There’s still a lot of chatter around Rachel Frederickson, the 24 year-old Biggest Loser winner who showed up for her final weigh in at just 105 pounds at 5’5″ tall. Rachel had lost a total of 155 pounds from her high of 260. Since leaving the ranch three months ago, Rachel lost an additional 45 pounds, leaving her very thin and giving her the advantage to win the competition and the $250,000 prize money. Rachel lost the highest percentage of her body weight among the contestants, 59.5%, which is the highest percentage loss in the show’s 15 season history. Rachel is also the first contestant to be underweight at the time of her weigh-in.
Trainer Jillian Michaels has refused to comment on Rachel’s transformation, tweeting that she and Bob Harper are “not comfortable commenting on Rachel’s journey because we weren’t her trainers and weren’t given an opportunity to work with her at any point.”
Bob wasn’t able to resist saying something a day later. He taped an appearance on The Rachael Ray show, which will air next week. He said “What people don’t understand is, when contestants leave to go home … they’re in charge of themselves. So, I had not seen her until that night, and so when she walked out, I was just like of like, ‘whoa.’ And I’ve been on the show since the beginning, forever. … I was stunned. That would be the word. I mean, we’ve never had a contestant come in at 105 pounds.”
As many outlets noted, Bob and Jillian’s faces kind of said it all:
Rachel on was The Today Show Wednesday, where the anchors never asked her about the controversy over her weight loss. To be fair, Rachel was not in the studio at the time as her flight had been canceled. She was being interviewed remotely.
People Magazine recently published the detail that Rachel admitted that she exercised up to four times a day once she left the show, saying she took “maybe three, four classes a day” at the gym like Zumba and spinning. She must have spent all day at the gym. Rachel wanted to win Biggest Loser and she did. Many of you commented that this is a competition, and Rachel won by extreme measures. Whether it’s healthy or not to lose that much weight that fast is something the media continues to debate, but she did what she thought she had to in order to win. If these shows like Extreme Weight Loss and Biggest Loser showed realistic, gradual weight loss they just wouldn’t have as much drama would they?
Here’s the video of Rachel’s win:
I’ve never watched this show, nor do I follow the controversy, but tbh if someone said to me “go to the gym 4x a day for 3 months and there’s a pretty decent chance I’ll give you a quarter of a million dollars tax free” id probably do it (assuming I didn’t have a job to quit, which I guess none of these people do).
Wait they don’t have to pay taxes on that money?!
No, they definitely have to pay taxes.
Yes, they do. In the US, prize money is still considered income.
Oh yeah: Richard Hatch. So Amanda, since you would have to pay taxes would you still do it for that amount?
Oh I thought game show prizes were tax free.
For $130k+ for 3 months work (assuming I didn’t have good earning power?). Yeah I probably would! That’s a life changing amount of money for most people.
Definitely have to pay taxes on it, but still a nice amount of money, so I see why they go the extra mile to try to win. Plus a number of the contestants have gotten sponsorship deals, speaking engagements, etc, so it can be worth a lot of money.
Pretty sure everyone would. $250k or $130k, some people need 5 years of work to make that kind of income ($150 at $30 a year).
I am a little uncomfortable with this too just because I know the pressures that exist to be thin and I feel like this show is promoting unhealthy behavior. The phenomenon of reality television is that it asks the viewers to make judgments. It invites a dialogue to discuss how we are supposed to look, how we should behave, what is unacceptable and what is acceptable, how much money we should have, what our social norms should be… reality TV shows are “fun” for people to watch because they invite these kinds of judgments and discussions. I think the reason for obesity is partly cultural and has very little to do with how many unhealthy options there are these days.
Many Americans who are overweight subconsciously believe that there is a quick fix for being “healthy” again. Whether it’s liposuction, Rasberry ketones, green tea concentrate, the south beach diet, Weight Watchers, whatever… people think they can lose weight at any time, and this is expert marketing. The truth is that good health is not attained simply by a diet, it is a comprehensive way of life that requires a complete overhaul of not only your day to day activities but the way you think about your body, yourself, and your overall well being. The truth is that every pound gradually put on through the years adds up little by little and, eventually, for the vast majority of us, you can’t undo what took five years in five weeks, much less what took 15 years, two pregnancies, surgeries, or whatever else people go through in life.
To tell people this is possible is simultaneously promoting unhealthy weight loss practices with unhealthy body image motivations AND telling people it’s okay to keep eating because look what you can do in two months. I think implicitly, shows like this one keep people unhealthy on both ends of the spectrum. Also, I think the weigh-ins are not every week in real time, not sure. This just makes me really wary of what psychosocial implications reality television can have on the spectators and the willing participants of these basically live broadcast sociological experiments.
I totally agree that these shows promote unrealistic expectations and rarely offer real life solutions in the American toxic environment of instant gratification.
However, I think it’s human nature to contemplate and debate social norms and for the majority to discourage the minority in its deviations from that. Its a human tribal instinct to want to make a “normal” and fit into that mold.
If we didn’t have reality tv and blogs like Celebitchy we’d still be standing outside the farmhouse at the white picket fence talking about the neighbor down the street and whether she bleaches her hair or not.
@GIRLFACE – I wouldn’t call Weight Watchers a “quick fix”.
Mourning. I’ve known quite a few people that got weight watchers meals for a quick weight loss plan. Some do stick to it for a healthy liifestyle change, but many sign on to drop weight fast, but more for a temporary portion control issue and avoid the gym.
Only in Australia, as far as I know, people don’t have to be pay taxes for prize money. So don’t jump down her throat immediately. The commenter may be Australian and if that’s the case, then she’d be correct.
We don’t in Canada, either.
Evi
here we don’t pay tax on the principal sum. However we do have to pay tax on any interest earned from the prize money. ( I learnt that the hard way )
Not just the gym. She also walked on a treadmill for 8 hours a day during work, in addition to the extra working out classes.
Does that change your mind? I’d still do it.
Sorry this was meant for a post up there ^
She lost a lot of weight, but how about David? He los 222 (!) pounds in 7 or so months. 222 LBS! He is not overweight and he had the second highest weigtloss percentage, but come on how can you lose 222 lbs in a healthy way in less than a year? I hope they (all of the contestants) won’t have any health issues
This is my thought, thank you. It’s not up for debate as to whether or not it’s healthy to lose that much weight that fast. It’s simply not. It’s hard on every system in your body, including your heart. Rachel losing 155 pounds in four months is insane and incredibly unhealthy, money or not. I wish people would stop questioning this, it’s a no-brainer.
Everyone seems to be either focusing on the way she looks (no, that’s not healthy either), or the $250K. What’s wrong with us as a society?
Woah! Both of those amounts are insane to lose in that short of time, if you’re talking about a person being healthy. I hope that they both have good cardiologists to watch them!
