{"id":14540,"date":"2009-11-25T16:05:31","date_gmt":"2009-11-25T21:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=14540"},"modified":"2009-11-26T11:18:34","modified_gmt":"2009-11-26T16:18:34","slug":"biggest-loser-controversial-diet-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/11\/biggest-loser-controversial-diet-tactics\/","title":{"rendered":"Biggest Loser Controversial Diet Tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"biggest-loser-logo\"<\/a>Anyone who has ever been desperate to lose weight, knows that\u00a0 extreme diet<\/a>\u00a0measures to drop a few pounds is sadly, just as common as scarfing down a quart of Rocky Road ice cream once\u00a0the goal weight is met.<\/p>\n

In a recent article in The New York Times, a very eye-opening and quite controversial light has been shed on the diet practices of a few of\u00a0the Biggest Loser contestants. And while they don’t involve eating pints of ice cream, they do question\u00a0the ethical and safety\u00a0regulatory practices\u00a0of NBC’s popular weight loss reality\u00a0series.<\/p>\n

From purposefully drinking as little water as possible\u00a0drop a few pounds to working out in layers of clothing when the cameras were turned off, past Biggest Loser contestants are openly discussing some of the behind-the-scenes diet practices they would do to lose weight before stepping on the scale for their weekly weigh-in’s.<\/p>\n

For instance, Kai Hibbard, a contestant from Biggest Loser Season 3, admitted to voluntarily dehydrating herself 24 hours before her weekly weigh-in.\u00a0And she was not just an outlier. In fact, a few other contestants have\u00a0admitted to engaging in the same kind of\u00a0forced dehydration as\u00a0Hibbard. To add a bit more\u00a0fuel to the fire, during the current season,\u00a0Biggest Loser Season 8<\/a>, two contestants have already been\u00a0taken to the hospital after suffering health ailments due to their extreme protocols for diet and exercise<\/a> mixed in with their overweight health status. This combination can result in not just\u00a0electrolyte imbalance,\u00a0but also\u00a0heat exhaustion and in some cases, even death.<\/p>\n

The problem is not so much in the show itself but rather what happens when the cameras stop rolling. Biggest Loser trainers, Jillian Michaels<\/a> and Bob Harper<\/a> scrutinize every step walked and every\u00a0ounce of chicken breast\u00a0eaten during the show’s taping hours, but\u00a0when the cameras stop, the two trainers’ hypervigilant eyes also close to what their teams are doing behind their well-sculpted backs. Michaels was quoted in The New York Times article as saying that what some contestants do to lose weight\u00a0is the unfortunate “dark side of the show.”<\/p>\n

Biggest Loser producers\u00a0go to extreme lengths to medically screen contestants before and during the show. In addition, a team of medical doctors,\u00a0health experts and dietiticans\u00a0supervise the show’s diet and exercise routines. But\u00a0despite these cautionary steps, some are concerned that a more serious consequence of one of NBC’s\u00a0most-watched prime-time programs is just waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m waiting for the first person to have a heart attack,\u201d said Dr. Charles Burant, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Health System director of the Michigan Metabolomics and Obesity Center.<\/p>\n

Visit The New York Times<\/a> article to read the complete story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone who has ever been desperate to lose weight, knows that\u00a0 extreme diet\u00a0measures to drop a few pounds is sadly, just as common as scarfing down a quart of Rocky Road ice cream once\u00a0the goal weight is met. In a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[8,232,3677,31,258,2698],"class_list":["post-14540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-biggest-loser","tag-bob-harper","tag-diet-tv","tag-health-news","tag-jillian-michaels","tag-kai-hibbard"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14540"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14565,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14540\/revisions\/14565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}