Reaction to the biggest loser??

I'm not even American so I haven't watched the series but after Googling her and seeing her weight loss I have to say I'm shocked! Although she seems happy with her weight loss she's obviously underweight now and it's not healthy. It's dangerous to lose such a lot of weight in such a short time and she's either been starving herself or working out excessively in the few months she was at home to get to that size. I know people have said she's only gone this far so she could win the competition and the money and hopefully that IS what's happened and she will gain a little back now, but otherwise I would definitely say she's either on her way to developing an eating disorder or already has one. There's no way she could healthily maintain that physique after losing so much so quickly, even though that's what she says she intends to do! What I don't understand is how they even allowed her on TV, it's plain to everyone that she's much too thin and you could tell from the trainers' negative reactions that they thought so too. I just hope it doesn't influence people who might have been watching into thinking she's a role model... she's amazing for losing the weight but no one should try to be that skinny.

What bothered me is that she seemed to lose all the muscle tone she had. She looked extremely fit prior to the finale....... and at the finale she looked frail...... was sad to me.

That's how I felt also.

So many threads about this topic...my question remains where in the world did all her excess skin go?

She may not have had any... She was 200lbs to start, not 500. And genetics play a big role in that.

Some people are, on the bell curve of fitness, are total super-responders. I know one!! She works out for a week and gets ripped! Maybe her skin just shrank- she's YOUNG too so she has more elasticity. Personally the topic irritates me. When we live in a society where "there's no such thing as too rich or too thin" and where Kim Kardashian, Brittany Spears, and Scarlett Johansen (to name a few off the tops of my head) are "TOO FAT", and string bean super models with NO muscle tone are the standard of beauty, everyone should stop judging and realize the total insanity of that act alone! If she was someone on here and posted her "before and after" pics I SERIOUSLY doubt everyone would attack her.

It's amazing to me the double standards of society. If she went from one eating disorder to another, then she did - I hope not and I would HOPE that along with the fitness and diet aspect The Biggest Loser would address the REAL mental issues that are going on with a person who is a binge eater in the first place. Personally I think that if I saw her at my gym I would think she looks good - a little thin for my taste but she doesn't look emaciated. Does anyone know if she gained or loss LBM along with her fat, or did she gain LBM? How did she get so toned? What's her diet like? I hope she speaks out about what her health status is so people will leave her alone, and if she IS anorexic (or Bulemic) now, I really hope she gets HELP. That is a disease that kills, and it's absolutely body destroying and tragic. Women who suffer from those diseases also have an incredible high rate of suicide. If that's what happened she needs love, guidance, sincere compassion and concern, and not condemnation, judgement and attack!

She lost 45lbs in 3 months. In an article she stated she was eating 1600 calories and taking 3 exercise classes a day at the gym every day. I can't imagine her net caloric intake was more than 500 calories...but whatever.

The Biggest Loser has never encouraged health. It has its contestants eating no more than 1200 calories and exercising for up to 4 hours per day (one person even said 7 hours), often to the point of sheer exhaustion - I've also read accounts stating that people would dehydrate and starve themselves before weigh ins just to get an artificial "loss" on the scale.

This is why the majority end up gaining back the weight after the show - it's because it doesn't encourage sustainable goals and normalizes several dangerous ones. Not only that, but viewers are going to see people losing obscene amounts of weight each week (I think I saw a person losing 20 pounds after a week in one week?) and then get disappointed when they're "only" losing a pound or less and then give up because they think they must be doing something wrong. I've watched a few episodes here and there and I just always found it uncomfortably abusive. Of course, I'm not forced to watch it, so I don't. But I still despise the messages it gives out.

As for Rachel, I can't possibly comment on her mental well-being because it just wouldn't be fair, plus you can't judge someone for going to extremes to win such a great sum of money. However, if people are asking whether what she did was "healthy" or not, then I think the answer is obviously no - she herself has admitted to basically spending her entire day walking on the treadmill and then taking 4 exercise classes a day while eating a limit of 1200 calories. I'd be surprised if she managed to sustain that for the long-term, and I hope no one tries to emulate what she did at home with no supervision.

:laugh:
don't most of the winners gain the weight back?

I think Jillian Michael's expression said it all. I think the contestant went WAY too far! What surprised me was that I thought she lost all that weight in 10 months, not five! She is a bit taller than me and is now 105lbs. My minimum weight is 115 pounds before going into anorexic territory so the television show may have to make some revisions for future seasons. I hope that money was worth it because she looks like she is 40 now, a complete different person and not in a good way.

I think she lost too much in order to win. She could have anorexia, but I feel that it is more likely that she, being a competitive personality, simply decided to go to extremes to make sure she would win. I have checked several different height/weight charts that are based on different formulas for determining the healthy weight for a person, and according to every one of them, she is now underweight. I found one formula placed her at only about 10 lbs underweight, while the one most doctors use now days places her at around 20-30 lbs underweight, but I think she did that intentionally in order to win, the same way wrestlers will sometimes either intentionally gain or lose in order to compete in a different weight class, or the same way actors have at times intentionally gotten themselves underweight or overweight for a role. I don't believe she or Dolvett are under the impression that she should stay at that weight.

Someone said the real test would be if she could maintain, I actually hope she doesn't maintain at 105 pounds, what would be best for her health wise now would be to start gaining muscle. To work with a trainer to do strength training, while eating a high protein diet with enough extra calories to enable her to gain some muscle. I don't necessarily mean that she should bulk up like a bodybuilder, but she should try to gain back the muscle she obviously lost by losing sooo much weight.

I think the show is seriously flawed in that it encourages this. Perhaps instead of the winner being the one who loses the greatest percentage of their original bodyweight, the show should have doctors determine the healthy weight each contestant should aim for, and the winner should be the one who comes the closest to their number... if more than one were equally close, it could be decided through a drawing or a vote, or through an athletic competition or something, or they could just split the prize. If it was set up that way at least the contestants would not be encouraged to lose more than what is healthy.

She looks awful! Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too thin. She has the characteristic "look" that screams anorexia now. She started as a fresh faced 24 year old and now looks like she's 40. Her BMI is now 18, which is classified as underweight, which IS unhealthy. She certainly is the "biggest loser" with the way she looks and her health. I certainly wouldn't call this a "win". My daughter is 5'2" and wears a size 0 and looks HEALTHY! Rachel does not look well. I hope she gets help if she needs it, or that she purposely did this to guarantee winning the money and she puts back on 10 lbs. pronto!

The show also needs to be changed to where there is not 3 1/2 months between going home to the finale. That is way too long and now this happened. She lost 45 lbs. just in that time frame. NOT healthy!

I don't have a problem with it. What I imagine happened there is she really wanted to win and went to the extreme to be sure she succeeded. But it's not likely she can maintain that low weight long term, so she will probably bounce back up to a more suitable weight in the coming months and be just fine. I thought she looked beautiful, and the only part that looked a little too thin was her arms. But I know that some ladies just have really spindly arms and when you lose the fat, you end up with chicken wings, lol. I wish her the best, because I am sure she really worked hard to win.

This is perfect and I completely agree! It makes me so angry to see people criticize her for losing "too much". It was enough to win and that's what the true competitor in her wanted. She was an athlete when she started the competition and I am sure she will start to build muscle and start to look more like an athlete very soon now that the number on the scale no longer means the difference between her winning $250,000 or going home empty handed. I wish her the best and I wish I had some of that drive to keep me going!