Nobody lost 155 lbs in 4 months. It was 7 months total.
Not specific to this woman, I’ve never watched the show, but some people’s faces look much better with some weight on; it softens up the hard angles.
Yeah, there’s something off about her nose in her skinny face, I think it looked better when she had more weight on, losing weight has added about ten years to her face. I ca’t see her maintaining this in the long term though, it’s easy when you have a large incentive dangled in front of you.
+1!
Or some good fats in their diets. A lot of people shy away from eating fat and but it keeps the skin healthy and young looking. I use oils, eat fatty foods and lost loads of weight and I don’t look 10 years older. Maybe it’s my genes though but I do notice people on fit tumblrs and in my personal life who eat a balanced meal instead of super clean (restrictive) look healthier and fresher than those gym addicts.
Give it a rest, seriously. I hate this constant nitpicking on women’s appearances. If they’re overweight, they get nitpicked on. If they lose weight, they get nitpicked on their wrinkles. If they look good but talk about their insecurities, they get nitpicked on for not being good wrinkles. How about everyone give it a rest and just let women be ourselves.
Um, I rarely venture into these topics, but more so because they are tiring, between the body shame-shamers and the obesity-epidemic shamers and the skinny shame-shamers, it’s just so overwrought and over the top. So, I’m not getting your ‘give it a rest’ sermon directed at me. However, people lose weight in different areas of their bodies at varying rates and sometimes it does alter appearance drastically and can have disadvantages. When I used the word ‘people’ that meant it is was inclusive of men as well.
EXACTLY.
Also, maybe this poor woman just got addicted to how much better she felt at a lower weight, and was enjoying being ‘traditionally’ pretty for probably the first time in her life? I think she looks great. Don’t get the hate coming her way.
Yup, her face has aged a decade. I guess it’s worth it?
She looks older than me and I am over 40. Is she a student as I don’t see how a person WORKING could do 3-4 classes a day. It’s her life as long as she is healthy/happy goodie for her. I don’t watch the show and I never know when it comes on in the UK as we are always behind anyway
I teach Zumba at some corporate gyms and they all have classes scheduled during lunch and before and after work hours. So someone with a 9-5 job at a company with an on-site gym could definitely exercise three to four times a day just during the workweek. I don’t know how sustainable that would be long-term, though! And yeah there is NO WAY she is 24.
She looks 24 in the before picture, but not the after picture. Goes to show that dropping too much weight for your frame will age you.
If you see the picture of before she left to continue losing at home, she looked much more her age.
I read she started working part time just so she could have time to exercise.
AG-UK
It really depends on the job. My brother-in-law became an iron man 2 years ago and he had to be on the bike for 6 hours, swim for about an hour, and run about 10 miles a day, everyday while increasing intervals. I use this comparison because he was still working full time, but tele-commuting.
Lots of people balance extreme work outs like this. She must have poured so much into this that she couldn’t fail or she’d lose too much.
She could very well be weight obsessed and isn’t realizing it.
In my experience, when you are working out to that degree, you can very easily become obsessed with exercising. It happened to me. You get addicted to the endorphins, and can get to the point where you are exercising so much, you can actually lose the desire to eat.
She worked from home, before and after.
She looks strong and healthy. Good for her!
Precisely! The girl looks fabulous. Tempest in a teapot if I’ve ever seen one. 🙁
I do hot yoga, and they cut you off at two classes per day, because anorexics were going in and taking three, four and five.
This is not something to be lauding, she doesn’t look strong and healthy, she looks sickly and underweight :/
I did not realize until recently that certain facilities that specialize in treating anorexics have motion detectors in the sleeping rooms, to help prevent middle of the night exercising. I can see why an exercise class would impose daily limits.
This makes me incredibly sad to read this. I had no idea..and yet it makes perfect sense.
Personally? I think Rachel has transfer addiction issues. From food to exercise and food restriction. I wish her well and hope she uses some of that money for therapy. Living a life of extremes is difficult.
I worked in a weight room at a gym for four years and we would have noted someone who looks like this young woman and started paying attention to how many times a day she came in to work out.
Gym employees know who the annies are, especially after they do things like faint and have convulsions during a workout because their bodies just can’t take it any longer.
I don’t know if this one is, but she is treading a line that she can cross…or not (as long as she decides soon and has good self-awareness). It could well be, though, that she’d decided to win, and now she’s won, and now she’ll ease up a bit.
Who knows?
Girl at my gym did this–past right off of the elliptical. Me (First Aid trained) and a paramedic who was working out too looked at each other the moment we got close and we knew. Girl was covered in hair and barely weighed 90 pounds and she was 5’7. Sad part was, she was only 16. Still breaks my heart.
I don’t think she looks unhealthy at this point. Losing weight has aged her looks, which isn’t uncommon. That happened to me unfortunately, so I know its a real thing. Unless she is working toward a professional/non professional athletic accomplishment, like becoming a fitness instructor, running a marathon, some specific contest or something of that nature, there is no reason for her to continue to work out at that level. She can maintain with an hour a day, 5 days a week, and perhaps put a little weight back on, but it would be within reason.
It’s a horrible word, but “trainorexic” comes to mind. She’s probably ok (I hate policing other people’s looks and regimes) but I admit, yeah. It crossed my mind.
I have officially been jaded by the media. I looked at her after pictures and thought she looked great. About the same size of many actresses we see on this site daily.
In the video she does look a little bit too thin, but if I could win 250k I would do the same thing.
Good for her, hopefully she can adjust her workout schedule and eating habits to something a little more realistic.
I think her body looks just fine, everyone is freaking out but she probably dehydrated herself for weigh in. Once she eats and drinks I bet her weight will be up by about 8lbs and then she is no longer underweight. Controversy over. Yea she worked out multiple times a day to win but now she can workout once a day.
That’s what I was thinking. 105 is below the recommended average for her height, but not drastically low. I suspect the gaunt appearance is from some of those dehydration tactics other former contestants have talked about.
But yes, she looks pretty thin. I hope she is healthy and can maintain it with moderation and not obsessive working out. 3-4 times a day is a little extreme.
Lele25-I totally agree with you. She looks just like a Hollywood actress-I think those looks of fear on Jillian Michaels and that other trainer’s faces were just that..”OH, NOOO!! A regular plebe from the general population has become Hollywood Sized”!! I watched that Giulian person from the E! Channel basically hem and haw because this girl probably still looked “fat” to her. Just look at Joile, et.al….How can the rest of us not be a bit brain-washed.
Lele25-I totally agree with you. She looks just like a Hollywood actress-I think those looks of fear on Jillian Michaels and that other trainer’s faces were just that..”OH, NOOO!! A regular plebe from the general population has become Hollywood Sized”!! I watched that Giulian person from the E! Channel basically hem and haw because this girl probably still looked “fat” to her. Just look at Jolie, et.al….How can the rest of us not be a bit brain-washed.
