It is the moment “The Biggest Loser” viewers anticipate all season. That episode when the finalists emerge, one by one, to bare all — or rather less — to a waiting audience of millions. But on Tuesday night, when Rachel Frederickson, 24, walked onto the studio stage 155 pounds lighter than at the start of Season 15, the reaction was not one of awe, but shock, apparent even on the trainers’ frozen faces.
In the few months since Ms. Frederickson, 5 feet 4 inches tall, had left the ranch for her home, her body had radically changed from the athletic 150 pounds she had weighed upon her departure to a gaunt sliver of herself, obvious despite her shimmering silver dress, strappy sandals and big grin. Ms. Frederickson, as the scale would soon reveal, now weighed 105 pounds, and having lost 59.62 percent of her body weight would also be the competition’s winner, making her $250,000 richer.
But as confetti dropped all around her, few were celebrating on Twitter. “I feel like Rachel lost too much,” one woman wrote. “I had to turn away.” Another posted, “There needs to be a red line that disqualifies finalists for too much weight loss.”
Kai Hibbard, a finalist on Season 3, was at her home in Alaska when another former contestant, whom she declined to name, sent her a message. “Have you seen tonight’s winner?” it read. “NBC is about to have a public-relations nightmare.” When Ms. Hibbard pulled up Ms. Frederickson’s winning photo, she promptly burst into tears.
“Rachel doesn’t know what damage she has done to her body and her mind, and sadly she won’t until the spotlight goes away,” said Ms. Hibbard, 35, who seven years ago lost 118 pounds during her competition but has since spoken out publicly against the show’s extreme dieting and exercise regimen. “I feel I did a vulnerable population a disservice by not saying on television the night of my finale, ‘I’m sad, and I’m sick from being on this show,’ ” she said, recalling that her hair had begun falling out from a vitamin deficiency. “I should have walked off the set. The only difference between Rachel and me is she looked on the outside the way I was feeling on the inside, totally unhealthy.”
Two days after the finale, NBC and the production company, Shine America, issued a statement saying: “We support Rachel and all of ‘The Biggest Loser’ contestants who have shared their journeys over the past 15 seasons. We remain committed to helping contestants achieve healthy weight loss and live healthier lifestyles, and to inspiring viewers to do the same.”
In a conference call after she won, Ms. Frederickson attributed her weight loss to workouts, saying that “she takes maybe three, four classes a day.”
Since the show aired, two of the trainers addressed Ms. Frederickson’s drastic weight loss. Dolvett Quince, who worked with her throughout the season, wrote in part on his Facebook page, “Rachel’s health is and always has been my main concern, and her journey to good health has not yet ended.” Bob Harper, who will appear on “The Rachael Ray Show” this week, said, “What people don’t understand is when contestants leave home ... they are in charge of themselves.”
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