of them were like a couple that were these two, they were sisters. This show changed my life. One of them was like, best friends with Bob and the other people were like, I wouldn't touch that show if you paid me a million dollars to go back on. Right. Not their exact words, but that was the idea. Um, I find it very hard to believe that the emotional abuse of that show and the way that that show had to have made their relationship with food a thousand times worse has not had long lasting impact that required support.
And I'm hopeful that a lot of these people have gotten support. I would bet that many of them haven't. Um, that type of damage does not just go away. It doesn't just get undone with time. It doesn't just get [00:19:00] undone if you lose weight. Um, and again, I wish that they had addressed some of this. Um, it was just.
It was, I, I, I can't even find the word. They focused so much on the workout piece of things. I don't need to recap that or talk about like how terrible it was. And, um, you know, what happened to, was it Tracy who had the um, uh, rhabdomyolysis, I don't remember the exact word, whatever, when she ran and then she collapsed and was in the hospital and then came back on the show, like all this stuff, right?
I don't need to recap that. I'm talking a little more, a little bit more about the food, because they really didn't talk about food, they didn't talk about the impacts of. What they fed people, how they fed people, how they talked about food except for some of these challenges. And it was really just, I don't think there was enough time spent on it.
And I think the repercussions of that, again, not just for the contestants, but for the people watching. Um, and so I'm sharing this because I hope that it will get you thinking about what was the impact of that show on me. If you watched, if you didn't watch, but you watched the documentary like. [00:20:00] You know, and you were alive during this time.
There were other pieces of diet culture, right, that impact us. And I think really overall, what this documentary is an opportunity to do is to really check in and notice how media, the media part of diet culture has impacted you and the way you think about food, the way you think about weight loss. Your self-worth, what your goals are, what you think will make you happy.
That's really, I think, kind of my biggest takeaway is what are the factors that are influencing those things for you and getting really honest about it so that you can see where it's popping up, so that you can see where your actions may misalign from your values because of those external influences.
Um, I don't think that we can truly do this work, meaning make behavior changes around food and make, you know. Work on improving our self-worth and disconnecting it from our body weight and [00:21:00] lose weight without relying on it for our happiness. Until we've looked at this, until we're able to identify and call out and say yes.
Um, you know, seeing all these people on social media lose weight and have their before and after photos is making me want to lose weight. Right? Calling that out for what it is is really important so that then it can be addressed. Um, and I think that. That to me is what this show, what watching this show is bringing up for me.
Um, couple more things I wanted to talk about, um,
which is, I'm looking at my notes. They mentioned Ozempic very quickly at the end. 'cause it was clear that two of the former contestants were using Ozempic. Um, and I just thought it was interesting. I don't really know. They have a lot of commentary about it. I just thought it was interesting the way they, like, literally it was like 30 seconds glossed over it.
Um, and I guess that was their way to kind of like wrap up the bow of like, well, where are they now? [00:22:00] And how, what are they, what support are they using now to support their health? Um, and if. Their weight is still something that feels like an issue for them. What are they doing to deal with that? Right. And Danny, who's the contestant who had lost the largest amount of weight and has regained it all, said that he didn't feel like GLP one score for him.
Right. So, you know, they, they tried to incorporate two perspectives, but it was like, it was so glossed over. Um. That I just think there could, it was only three episodes. Like to me this could have been like 10 episodes and they could have really like dug into some of that. Um, and talked about what are some of the other tools, what's some of the other work that you've done along the way to work through what happened to you on the show?
Right. Huge miss. Um, I think one other thing I'm looking at another note. I'm not sure that it, like, feels necessarily relevant. Well, I think it, I think it is actually. And this is something that I would actually have been thinking about doing a [00:23:00] separate podcast on, which I've done in the past, but, you know, kind of an updated version, which is this idea around like, what is health, right?
They kind of talk about getting healthy as using like, you know, your BMI and your blood pressure and biomarkers, like what's your cholesterol and all these things. And yes, those are those things. Can be a part of health, but health is way more than just what your blood work says and way more than just what the scale says or your body fat percentage.
Right. Um, health has to do with how much, what's your bone density, how much muscle do you have, how much weight can you pick up? Um, mental health. Emotional health, relationship health, spiritual health. Right. There are, um, one of the, um. The programs that I've studied with kind of identify six different pieces of what they call deep health, right?
And they are interconnected, they overlap, they impact each other, and physical health is obviously one of those things, but to me, that's all this show talked about. And they have a very reductionist view [00:24:00] and conversation around what health is. And I think that, that, that, um, really permeated into the documentary.