EXACTLY! Weren’t the same people on this site just defending Angelina Jolie’s scrawny butt a couple of days ago? So it’s fine for Angie but not this girl? I personally think she looks fabulous. Very beautiful girl.
Her teeth look different. Veneers?
Two-a-days for football almost killed me this past season. Hell, two-a-day for *Marching Band* back in High School almost killed me. She’s a more dedicated woman than I am.
That being said, I’m close to her OG size (16/18) but not to her weight (220lbs) so I can’t shade anyone for losing weight. Just…that’s not maintainable unless she turns into a Jillian and can be in the gym *all* day. I’ve learned the hard way from being on un-maintainable diets ‘in the real world’–the snap back is way worse. But if she’s happy then more power to her.
How long are your practices? I’d be struggling with just one-a-day, better you than me.
But yeah, this woman will gain some of the weight back unless she’s just got nothing going on but the gym.
For semi-pro (pads football), the weekends during the offseason it’s 6am-12pm then 2 hrs for film study/lunch, the weight room, and then 3pm-8pm on the field for Two-a-days. During the season, it’s usually 6pm-10pm Monday, Weds, Friday, games on Sunday (because lol-south-cares-more-about-college-ball-than-NFL-so-no-Saturday-games). But I have contact flag football practice (tackling semi allowed, no pads) Tues and Saturday as well. It gets kind of full but I’m two years off of retirement (age 30).
I don’t watch the show anymore, but my first thought when seeing her photo yesterday was that she looks older and a but frail. I would have guessed her age at late 30s to early 40s, based on her current photo.
I feel bad too since I thought she was 40 and they said she was 24 and my jaw dropped. She looks twice that age and way too thin.
I don’t mean to slam her, but it was my honest first thought. And to edit my first post, she looks a *bit* frail.
It’s obvious that she has done more cardio than anything to burn the fat and stop building muscle on top of strict calorie intake.
Once she comes back to her daily activities, she won’t exercise as much and she will reach a comfortable weight for her body.
Yes, once the contestants go home they are “on their own”, but only after having a potentially damaging mindset about weight loss at any cost drilled into their brains.
Apollo Ohno exercised for 3 hours, 4 times a day in preparation for the Olympics. I’m not sure what the big deal is here. She could probably put on five pounds, and she probably will now, but many models and actors are just as thin as she is through less healthy means. I don’t want to be super thin badly enough to workout that much, but if she does, I don’t think it’s my place to judge. I just don’t see her as dangerously thin, I guess.
Maybe, as Lele25 said above, my eye has gotten used to super thin models and she just doesn’t look emaciated to me.
Ohno was likely eating far more calories, in order to not have a major weight loss as a result of increased training.
I don’t judge her, but I do judge the ridiculous result this show has produced. Many contestants put the weight back on, because what the show does is not realistic in a person’s life. It does not show me that the show’s methods may have triggered eating disorder behavior in a contestant.
Exactly. Did you guys see the vast amounts of food/caloric intake that Michael Phelps had to eat in order to keep up his body in tip top shape with his training. 12,000 calories a day to counterbalance 5 hours of swimming 6 days a week. (not to mention cross training) She’s doing a admitted 11-12 hours of working out a day on 1500 calories a day.
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/08/13/the-michael-phelps-diet-dont-try-it-at-home/
I think there’s a world of difference between an Olympic athlete – who, let it be said, is NOT training for weight loss, they’re training for strength and stamina – and a woman who is exercising solely to keep her weight low. Notice the kind of workouts she does -Zumba, spinning, running – it’s all CARDIO. She doesn’t say one single thing about strength training. Basically, she’s solely training to lose weight. That’s it. That concerns me, personally. I agree that we can’t judge Rachael personally, but it doesn seem disconcerting.
Let’s take a celebrity who does train like an Olympic athlete: Madonna. Everything she did, even Ashtanga yoga, was at Olympic levels and it shows. The woman has stamina, strenght and more discipline and a reason to maintain her physique than Frederickson. I bet if Frederickson did the same workouts as Madonna and lived her lifestyle for 1 day during touring, she would collapse.
The difference is Madonna clearly eats very clean but more than enough to provide for energy and control her weight and she always looked great and young-ish (until she turned to plastic surgery). Frederickson doesn’t do weight training anymore (her arms are devoid of muscle mass).
I don’t see the difference between the other celebs and models you refer too because they all do the same, eat limited calories and burn that shit off through cardio which is exactly Frederickson’s method. Nothing she did is designed to live a long and healthy life or be a stronger person like the Olympic athlete you referred too. Conclusion: she’s just as unhealthy as those celebs.
I never meant to imply that she was as healthy as an Olympic athlete, and I didn’t read the story carefully enough to realize how strictly she was limiting her calories. I was trying to compare losing weight through exercising with losing weight through starving, but I did a lousy job. You all made excellent points.
um, I eat relatively well and not to excess, and I jog often. And this means I am unhealthy?
Shit, how does one be healthy then? I thought I was but apparently eating well and cardio exercise is bad for you? wtf, no way to win eh
@GoodNames:
I wasn’t attacking you, just merely adding to your comparison as did previous posters. 🙂
You can still starve yourself by eating enough calories but burning through them. That’s anorexia in sports. Just recently I read Johnny Weir admitting to this and this is not uncommon in high level sports apparently. That’s not to say Frederickson suffers from this but there are different aspects to eating disorders besides plain starvation which is why I’m not praising Frederickson’s weight loss.
@Louminary
I don’t know if you’re healthy or not. What I do know is the facts presented to us about Frederickson. It is easy to conclude that she pretty much burns through whatever she puts in her mouth which is effectively starving herself. Cardio is meant to burn calories and she isn’t doing anything else. She works out for hours and hours on 1600 calories, you don’t need to be a doctor to know that’s the behaviour of somebody who doesn’t have a good relationship with food. That’s the equivalent of an anorexic patient exercising after every meal. Maybe she will adapt a less rigorous workout now that she won the money but I still won’t praise this kind of behaviour because it can create a pattern and kill people. It’s so easy to fall into a (bad) habit.
If she wasn’t on a show, would people still praise her? If she was a young girl, would people still call this ‘healthy’? If she develops an ED, would people still claim it was worth it? Because that’s fucked up.
She is underweight though and hopefully if she starts putting back on some weight she does so slowly since it can impact your body in negative ways. I lost a ton of weight due to that neurovirus that went around last winter and in 3 days lost 12 pounds. I was messed up for months after that since when I was able to start eating regularly again I put back on the weight I lost and more which impacted my cholesterol and heart. Luckily my docs got everything situtated but putting things back on and off so quickly does damage your body.
