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by Golda Poretsky, H.H.C.
www.bodylovewellness.com

Last week, I posted the first part of a 3 part series of my interview with Kai Hibbard,  a Biggest Loser finalist who, despite lawsuit threats from NBC and other threats from Biggest Loser fans, had the courage to talk to me about her experiences on the show.

The Biggest Loser is a huge juggernaut of a show.  It’s had 8 seasons already, and I read tweets every day about people auditioning for season 9.  Trainer Jillian Michaels now has her own show.  There are tons of Biggest Loser themed merchandise, from mugs to scales to Nintendo Wii games.  And the premise of the show is that it makes fat people, which it assumes are all unhealthy, into allegedly healthy thin people.

And that’s what I loved about interviewing Kai.  She was willing to share what it’s like to dehydrate your body for weigh-ins.  She was willing to share how the pressure she felt pushed her into a severe eating disorder.  In other words, she was willing to smash the image of health that the Biggest Loser tries so hard to create.

I wanted to share Kai’s voice because, truthfully, I hope that her words will ebb the flow of fat people who line up to be treated like crap on The Biggest Loser.

For the most part, the blog commenters who reflected on the post were coming from a place similar to mine.  They expressed gratitude to Kai for being brave enough to share her story and were glad to see that their assumptions about what really goes on at the Biggest Loser ranch were being confirmed by Kai’s interview.  They also shared their stories and impressions of The Biggest Loser.

But I want to address two sets of comments that really gave me pause.  One, were those commenters who felt that because she still promotes intentional weight loss (and a diet supplement) that her words are somehow less trustworthy.  The others were those commenters who displayed a “she knew what she was getting into so she has no right to complain” attitude.

Regarding Intentional Weight Loss & Selling Diet Pills

After Kai contacted me to do the interview, I googled her and saw that, indeed, she promotes a weight loss supplement.   And I was worried about what that might do to her credibility when I posted this on my blog.

As Lesley noted over at one of my favorite blogs, Fatshionista: