Lessons on Weight Loss from ‘The Biggest Loser’

From 2004 to 2016, millions of Americans tuned in every week to watch “The Biggest Loser” — a reality TV show in which contestants competed against each other to see who could lose the most weight. The show was a hit, and participants did lose lots of weight, but the tactics were often humiliating and brutal. Now, nine years after “The Biggest Loser” went off the air, a revealing Netflix docuseries and book by a researcher who studied some of the contestants are prompting new questions about what we really know about metabolism and how it contributes to weight loss.

We talk with researcher Kevin Hall about the surprising lessons he learned about metabolism and weight loss from his years-long study of former participants on the show. We also hear from season 8 contestant Tracey Yukich Lane about the medical emergency that almost knocked her out of contention — and why she desperately wanted to return to the competition. Lane is featured in the new Netflix docuseries, “Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser.”

ALSO HEARD:

• As a senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health, esteemed researcher Kevin Hall was the last person you’d associate with reality TV — but in “The Biggest Loser,” he saw a potential goldmine of discoveries, and launched a six-year study of how extreme weight loss affected people’s metabolisms. His findings and more are documented in the new book, “Food Intelligence: The Science of How Food Both Nourishes and Harms Us.” We talk with Hall and his co-author, science journalist Julia Belluz, about the show’s long-term impact on contestants, common misconceptions about metabolism, and Hall’s surprising findings about its relationship to weight loss.
• A couple years ago, a new evidence-based approach to weight loss hit the market: the Lumen, a device that claims to measure metabolic function and tell you whether you’re burning fat or carbs. Pulse reporter Liz Tung talks with a friend who tried out the Lumen, along with leading metabolism researcher Eric Ravussin, to find out if it really works.