Nice nuanced perspective here. It is not about her height and weight, it’s about how she looks right now and what we know about how she got to that weight. I have a small frame and weigh a lot less than some people that I think look similar or thinner than I do. I’m 5’6″ and 125, and I’m kinda thin (size 4), but not crazy thin. There are people my height who weigh 150 and look similar. Those people would probably look a bit unhealthy at my weight. I could probably lose 10 or 15 pounds and look healthy in the face and body, but I don’t think that would be safe for everyone my height. Similarly, while I am sure there are people at Rachel’s height and weight that are healthy and vibrant(some very fit, some naturally thin, ALL small framed), I just don’t think it fits her frame. She looks sunken and ill. No judgement to her (her body she can do what she wants). But I do blame TBL for imposing a one size fits all indication of health that makes her a winner.
That sounds absolutely miserable to lose that much so quickly!
I don’t think it’s fair to just call her “thin and skinny”. she looks very healthy, toned, strong. i so envy her body. I’m Korean and you should see girl Idols here. they are literally skinny and thin without any muscle tones. their bodies really look like twigs. Even Miley Cyrus’s body looks very toned compared to those korean girls so this woman looks very good to me. i don’t see any “lolipop” syndrome(?), she’s very well proportioned. but yeah i guess she looks a bit old now.
Her arms and face are not looking good she is too thin but for a contest to lose weight she nailed it. Now go eat something and relax.
Agreed. She won, great. Now please stop being cray cray and just go to the gym once a day. Maybe even have a rest day. And keep eating. She really does look frail. But I think she was just determined to win and didn’t realize what she was doing to herself.
I’m just shocked she claims that the doctors and staff ‘told her to do this’. As I said yesterday-this was the only way she was going to beat a 400 pound man on this show. This was done to win a competition, but who knows what’s going to happen long term? It is just replacing one addiction with another.
Putting all of the ‘she looks like X’ or ‘looks like Y’ aside, it’s basic math with calories. Your body needs a minimum number of calories to operate organs et all. At 5’4-she prob needs about 1200-1400 calories just for that basic stuff. She admitted herself yesterday to eating around 1500 calories a day. With her also admitted 3-4 Zumba/spin classes PLUS 8 hours on a treadmill while at her desk at work-that’s at least 2000-3000 calories burning off if not more. That’s living off of 900 or less calories and that’s bad for your organs and bad for her overall health. She’s technically starving her body, eating into muscle mass and damaging her health with that kind of lifestyle.
Someone on a completely different thread mentioned Mary Frann, of the Newhart show. Mary’s death was believed to be caused by extreme diet and exercise practices.
I have a very hard time believing that a physician who took a Hippocratic Oath would advocate or encourage an ideal weight of 105 lbs. for someone that is 5’5″…. yet, unfortunately, there are numerous examples in Hollywood and beyond that illustrate there are medical doctors with questionable practices/recommendations.
Those doctors might be sweating bullets from a possible backlash right now.
When I was younger and diagnosed with an ED I was 107lbs and 5’5″. I met the criteria for clinical anorexia at 109.6lbs. She is underweight. Because she eats 1600 cals a day means little when you’re working cardio 3 to 4 hours a day.
Because she has muscle does not mean she’s healthy.
I wouldn’t be shocked to find out she has amenorrhea.
@FLORC – First of all, I always enjoy your posts! Second of all, you are entirely correct, though I suppose I should note the caveat that the definition of clinical anorexia goes beyond just a weight/height comparison as some humans are naturally 7.8 stone or less at 5’5″ and present with a healthy appearance and exist at that height/weight with an absence of exhibition of any symptoms/behaviors indicative of an ED (compulsive/excessive exercise, obsessive caloric monitoring/restriction, etc.). I assume you meant that you met that criteria specific to you, but just wanted to state before someone who is naturally that size starts ‘screaming’ at us. I apologize for not being clear; I was responding to L’s comment that she (L) read/heard that Rachel said she was ‘told to do this’ by ‘doctors and staff.’ I just cannot fathom a physician advocating, let alone promoting, a female to set an ideal weight of 105 lbs. at 5’5″ when her natural size from her teenage years (when her metabolism was at its peak) was at least a stone higher. I’m your same height so I honestly cannot even imagine weighing 105 … but for me, it was less about the number and more about Rachel’s appearance, because she did not appear healthy. She did not look like someone who is naturally that weight; when you combine what we saw with her appearance, and what we know about her behaviors (restrictive caloric intake, excessive exercise, etc. = starvation) it was apparent that there was the potential for concern, particularly when one considers that she is on a national show and the impact upon impressionable young girls who are watching this ‘transformation.’ I do hope that you are healthy, happy and now recovered from your ED. I posted a link below in my discussion with Artemis that I came across in the NYT yesterday; I have a feeling you would enjoy it too given our perspectives on this issue seem similar. Have a great day today :).
If I didn’t know she had competed on the show (which I didn’t before seeing these posts, as I don’t watch it) and I just saw her on the street I wouldn’t think she was too thin at all. Comparatively she may look gaunt, but without the side by side before-and-after photos she looks just fine! She’s obviously worked very hard to get healthier but when it comes to our weight, as women, it seems as though you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.
I don’t get why this has legs. She did some extreme things obviously to win $250K. There’s no reason to believe that she’ll continue now that the show is over. I have never heard of a Biggest Loser contestant having trouble putting weight on after the show.
I think it’s because it’s showing how two-faced the show really is. The show preaches the gospel of “good health” and “healthy weight loss” but it’s ultimately a show that rewards the person who loses the most weight – regardless of HOW they lose it. That is a covert recipe for some seriously dangerous stuff. One of the previous seasons actually featured a recovered anorexic who had swung towards the other side of the spectrum and was now obese. I can’t believe that anybody ever felt it would be okay to place a recovered anorexic in an environment so full of triggering stimuli (she actually quit in the first episode).
If Rachael has done anything positive, it’s that she revealed the hypocrisy of the show. It’s finally happened that a contestant openly took the show’s premise to it’s logical conclusion. It’s not about whether she gains weight back. It’s about the existence of a show that tacitly encourages people to lose as much weight as possible for financial incentive.
I guess I just find it hard to believe that it’s taken this long for people to ‘suddenly’ realise it’s not about losing weight in a healthy way, not physically, not psychologically. I do think the effect is magnified because she’s a short female. Back when I watched it they had a guy (Eric possibly?) who had similar looking arms and he would have lost over 50% of his starting weight. Not a freaking peep about his methods. Plus it seemed for a while the producers must have been looking for the hugest people who had so much to lose thereby making that percentage lost be a possibly big number.
Hopefully she’ll find balance. We seem to either eat too much or too little as a society, with hardly any middle ground.
I agree with you. I believe she will balance out in a little bit and gain some weight back. This is all new right now.