Again, there was, to me, there was no kind of analysis on the show around, well. We were only looking at these people's physical health. We certainly weren't looking at their mental or emotional health with the way that we treated them. You know, you think that you're beating willpower and motivation into people by doing this, right?
And that's not what's happening. Um, you're certainly not looking at like their self-worth, their self-confidence, how they perceive their bodies, how they feel about themselves. Um, all these aspects of health. Um, I think. It's a very reductionist view. And again, as watching this documentary, the documentary in some ways perpetuated some of, I think, the worst parts of the show because by omission, by not having conversations, by not addressing some of these issues, they kind of perpetuated it.
And that's like, I think, again, a real miss for me. [00:25:00] Um. And I think the last point I wanna make, and I think it's kind of perfect because it was what was on the closing screen, is the last episode, they put some, um, some stats up around, um, obesity rates. And they use the language, were obese instead of have obesity, right?
So they put up a percentage on the screen of, um, x number of people in the United States in 2025 are obese, or were obese compared to like when the show ended. Right. The percentage today is higher than it was, but the language of are obese saying, you know, 42% of Americans are obese versus saying 42% of Americans have obesity.
I think that sentence in and of itself, insidiously perpetuates everything that was wrong with that show, that reality show to begin with, um, and in some ways completely undermined the documentary at all and obesity. Has been identified [00:26:00] as a disease and if you are not aware of that or you don't believe that, hashtag science, okay, it is a disease the way heart disease is a disease or, um, hypothyroidism or diabetes, these are diseases, right, that are.
Have a lot of different causes, some hereditary, some environmental, um, lots of different reasons, right. I'm not a, I'm not a medical professional, but it is, this is kind of a widely accepted, um, I will say theory because all sciences theories, um, that obesity is a disease and so the, the language around we're obese versus have obesity.
I think strips away that scientific understanding and approach to supporting people with obesity and perpetuates that it's their fault, that it's their problem, [00:27:00] that they didn't work hard enough, that they didn't try hard enough. Rather than that they have a disease, which the environmental component of that can, obviously, you can't even begin to, you know.
I think, well, I shouldn't say that. I think we all understand or can begin to understand the role of the environment in this disease. Um, but. Obesity is not about a lack of willpower. It is not about a lack of motivation. It is not about not trying hard enough. Your body is predisposed to carry large amounts of excess body fat in a way that other people's bodies are not biologically.
And so that language perpetuates this untruth around what obesity is, and it really, really angered me. Um, in addition to the fact that. I just did a social media post on this, you know, saying this person is obese versus this person has obesity. Obesity does not define the entirety of who [00:28:00] they are, right?
So by saying, you know, you know, she is obese or 42% of Americans are obese, it makes a part of their identity versus something that has happened to them or something that they are dealing with. Right. And I will speak to this separately. Um, my niece has dwarfism and. I, I talk with my sister-in-law about this, right?
We never refer to her as saying, oh, Mira is a dwarf. We say Mira has dwarfism. Those are two very different things, um, because it's something that that happened to her that is part of her physiology, but it does not define who she is as a person. Um, and I think there's. This is just really important, like, I'm starting to lose my words a little bit, but, um, the language around this matters and I feel like [00:29:00] Netflix's choice to use that language.
Um. Kind of speaks to how much education is still needed around this and how myths and diet culture, despite how much progress we, we, we think we've made, which is some but far less. And I think we actually have, or think we have, um, how insidious it is and how it impacts us, right? Because that one, that one, those two lines up on that screen perpetuated something that the show had established and did nothing to refute it and nothing to kind of.
Shift, shift the perception, shift the beliefs shift the values based on what we know now that maybe we didn't know 20 years ago, right? It's like when you know better, you do better. So do better Netflix, um, because the information is out there. And if you follow along with the leading. Um, researchers and obesity, medi obesity medicine physicians, this is the language they are using.
This is the way they are talking about [00:30:00] this, because they are the experts. And I actually, now that I think about it, wish they had brought on an obesity medicine physician, which I think they did have. Now I'm like blanking. Um, but there's several people that I follow who anyway, I think would've been great.
I'm going far off on a tangent right now. Alright, this is half an hour. It's a little long. I would love to hear your thoughts, um, what you guys liked, what you didn't like. If you agree with me, if you disagree with me, um, I totally would love to hear so send me a dm, send me an email, we'll chat, and uh, yeah, that's what I got for you.
Thanks for hanging in and, um, we'll talk more soon.