‘The Biggest Loser,’ the unreal reality show

On March 23, a contestant from “The Biggest Loser” spoke to Houston High School students about how unreal the reality show was and the unhealthy habits contestants formed during the competition.

Kai Hibbard, 31, was born in Kodiak and although she moved constantly due to being in a military family, she still lives in Alaska. Hibbard was chosen to be on the third season of “The Biggest Loser” (TBL), which covered the 50 states.

Many who saw her on the show interpreted her personality as catty and mean, but her witty and sarcastic remarks had the HHS students erupting with laughter and smiles. Hibbard isn’t bitter about her experience on “The Biggest Loser;” instead, she uses it as a way to teach others about healthy weight loss and perception of reality shows.

Hibbard didn’t want to apply for the show in the beginning. One of her good friends persuaded her to send in a video tape in which Hibbard doubted her chances. After being accepted onto the show, she got to see how fake one of NBC’s best reality shows really is.

She explained how the extravagant gym everyone sees on television is just a fake set, yet the real gym is crowded and doesn’t have air conditioning. The last-minute workouts started at 6 in the morning and contestants wore multiple layers of clothing in 100-degree weather for two to three hours. None of the contestants were allowed to drink water in order to lose the most weight humanly possible.

Hibbard made it to the top four and lost to a guy from New York. Before her journey on “The Biggest Loser,” she weighed 265 pounds and had 53 percent body fat. At the finale she weighed an astonishing 144 and only had 26 percent body fat, but it gets better from there.

On the show she would go hours without drinking water and only ate Jell-O. Once she finished the show and her family helped her get on a healthier lifestyle, her body fat went from 26 percent to 17 percent.

For many TBL viewers, it’s a tradition that they have a weigh-in at the end of every week. According to Hibbard, those TV weeks would take them anywhere from five days to three weeks. Those three weeks would give them a chance to lose a ridiculous amount of weight, which adds to the shock and awe of TBL’s viewers.

As a favored part of TBL, Hibbard shared the truth about the intense challenges. One of the challenges she participated in included a spin bike suspended by a crane 40 feet above the ground. Hibbard’s phobia of heights made the tears all of America saw completely real and sincere. With only duct tape holding the bike to the plexiglass platform, she was determined to finish the challenge faster than anyone else.

The gym may have been a prop, but Hibbard described the ranch as a beautiful prison. Surrounded by horses, green grass and towering mountains, the only thing that made it seem like a prison was the gate that wasn’t allowed to be crossed by any contestants.

Hibbard laughed while telling the story of the property manager. Since the show covered the 50 states, there were 50 people at the beginning. While standing on the grass the horses would graze on, the property manager would yell at them because the 50 fat people would ruin the grass — the exact same grass numerous horses would stand on.

The schedule at the ranch would get hectic, starting with four hours of sleep a night, six hours of working out and only being able to eat 1,200 calories a day.

Producers would often write scripts for contestants in order to promote their sponsors, such as Jennie-O, Jell-O and Bayer aspirin. Producers would also censor the contestant’s mail in order to obtain more dramatic scenes and chaperoned their phone calls.

During the time the contestants would go home for four months before the big finale, Hibbard’s family watched as she starved herself on a 1,000-calorie diet and would work out for eight hours a day.

She admitted that the contestants, including her, would become extremely paranoid. With the lack of food and water, they began to realize it was a competition. The need to know where the other contestants were and what they were doing became a necessity and suspicion began to set in.

The only thing she regrets about the show is she wasn’t more honest at the end about how sick she was. She would develop bruises and her hair would fall out in clumps due to a lack of nutrition. Through the entire show, the doctors only checked her twice and the producers would overrule any healthy suggestions the doctors would give.

Almost five years later, Hibbard has learned healthy eating and workout habits. She uses the experience to teach young adults that they should love their body no matter what weight, but also encourages eating healthy and working out in moderation instead of drastically cutting back food and becoming absorbed in exercise like TBL contestants did.

Hibbard lost 118 pounds during and after the show, which is something she never thought she’d accomplish. If there’s one thing to remember, if Kai can do it, anyone can do it!

Kylie Boepple is a senior at Houston High School.