After taxes how long will that last, two years? Then what? She will struggle to find time to exercise like everyone else who needs to earn a living working 40+ hours a week while caring for a family, etc. I always said I would find time to exercise even after I had kids… guess what? It’s really hard. I try to sneak it in during my lunch break but then I can’ run the errands I need to run that I can’t do after work because I’m making dinner, helping with homework, doing laundry, etc… I decided it’s okay not to be a size 4 and I’m still happy. My husband thinks it’s too skinny anyway. I’m pretty lucky in that regard.
Completely agree with all you said. But what if your husband thought a size 2-4 was perfect and not too skinny? I guess, are you deciding it’s okay because of your husband’s preferences, or your own?
Actually, I would like to be thinner but the fact that thinks I look good like this (or at least says I do) makes me worry less about it. Not like there’s anything i can do about it, but I want him to be attracted to me. And it goes both ways. When he starts putting on weight I let him know. Sorry, but it’s not healthy or attractive. The other day my daughter said “mom, why did you stop going to the gym?” We just keep it real in our family.
People calm down ,She worked out four times a day to WIN the money .Right now she is 15 lbs underweight .I am 15 lbs overweight as are ( more than 30% of Americans ) .
This woman has probably gained weight since the show aired.
The finale the other night was LIVE. That means she looks that way right now. She might gain weight in the future, but you’re incorrect. She’ll probably keep the weight off for the media tour and not start gaining back until the dust settles.
What ? How do you know she hasn’t gained a couple of lbs since the show aired.I gained 3 lbs in less than a week on a cruise. I said she may have already gained weight I didn’t mean twenty lbs in three days.
Because when you’re on a cruise, you’re pretty inactive and eating heavily. This woman admits to still doing what she’s doing now. She didn’t drop off and change her routine. By her own admission, she’s still doing what she did to lose the weight. A 1600 calories diet and several hours of cardio a day for sure as hell ain’t “maintenance.” She’s still actively shrinking. Unless you think she’s lying her remaining ass off.
For me, Jillian’s refusal to comment is really poignant when one stops to consider the probable reasoning behind such a refusal. This IS her area of expertise, non?
I read through the comments yesterday and found myself really wishing that CB had a way for commenters to like a response or up/down arrow (yes or no response) to a comment anonymously. Reason being: I found myself wondering if the people who viewed Rachel’s admitted behaviors (e.g. careful caloric counting, excessive exercising, etc.) as healthy and her newly starved body as ideal (based upon simple math for calories taken in – calories expended, supported by a new underweight BMI) were themselves victims of the media’s glamorization of one particular body type as ideal … because unlike people who are naturally very thin, Rachel’s behaviors (e.g. excessive exercising) do not exemplify healthy perceptions towards food/weight/etc.
What I found puzzling was how they said she looks no different from a model, like it’s not a bad thing but most of the time people rag on models for being too thin! All of a sudden it’s ok to be clearly underweight because it’s for money y’all!
The notion that she will gain a bit back after the show is just assumption because she can easily fall into the category of people who become obsessed with being underweight or skinny/slender and will do anything to achieve this.
I also found that when some celebs admit to gruelling weight loss practices (Lima, Hudson) get more praise than people who ‘brag’ about their organic lifestyle (Shailene Woodley). You don’t have to torture your body in order to have a certain weight.
EDIT: And Goop is often called an orthorexic but she works out less than Frederickson and eats more than her if she isn’t fasting/juicing etc. Plus she doesn’t look underweight at all.
I noticed that as well – re: the model comparison. 🙁 Hence, why I wondered how many commenters, if they could answer comfortably in the security of anonymity and easily by an up/down arrow, would consider and affirm that the “model ideal” perpetuated by the media has influenced their perception of Rachel’s newly debuted body to the point that they are willing to ignore/excuse Rachel’s admitted but questionable (with regard to the aspect of health) behaviors – behaviors that many trained in the treatment of eating disorders would view as “red flags.” As many above and below have noted, this woman appears to be on the precipice of a slippery slope and I hope she finds her way back towards a healthy relationship with her body, with self-perception (not defining her worth by her thinness), and with food/exercise.
Agreed. If money and being ‘model thin’ is a good reason to potentially develop an eating disorder then I do think the media has influenced their perception more than they are willing to admit. You said it so much better though.
@ Artemis – Not certain if you are checking this today but I just came across this article when I sat down to wait for paint in a bathroom to dry (renovating our 4th home -aagggghhhh) … NYT write up about the very issues we were discussing yesterday! See link below & happy Saturday :).
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/fashion/Biggest-Loser-Rachel-Frederickson.html?_r=0
I’m reading it right now. Thanks!
I totally agree with you. There’s a very big difference between being naturally underweight, and deliberately so. There are many different body types and for some achieving what is currently held up as the body ideal will come at the expense of their health. So many of the comments are saying she just looks Hollywood thin, and lucky her. There’s a wider point here about the fact we’re conditioned to look at slim as healthy and ideal. Is it down to a lack of body type diversity in the media? I’d certainly suspect it’s a factor, but I think that can’t be the whole story (not that I know what is). I tried for many years to attain something that my body does not want me to to be (in this case a size 6), and that kind of attitude only set me up for constantly feeling like a failure. These days I exercise and try to eat healthily, and I try to keep in my head that the size I am is just the size I’m meant to be.
Her body reminds me of a marathoner and also Kelly Rippa.
Her BMI is 17.5 which according to the NIH is underweight. Range for normal BMI is 18.5-24.9. She’d have to gain 7 pounds to hit 18.5 BMI. I do wonder if she has irregular menses or even perhaps none at all.
I hope she relaxes a little now that she’s won. It’s really easy for overeaters to become under eaters . They’re two sides of the same coin. My mom had a coworker who was obese, lost the weight and then became obsessed with counting calories and exercise. He was terrified of gaining weight back. He ended up going into cardiac arrest and dying. When he died they estimated he was only getting 600-700 calories a day.
Renee28,
That is AWFUL!! That is very sad that that happened to your mother’s coworker.
It’s really sad. I think it’s one of the reasons they tell you not to keep emphasizing how good someone looks when they lose weight. Not that that’s the only cause of anorexia.
She looks unhealthy. The pressure to be thin is overwhelming for a lot of people. My sister became obsessed with being thin and it triggered eating disorders which eventually cost her her life. To all the young women out there dying (literally) to be thin – please don’t compromise your health and cause such grief and pain for your loved ones.
I know nothing we say can make it better for you, but I do wish you and your family well…and that you all have the support you need to heal. xx
So sorry about your sister, Jaded.
Over-exercising is one symptom of anorexia. It is just as much of a problem as starving yourself. I don’t think anyone can say that she’s definitely ill right now, but I hope she is able to keep her perspective, and maintain her health.
