BIGGEST LOSER SEASON 15 FINALE
I’m all for healthy weight loss; I wish I could achieve it myself right about now. I often joke that I wish they would have a show called The Medium Loser, so I could go on it to just lose twenty pounds. But then I start wondering if I should hope for even more, to get back to my usual very skinny self.
Then I watched Rachel, the young former swimmer, win the Season 15 Biggest Loser last night, and my stomach turned. For me, been there, done that, though for different reasons.
Rachel, before and after, equally scary.
She looked anorexic. Rachel took her weight loss way too far, over the edge. She won the show by losing over 59% of her body weight! She now weighs 105 lbs., and she’s 5’4. I was always skinny, (well, for most of my life starting at twelve,) but when I was a club promoter back in the day, I got down to 98 lbs.! And I’m over 5’6”!!! So, unlike most of the population who’s outraged by what Rachel looks like now, I really know of what I speak.
[Note: I, too, was oblivious to what I looked like, but my level of thin-ness was for an entirely different reason. In those years, I had never weighed more than 114 pounds, so I already knew I was thin, and, of course, wasn’t trying to lose any more weight. But I began clubbing all the time, and although I didn’t drink or do drugs, I was dancing all night, and then staying out to all hours. So I slept too late for breakfast and lunch, and by dinner in the club, I was running the whole thing so I never had time to eat what I ordered. (The doctors told me that anorexia just means “without food,” and that’s what I was doing, but not because I thought I was fat, at all.) Couple all that with a lot of stress from my promoting partners, and then you have a tall girl down to100 pounds before I knew it.]
The thing about twenty-four-year-old Rachel is that she was normal weight, and an athlete, just four or five years ago. She had been a teen-age competitive swimmer, and then for some reason, (which she says is a boy—isn’t it always?,) she stopped swimming and started eating, and gained a lot of weight. (Her “starting weight” on the show several months ago was 260 lbs.! I don’t understand how a young, in-shape athlete could let that happen in a matter of just a very few years, but that’s another story.
The three finalists–Rachel, David, and Bobby, with show host, Allie.
Getting back to last night’s finale, the two guy finalists had already been introduced. The first one, Bobby, looked pretty sickly himself. Since the show had made much about his homosexuality, my first thought was that he had AIDS. But then I remembered what we watching. But it was still hard to look at him. The next guy, David, looked pretty good, but even he had that peculiar walk and stance (sort-of like an old man) that so many of these BL contestants develop.
As they were about to introduce Rachel, I told Mr. X, “Bobby has this won…unless she’s anorexic.” And bingo…she was!!! Mr. X said, “She looks like Karen Carpenter.”
So, I have many questions: Is the show embarrassed that she not only looked like this, but that she won? Are they planning to put some rules in place to ensure that this never happens in future seasons? Is this a cautionary tale? Did she make herself anorexic just to win the quarter million dollars? Does she know how bad she looks? Is she planning to eat anytime soon?
They need to take her out and feed her pronto because it wouldn’t look good if the show had a tragedy on their hands, if you get my drift.
Watching the end of the finale, my head was spinning; so many thoughts ran through it then and for several hours after. Here are some of them:
If money weren’t involved, I don’t know if she would have taken it so far.
She traded one eating disorder for another!
Rachel may be one of those people who just has an “unhealthy relationship” with her own body.
This season was all about “second chances.” Now Rachel needs one…at the buffet!
Her face looks like a skeleton. And when she bent down, we could see her hair is thinning. (That’s actually how the doctor got me to eat again; he told me anorexia is “why your hair looks bad. It’s protein and you’re not getting any!” I started eating so fast.)
Bob Harper’s and Jillian Michael’s shocked faces when they saw Rachel for the first time on the finale.
I think everyone’s heart kind-of sank a little bit when Rachel entered the stage. The trainers actually looked shocked. Jillian let out an “Oh my God,” and you could tell she didn’t mean it in a good way.
Rachel’s looks were really more than a little frightening.
Perhaps she’s bulimic now, too.
Let’s hope she’s just pulling a Matthew McConaughey, and approaching it like a role in a film, which also yields a big payday.
The BL contestants always put some weight back on, so I sure hope she will, too.
She’s young enough that she can add weight pretty quickly. Let’s just hope that she doesn’t overdo that process!!!
Rachel had really hit her ideal weight at the ranch, so maybe, as a competitor, she felt that she had no choice but to go too far to win this debacle. But she did look happy last night, and seemed oblivious to what she really looked like. So maybe she’s just nuts.
This might be the death knell for the show. Or at least the first nail in the coffin. (Mr. X said it was inevitable that something like this would happen.)
I don’t know how the powers-that-be over there can guard against this sort of thing. I’m sure they check for drugs, but they can’t do that for a lack of nutrients. Or can they?
I just hope this doesn’t make future finalists plot the same. It’s so unhealthy! (Jared Leto developed gout from gaining and losing weight for roles.)
No matter what, I wish a hearty congratulations to all the contestants. Losing that much weight cannot be easy. At this point, I’d be happy if I could lose just a few pounds, so imagining what they all just accomplished is mind-boggling.
I just hope they had some darn delicious food at the after-show shindig! I know that I did.
