Biggest Loser Finale

SHE LOOKS FINE! Of course her skin looks taut, she clearly has a small frame and small bone structure, and she was carrying a LOT of excess weight! Give her skin some time to adjust and stop sagging, and she will look fine. So she has a low/underweight BMI, BFD! As I said, she has a very small frame. I'm built the same way, and when I was at my normal weight, I was always in the underweight range, about a point or so under what was considered "normal." Stop cutting her down. The poor thing has probably been made fun of for years for being fat, and now she's vilified becuase she's too thin?!?

To her critics - if you're so concerned with being avenging angels of health, step away from your f***ing computers and go volunteer your time at a pediatric hospital, or an AIDS clinic, or something that involves HELPING legitimately unhealthy people and not just tearing them down because they look different than you.

QFT

I wonder what she weighed when she was swimming in high school. I don't think that I ever heard that. I did think that her face and her arms were too thin looking and I do think that it sends the wrong message to reward someone for being underweight. I just read an article where she said that she ate 'no more than' 1600 calories a day. If you are working out 'a lot' as she stated that she was, then that probably wasn't enough. I lost eating less than that, HOWEVER, I have a very sedentary lifestyle. I guess to each their own ..... other than the impression that it (along with other media) gives to our youth.

I think she is too thin, but she'll gain some weight back now that the finale has happened. She'll have to go back to real life and it will all measure out.

But I think that there is a double standard happening. The movie stars, celebrities and models are idolized for their size 0 bodies, which they obtained via lettuce and cocaine, but this girl works her butt off (literally!) via damn hard exercise and diet and she's shamed.

I personally think everyone should just cut her some slack.

Wow. First of all I do not judge people for simply being at a low BMI. I am 5"2", I am very small framed (meaning I don't look too thin at a low weight, that is what small framed means), and my weight has often fluctuated in the range of 98 to 103, usually staying around 100 or 102. So, yes, as someone at the low end and below, I do examine and try to understand health and aesthetics at that level (for my own purposes as well). I am not a doctor and I'm not her doctor. It is my personal opinion that I think she looks very thin for her frame. I think it is ok to talk about it considering how unhealthy the show is in it's weight loss practices, something we have been talking about for a long time on mfp.

I do not know what it is like to lose that much weight, so if that causes that look then I am here to learn.

I do know what it is like to be a professional dancer (athlete).

And I do volunteer work as a significant aspect of my life.

But, I don't think it's ok to insult her and call her gross or things like that or to say that no woman can ever be healthy at that weight.

Also because of judges, I should mention I eat 2000 to 2300 calories a day. So, you can do the math on that.

SHE LOOKS FINE! Of course her skin looks taut, she clearly has a small frame and small bone structure, and she was carrying a LOT of excess weight! Give her skin some time to adjust and stop sagging, and she will look fine. So she has a low/underweight BMI, BFD! As I said, she has a very small frame. I'm built the same way, and when I was at my normal weight, I was always in the underweight range, about a point or so under what was considered "normal." Stop cutting her down. The poor thing has probably been made fun of for years for being fat, and now she's vilified becuase she's too thin?!?

To her critics - if you're so concerned with being avenging angels of health, step away from your f***ing computers and go volunteer your time at a pediatric hospital, or an AIDS clinic, or something that involves HELPING legitimately unhealthy people and not just tearing them down because they look different than you.

QFT

Her low BMI/weight can kill her. Your body will eat away at muscle when you are that thin. Your heart is a muscle.... you can have a heart attack due to a low BMI.

Ok, but that is definitely not true for everyone that is 3 pounds below 18.5. A meal can bump them back again. and anorexia is diagnosed physically at 17.5. Many small framed people are healthy in the 18 to 18.5 range. I'm at a low BMI and I eat over 2000 calories a day (I'm petite). I have a small frame and full approval of health from every doctor I have. People in my family are small (it's genetic). My great grandmother just passed away this month at the age of 99 and that was from a bladder infection that she did not go to the doctor to get treatment for.

why is this in success stories?