On a completely superficial yet topical aside those fking weigh in sandals/shoes/horrors are the worst things Ive ever seen in my life and they need to be burned
I think that commenters here are being very respectful about this young woman and her appearance so that is commendable.
But I will say this. I understand becoming obsessive after one has undergone such an extreme transformation but I do have to say that exercising 3/4 times a day when one is not a professional athlete is NOT healthy. I think that she could be setting herself up for an injury or an eating disorder. I also think that she does not look well. As others have intimated, she does look significantly older than her age. I am pushing 40 and perhaps I am delusional but I do not look as old as this woman, nor do my peers. It seems as though she has gone from one extreme to another. I hope that she is able to find an equilibrium.
Some of my concern stems from the fact that she’s not saying “oh yeah, I totally lost this much in order to get the prize, no WAY am I going to maintain at this weight. ” She seems to genuinely believe that she’s healthy and in great shape. And sometimes, that single-mindedness (as others have mentioned) can lead to an eating disorder.
If she were saying that she overdid it, I’d have a totally different perspective about both her loss and her mental health.
+1
Good point Tessa.
I haven’t worked out all week and I feel like shit. Every time I maintain a good work-out plan, after a few weeks, I go through this period of extreme exhaustion for a few days, which really throws me off my game. So then I try to get back into it slowly, until it happens all over again..so frustrating. I wish I could go hard like this woman who can work out several times a day (not that I’d have time to, but still).
Does anyone else experience this?
Yes, I can work out hard for a couple of days, then definitely need to lay off for a couple of days and just stick to a walk or a gentle spin on my stationary bike. I had chronic fatigue syndrome when I was a kid and if I get overtired the symptoms tend to come back.
Thanks for responding. I’m gaining back weight that I lost a year ago, so when I don’t exercise if feel really bad/guilty about it. I have to cut waaaaay back on calories, just to keep the weight off. This winter has been really bad here in Montreal, so I’ve been eating lots of fat-ass friendly foods and not getting out much which clearly isn’t helping. It’s pretty depressing, and I feel like the biggest loser (not in a good way).
Does just resting help with your CFS, how did you get over it?
I know what you mean about hopping on the bandwagon and then falling off due to exhaustion. I really like running, but I have this problem several times a year, especially after a race (complete fall-off right after, and then I scramble to catch back up to the level I was at before for the next race and I get tired and angry at myself).
I think the trick is to not hit so hard when you’re getting back into it. Set aside actual time to build up a baseline, measure it (not in pounds, but in strength, or minutes on the bike at a certain heart rate), and then sloooowly improve it. If you’re holding yourself up to your post-weight-loss standards from a year ago rather than where you’re at today, the motivation is too frustrating/disappointing to last.
Yes, thats exactly how I feel…and you’re so right when you said I’m holding myself up to my post-weight-loss standard, I never thought of it like that. I’ve been working out pretty consistently since then (except for those bouts of fatigue), but I know that I have to work harder to lose more so it’s kind of a 2 steps forward, 3 steps back situation.. GGRRRR.
I’m experiencing this often due to depression but I usually take only 1 day off because I will lose my motivation if I take more days off which will make me even more depressed.
The thing is, dedicating yourself to proper diet and exercise is very difficult and it takes time so don’t be hard on yourself. Eat as clean as possible if you’re not exercising because bad food will make you feel bad and even more tired :). Always get your 8 hours of sleep and try at least 30 minutes of walking, biking, yin yoga (very relaxing!) or stretching if you don’t feel like hardcore exercising. It helps me to clear my mind and focus so I can get back on track with more active workouts and I still feel like I did something good for my body.
I also have different methods of tracking my physique. I weigh myself but I care more about losing inches and taking photos to see my body change.
It’s good that you listen to your body. This will prevent injuries and even though it sets you back a little, nothing will set you back more than overworking your body which can get you out of your routine for MUCH longer than a few days. Just look at all those Crossfit fools who are completely wrecking their body (bad posture + over exercising = no bueno!)
You do you and don’t worry too much.
Yea, so true, taking more than one day off can really mess me up in terms of motivation. So that’s why when I feel depleted, I know I’m F@cked, and will have to pull myself out and up again. The hardest part for me is sticking to healthy foods..I do eat pretty healthy usually, but it’s harder to pass on comfort foods when you feel shitty, and I haven’t been so good at that lately:/ Thanks so much for your suggestions and kind words, it totally helps.
I had to basically go to bed for a year and take lots of vitamins, and it eventually resolved itself, but as an adult I know when I’ve overdone it because I really crash. Leaving a stressful job helped reduce the crashes – the more stress you can cut out of your life the better you’ll feel. I know that’s not possible for a lot of people but things like switching to decaf coffee and tea, meditation, gentle flow yoga (much better for your body than the “twisting yourself into impossible positions” yoga) all help too.
I hear you, I know stress makes it much worse, plus have anxiety issues, so I do try to eliminate stressfuls situation and people (mostly in my family) as much as I can..but you know how that goes, there’s only so much you can do, with work and just day to day stuff. I wish I could take some time off to rest as much as I need to when it gets really bad. I quit coffee about two years ago, like you mentioned, and stick to tea; that change helped with my anxiety. I’ve been thinking of taking some vitamin B-12, I already take a B-complex, so I think adding additional B-12 might help. Thanks, Jaded.
She does not look healthy, full stop. And comparing her to equally thing models & actresses doesn’t mean much, as most of them do not look healthy either. I was honestly astonished when I read how old she is, she looks at least 10 years older. I used to work with a woman who was very overweight & she worked really really hard (the healthy way) to lose over 100 lbs. And then she overdid it & looked pretty awful for awhile. I think its really easy for people who lose a lot of weight to take everything too far. I don’t know what, if anything, can be doe about it, but I do think its an issue.
Also… how in the heck was this woman supporting herself while spending all of her time at the gym?
Bodhi, I was literally thinking all of those same things as I read this. I honestly thought she was in her mid 40’s. And working out 3-4 times a day may be realistic for, say, Gwyneth Paltrow, but when this girl has to go back to real life it will be impossible to maintain that amount of activity.
I have struggled on and off with anorexia for over 10 years, and this makes me so sad because I see such a similarity with myself and this girl. It becomes an obsession that consumes every single moment of your life. In my opinion, it’s better to be a couple pounds “overweight” and enjoy your damn life, rather than constantly thinking about the calories you’ve eaten, the calories you have left, how much you need to exercise, how much fat you have, how big various part of your body are, how big other people’s bodies are (because you begin to obsess over comparing yourself to others), etc. It’s an awful way to live.
Also, being underweight, which according to BMI she is, is JUST as dangerous and unhealthy as being overweight, if not more. It depends on the person but being underweight can really screw with your cardiac health which can affect you for your entire life. Why are the “coaches” not discussing this?
