Reality television, one of society’s most popular forms of entertainment, tends to be less reality and more television. The hit American weight-loss show "The Biggest Loser," a program centered around the lives of approximately 16 morbidly obese individuals each on a supposedly inspirational journey to weight loss, is no exception.

This show claims to promote a physically healthy, sustainable exercise schedule, and a transformative lifestyle that leads to healthier diet patterns. However, the show cleverly masks the ugly truth from viewers: a near-starving dieting, dangerously unhealthy routines, and continuously negative mental strain that are neither sustainable nor realistic in the “real world.” Contestants spend months on “The Ranch,” an allotment of land upon which the show is filmed, isolated from families and friends (to whom brief and heavily monitored contact is occasionally allowed as a prize) in an attempt to lose the most weight. They are subjected to ridiculously slim diets and incredibly overbearing exercise routines that are all quickly brushed aside under the pretense of becoming healthy and bringing such healthy habits into their everyday routines at home.

The show appeals to its American viewers because of its message of health and the quick reduction of obesity among the contestants. Unfortunately, obesity is a danger that now affects over one-third of the population. However, according to multiple accounts of former contestants, testimony from the doctors on the show, and even the executive producer, the habits contestants learn are quickly lost, and many gain back the weight they had lost on the show. It is important for viewers to avoid believing the falsities "The Biggest Loser" manipulates into something that resembles a healthy program, when contestants are, in reality, exposed to unhealthy, harmfully slim diets and both physical and mental regimes that cause drastic and unsustainable weight loss.

Though "The Biggest Loser" appears on the surface to be a motivating, captivating, and inspiring reality show to the average viewer, the story of the contestants is exceedingly manipulated. Past contestants have stated in interviews after the show that the conditions in which they trained and lived for months were exceedingly damaging to their bodies not only throughout the duration of the show but also afterwards; former contestant and runner-up Kai Hibbard, for instance, admitted to developing a severe eating disorder as a result of "The Biggest Loser's" absurdly slim diet. This information quickly becomes even more alarming when it is also true that the show boasts over sevenmillion viewers who may decide to emulate the dangerously calorie-restricted regimen contestants endure.

In spite of "The Biggest Loser's" website claim that contestants aim to “navigate the many challenges that can be stumbling blocks to living a healthy lifestyle,” the severely restricted diet contestants endure throughout the show is perhaps the most challenging “stumbling block” they may encounter. The drastically restricted diet of the contestants, in contrast to a healthy recommended daily intake of 1,200 to 1,600 calories per day, is, according to former contestant Kai Hibbard “about 1,000 calories a day and … working out between five and eight hours a day.” This excessive amount of exercise, approximately 10 times the amount recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine, leads to destroyed metabolism, increasing the chance that contestants will regain the weight.

Furthermore, the official website of "The Biggest Loser" says little to nothing regarding the show itself and the possibility of contestants’ ability to actually maintain the type of weight loss they may accomplish. For some past winners, or rather Losers, have lost over 200 pounds; instead, the site’s description of the show is rather petty, discussing elements such as makeovers and the “temptations” contestants will face in the upcoming season. One of the few noteworthy claims regarding the actual content of the show is that contestants aim “to change their lives and get healthy.” However, the claim that contestants actually “change their lives” becomes rather irrelevant when it is also true that the overly intense diet and exercise routine of the show each damage the contestants’ metabolism. This slows down to approximately 500 calories per day slower than prior to entering the competition, greatly increasing the chances that contestants will quickly regain weight. In fact, even the executive producer of the show admitted that only half of the contestants on the show managed to maintain their “healthy” weight following the finale.

Even those contestants who were successful regained weight which, unfortunately enough, was necessary for Season 16 winner Rachel Frederickson. With a final weight of just 105 pounds, Frederickson was underweight and only reached a healthy weight after gaining 20 pounds following the finale. So technically, the claim that "The Biggest Loser" “changes the lives” of the contestants is valid if by change the author was referring to causing metabolic damage by creating unsustainably dangerous diets that promote an extremely unhealthy lifestyle.

Physical damage aside, contestants also cope with persistent mental strain with both trainers and a production crew who ignore doctors’ prescriptions as well as the desire to win the substantial monetary prize by any means necessary. Though each episode of "The Biggest Loser" is accompanied by a brief message at the end claiming that “contestants were supervised by doctors while participating in the show…” this statement means little when trainers and production both ignore the dangers present to the contestants. For instance, when the doctor prescribed that contestants drink electrolytes, a trainer claimed it would cause weight gain and the contestant would “lose the last chance to save [their] life.” In a similar manner, a contestant afflicted with a torn calf muscle when told to run could not do so, and as a result of her noncompliance, production edited the footage to give her a hostile demeanor.

Some contestants, desperate to quickly lose weight prior to a weigh-in each week (in which the contestant with the least amount of weight loss gets eliminated) as well as prior to the finale, would subject themselves to dehydration. Season one winner Ryan Benson gained about 32 pounds in water weight just in the five days following the finale. These behaviors are incredibly damaging to contestants’ health and further illustrate why they so quickly regain weight lost on the show.

"The Biggest Loser" is an emotionally manipulative television show that deceives its audience into believing the gilded lies of weight loss. In reality, this show is not unlike a majority of reality shows on television. It is largely falsified, unsafe for contestants, and advertises false ease in acquiring a healthy lifestyle. While it may have justifiable intentions, and may be inspiring towards its audience, it is important for viewers to consider that the only viable way to lose over ten pounds in just one week, and well over a hundred in just a few months, is through dangerously unhealthy diet and exercise routines in combination with ignoring potential dangers to oneself. An unrealistic and unsustainable lifestyle will inevitably lead nowhere but back to the beginning of the “weight loss journey.”