Pondering the nature of "success"? Deep. Philosophic. Thigh gap.

:laugh: Gotta love this place.

I was as shocked as Jillian and Bob (neither of whom were her trainer btw) when Rachel came out. She's only 24 and she looked gaunt and ill and so much older. It's so sad because before she left the ranch she looked amazingly muscular and fit and healthy. I'm hoping she just took it to an extreme to assure her victory and will gain back some of her muscle tone and fitness now that she has the $250k. PS, her height isn't a confirmed 5'4, she's anywhere between 5'4 and 5'7.

Not all winners have gotten as scary skinny as she did. Last year's female winner, Danni Allen, looked muscular and healthy at the finale.

She's only 24!? I didn't watch the show, so I didn't know. But holy eff!! I saw her picture and thought she was a 45 year old mother! :noway: :noway: :noway: :noway: :noway:

It is true, you really can't win either way. I think because it was just such a shock after seeing her in the healthy athletic spot she was in before the finale that got people. I look not just at the trainers in the pictures, but her fellow contestants behind them. They look scared too. Remember the camera adds ten pounds, so can you imagine how she must have looked to them in person?

Seriously? Someone is 50-100 pounds overweight and no one bats an eye, because this is America where everyone is overweight. But you get 1 point below a normal BMI and everyone loses their minds.

You can't please them when you're obese and you can't please them when you're too skinny.

It's not about BMI. It's about what is healthy for the individual. I am consistently one pound below the 18.5 BMI. So, that is not the issue. I am not underweight for my frame (even though BMI might say I am at times). She looks unhealthy to me (without knowing her weight or BMI). That is my opinion. I wouldn't go so far as to body shame her. But, I also wouldn't be irresponsible and say to young girls that I don't think she looks unhealthy because at this time I do (for her frame). Different people are healthy at a different BMI. For some people it's 18, for others it may be 20, for others maybe even higher.

We can cast our judgements and thoughts forever, but the fact of the matter is that the Biggest Loser Contenstants are also on their own personal journeys. Too big, too thin, it doesn't matter. I understand when you are on a show such as BL, you are subject to public scrutiny, but I think we on MFP, of all people should know that each journey is individual and I am sad that this woman is being criticized so fervently. Whether or not I think she is healthy, I cannot begin to understand what she is going through because I am not her. I do know that her success and the success of the other contestants is inspiring. I may not want to look like her, but I am not her, and neither are any of us. :-)

Have a great day!

Seriously? Someone is 50-100 pounds overweight and no one bats an eye, because this is America where everyone is overweight. But you get 1 point below a normal BMI and everyone loses their minds.

You can't please them when you're obese and you can't please them when you're too skinny.

^^^So true, people need to leave this girl alone already. I think she looks great & good for her for losing the weight. The pictures of her going around look like they have been altered to make her look old and sickly.

I think Rachel was the only one who shocked me. At first I thought hold up this is sending a very wrong message. Then I got to thinking about it and first and foremost it's a game and if she had the will power to go from where she was to where she is just for the money, hat's off to her. With that kind of will power she should be able to maintain a healthy weight moving forward. Congrats on the win but damn I sure hope we don't have a dramatic reveal like that again lol

You know what's truly funny?

Biggest Loser has been promoting unsafe, unrealistic, extreme weigh loss tactics all along, but no one seemed to care until someone started LOOKING unhealthy.
No one gave a s^hit about all the vomiting because of physical exhaustion, the incredibly low calorie diets, etc. That chick who won did it the same way everyone else did, she just did it a little bit longer.

I am just saying, no one took offense to her drastic methods until the results were showing on her body.

Good points made there.

Yes! Looked really too thin.

Another perspective on the issue (and quite well written) by a former contestant on TBL Australia

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/former-biggest-loser-contestant-andrew-cosi-costello-reveals-the-truth-about-the-weight-loss-show/story-e6frfmq9-1226820498768