This has been bugging me since this story broke – in the photo where she’s standing next to her formerly fat self, her fat self has been blown up to look even bigger than it was! Her “before” is taller than her “after,” even though her “after” self is wearing heels.
And yeah, there’s no way she doesn’t have an eating disorder at this point. She looks anorexic. Period. Before all the people who are naturally very thin phone in against me, I’m going to point out that this woman has admitted to exercising several times a day while claiming to eat 1,600 calories per day. (I don’t buy that she’s even eating that much, but whatever.) That’s not only unhealthy, it reveals that she is not naturally that thin – she has to work for it.
Yeah, the hologram makes it look like she was 6″ and 500lbs before. It’s deceiving. She was big, sure, but not on deaths door morbidly obese as that hologram suggests.
Thank heavens you mentioned that. I was staring at the before figure and wondering how she was three inches taller in bare feet when she was heavy. They did blow it up to make the transformation more remarkable.
She may well gain ten pounds or so back when all this over, and then she would be at the thin end of the BMI spectrum and quite healthy. I just hope she doesn’t freak over it!
Just to be clear – we have no clue if she is anorexic. Anorexia is not a condition where somebody just gets really thin. Anorexia is a cognitive mental disorder in which the person’s perception becomes incredibly skewed. A true anorexic can be 100 pounds but look in the mirror and see a 200 pound person. Their perceptions are skewed. Please don’t call somebody anorexic solely because they are very thin. They may have an eating disorder, but they might also be suffering from other issues that manifest themselves in food. I just see that term being tossed about a lot, and it’s not totally accurate. Anorexia is a very complex, difficult disease to treat. There are a variety of eating disorders out there, and we’re not sure which, if any, this woman has.
The thing that gets me is how she talks about exercising 3-4 times a day. Wow. I think that strikes me because, well, it seems like that would make the rest of your life suffer. Could I do that? Maybe, if I wanted to. but that would mean a lot less time with my family, my kid, my husband, friends, etc. It would leave less time for my own hobbies and stuff too. It sounds like she’s really made weight her life, and that, on some level, just sounds sad.
I like your post. If I could I’d give you a thumbs up.
I have no idea if she’s anorexic but her exercising regime is extreme. I’d like to think it was likely because she really, really wanted to win the competition and if that’s the case she’s going to be fine.
However, I’ve known many many people in my adulthood who go crazy to lose weight (with diet and exercise) who become totally obsessed with getting to the gym. I have one friend who was always pretty small and quite tall and she decided to get in shape for her wedding and she now goes to the gym 6 days a week for at least 2 hours a pop. And if she has to miss it for anything LOOK OUT she is miserable. To me, that is obessive and she’s gotten addicted to the feeling. I don’t think my friend is addicted to being thin but she’s got it in her head that she has to go that often and if she doesn’t she’s in trouble or something. I can’t even pinpoint it but I know that I have always tried to work out and make it fit into my life. If I can’t get to the gym or work out for a couple of days, it’s not the end of the world and I’ll make up for it. If I have a bad eating day, it’s okay I’ll get back on track tomorrow.
The girl from the Biggest Loser is balancing on a very fine line. She may now be obsessed with diet and exercise because is TERRIFIED of ever being heavy again. I really hope that the Biggest Loser provide some counseling to their contestants because there is a big life, attitude, emotional change that comes from losing as much weight as the people on the show lose.
I have no doubt this show screws with your head on a cognitive level. I hate when they lead the people into a room filled with “bad” foods and try to get them to resist. It sets up a mindset in which you can never, ever have those foods again. Which is, of course, ridiculous. Plenty of people know how to indulge without going overboard.
If Rachael is being honest here (and I see no real reason as to why she wouldn’t be), she’s engaging in disordered behavior. Eating 1,600 calories per day and doing hours of cardio a day isn’t “maintenance” by any stretch. It’s only maintenance if you’re trying to maintain a weight that’s unaturally low. Also, I have to wonder what is she sacrificing to do all that? Time with family, or friends, or other personal stuff? I can’t imagine it’s a really awesome lifestyle.
What bugs me the most about BL is that it’s had people on who clearly have issues that go beyond food. Many of them have lost people and ate to deal with grief, or were trauma survivors, or people from bad backgrounds. The weight isn’t the cause of their issues, it’s a symptom. But the show never addresses whether these people get counseling or therapy to help address their issues. The show suggests that the issues go away once they are thin.
As a former mental health worker, the show just bugs me on so many levels. It’s ridiculous.
Completely agree with you Sam. You can be 150 lbs and be anorexic, you can be 80 lbs and be anorexic. It’s not a synonym for “thin.” It is a psychological disorder. The term is definitely tossed around too much, and used incorrectly. Thank you for mentioning this.
I don’t think it’s healthy to lose 60 percent of your body weight in such a short time. That’s my one objection to this show, it’s weight off at any cost, and all too fast.
The only thing I’m wondering about is where the hell is she hiding her loose skin? There’s no way her skin shrunk that much after all that weight loss..
I think she looks great. However, there’s no way she’s going to stay that thin. Exercising 3-4 times a day is really unsustainable in this day and age, unless she has no other obligations whatsoever.
Exactly. For her to say this is a new lifestyle (not a diet!) is absurd. Unless she is a professional athlete, she can’t keep up that level of physical activity on so few calories. Something will eventually have to give: She’ll either have to up her calories or lower her activity level. Either way, it will result in weight gain. And you can tell by her incredibly gaunt face that this isn’t her body’s set-point weight.
I don’t care what she does with her body but she can’t go around telling everyone that she is healthy because there is nothing healthy about exercise anorexia, or whatever the term is for someone who eats the tiniest amount possible but exercises every minute of their day.
I think that comments from around the web are overwhelming with genuine concern with this young woman’s health and not her appearance, if that makes sense.
What we saw on the TV is with the obligitory 10 pounds that the camera adds which is why there was such genuine shock and disbelief in the studio when she came on stage. She must look even smaller in person.
I really do take exception to Bob and Jillian washing their hands of the situation with their statements that they weren’t her trainers – that’s total bull. If you watched the show, when they went to singles, every trainer worked with every contestant. I’m disappointed in them.
Hopefully, Rachel will find peace with her food intake and exercise regime and be healthy long-term.
I’ve never been a fan of the the BL show. I think it promotes bad health habits. I watched a behind the scenes clips before, and the contestants workout for hours, and multiple times a day. I wish they would come out with a reality show like this that didn’t go to the extremes. I’m not going to make any comment on Rachel, because what I would say has already been said.
I despise the Biggest Loser show. Weight loss should not be a competition. There are too many differences between body types and how male vs female bodies metabolize for such a competition to be on a level field anyway, and even if it were a level playing field, losing weight as fast as possible in order to meet a deadline just promotes disordered behaviors.
Weight loss should not be a competition.
That much weight loss in that span of time- i am sure she was in ketosis–and likely still is? She may have lost the most weight- but can’t say excercising 3-4 times a day is healthy.
Good for her on losing ther weight, but I think she went too far in an unhealthy way. I still can’t believe she is only 24.
work out 3-4x a day???????????? That is excessive to say the least.
she wanted that money, so she lost as much as she could without falling over to ensure she won. hopefully now she stops working out so much and eats a bit more than 1600 calories a day. you’re losing weight if you only eat that much. based on her height an weight she is deemed ‘underweight’
her arms were the giveaway for me, looks like no muscle or any ounce of fat is on her arms at all
I also feel that long-term, that amount of exercise would be unsustainable. While I posted in yesterday’s write-up regarding her weight that I feel in the end it’s her body, her business, I also feel that she will most likely even out at some point. That is if she’s truly learned to make some healthy changes to her lifestyle and is not just caught up in the rush and excitement of it all.
I had a time in my life where I was so miserable about being overweight that I would’ve considered just about anything as an alternative. However, after losing a substantial amount of weight, I did go through a period of unreasonable crazy where my biggest fear was gaining an ounce. It didn’t last. Once the novelty wore off, and I realized over-exercising and starving myself weren’t conducive to the lifestyle I wanted, I calmed down (as in, I gained some weight).
Give the woman a break from the limelight, toss her back to the real world and let’s see what happens.
I say people should chill and if she is still this thin in 3 months then she may have a problem. She was crash dieting to win a show. Not probably all that healthy but not for me to say.
Most of these winners gain a little back after the show when real life really sets in.
They dehydrate themselves before the final weigh-in. Former contestants have spoken out about it. She’ll probably put on a few after. She’s probably a couple lbs higher, and I think she’s actually 5’3, which makes a slight difference with BMI.
Everyone’s a nutritionist when there’s a skinny girl in front of them.
Holy Crap! I’m only an inch taller than she is and personally if I drop below 130 I look skeletal. I don’t watch the show but I’ve heard of this controversy by way of Jillian Michael’s Facebook posts. To me she looks way too thin to be healthy. There must be a happy medium here. But I understand that she wanted to win the contest. However, can’t she regain some of the weight post show?
I don’t think she will be able to maintain this routine. Not unless she is some type of rich kid that doesn’t have to work for a portion of the day, which I may add, is also counter productive and may contribute to obesity [sitting in offices for upward of 8 hours a day, then having to commute to work on top of that].
But this show is deceptive on so many levels. A contestant from the Australian version revealed that the so called weekly weigh in is not really weekly, but more like every three weeks [no one can lose 10 kilograms in a week] and the show is recorded over a longer period.
So taking that into consideration, I find it abominable that the US government requires to tax the prize money. If you’re not working for six months to be on this show, you’re losing your income.
Ok, when I was 28 I weighed 103 lbs at 5′ 5″. I played racquetball, coed football, coed softball, tennis, volleyball in the evenings and hiked and biked in the mountains on the weekends. I ate whatever I wanted and still weighed less than 105lbs. It’s called being young and enjoying life. It wasn’t until real life … working at a desk job, in dysfunctional environments did my weight go up and my energy dissipate.
I don’t think working out 3 to 4 times a day for a 24 year old is unhealthy. Maybe unrealistic in this day and age, but unhealthy are you kidding me. Sedentary jobs that force us to sit for 8 hours a day 5 days a week is unhealthy. Seriously do you think 3 to 4 hours of excercise is wrong maybe for 40 or 50 year olds but for a 24 year old?
Working out 3-4 times a day is healthy, but if each exercise is over an hour long, then it is no longer healthy. While setting at a desk all day isn’t healthy either.
Getting too much or too little exercise are equally as bad.
Karen Carpenter face. Not a good sign.
Well if she thinks looking like a 44 year old is attractive when you’re in your mid-20’s then all the best to her!
I watched the BL all season and I remember at the beginning, they showed pictures of Rachel when she was a teenager and was regularly competing at swim meets – she looked healthy and toned but not skinny (pretty much the way she looked when she won the BL triathlon at a weight of 130 pounds). She is extremely competitive: she won just about every challenge this season and I imagine she was so focused on winning the grand prize that she was willing to do anything, even starve herself, to achieve her goal. However, I worry that she may have caused permanent damage to her body and that she may even have developed an eating disorder. At 130 pounds, she was gorgeous; now she looks frail, unwell and 20 years older.
Agreed! I watch the show, and I was rooting for Rachel. She really seemed like this season’s “Tara”, in that she won all challenges and was just really motivated to win it.
I thought she looked so awesome after the triatholon. You could see how she just radiated health again. She looked like an athlete, which is what she had wanted to accomplish again. I was glad for her, meeting her goals like that, although my husband and I questioned whether she had enough weight left to lose to ‘win’. She was a winner already though! Her drive and competitiveness really made me worry about what she might do to make certain she won…
But seeing her in the finale was so difficult! She does not radiate health anymore. She is not strong and toned. She does not look like the athlete she strived to be. Honestly, I’m usually one to really harp on not bodyshaming in either direction, but seeing her now after seeing her so beautifully and obviously healthy in the last episode, I am honestly very worried for her. I sincerely hope it was just a ploy to be sure she won and that it didn’t create any lasting disorders or health issues. Power to her if that’s the case. But I agree with an above poster – I’m worried that she doesn’t say, “Dude, look how much money I won! I can afford to relax a bit now.” I’ve read too many stories about people unable to acclimate after the finale. I want nothing but health and vitality for her.
For $250 k I would work out as many unhealthy ours I put on my job 14 exactly. I would install a hamster wheel so at night while I am sleeping I would work out too. Does she look great? Her face looks tired and malnourished as when crash dieting. But Good for her, I have trouble losing 10 pounds.
Obviously she’s the “oops” of the show’s premise to promote the joy of a healthier body. Some rexo is gonna be on here, and she’s it. I’ve known one true anorexic in my life, and it’s really as revolting as someone who is hugely overweight. She has a hairy face, rotten teeth, death breath, and an eerie psychology; it’s grose sad and revolting all at once. Thin to that extreme is just as -not- sexy as morbidly shut in style obese. In all the photos of this biggest loser girl, she has all the physical characteristics of anorexia, and of course she’s in denial, that’s the disease.
She switched out one disordered eating pattern for the other. There is actually a fair amount of research on this topic. Addiction to food, booze, cigarettes, gambling, shopping…when one is gotten under control you often see a new addiction arise eventually. I despise this show. What I noticed is how dewy and sweet her face is in the first picture. She looks about 23. Now she looks 36+.
The Second Photo reminds me of a ringer for Sandra Bullock?