The Biggest Loser Was The Biggest Loser. Why Are We Shocked and Outraged?

I don't watch The Biggest Loser, at least I haven't in many seasons, but the internet exploded last night with reaction to this year's winner, Rachel Frederickson, and drew me back into the maylay. She is a former swimmer, 5'4" tall, and over the course of 5 months shooting the show, her weight plummeted from 260 lbs to 105 lbs. This places her BMI at 18, in the underweight category.

Beyond all of the hype, all of the recriminations of Rachel and the show itself, what happened last night was that a young woman stood up on national television, in front of flashing lights and cheering crowds, and won $250,000 for getting skinny. She played the game masterfully. It's about who can lose the most weight, right?! 

This is what we value. We put it on TV, cheer for the contestants, and hold extreme weight loss up as the ideal. It draws enormous advertising dollars. We are fascinated by it. The whole premise of the show is to reward the person who loses the most, but when Rachel walked on stage last night, viewers labeled her weight loss as "shocking" and "sickening." 

It is not our place to jump through the screen and into her mind. She played the game, and she won. We shouldn't judge her for being skinny any more than we should have judged her for being fat before.

She's a former athlete and only 24 years old. It's a massive feat to do what she did but not nearly the uphill battle most of us in our 30s, 40s, and beyond - home and working full time - might face. Her weight loss is about her. It has nothing to do with us. 

She says she loves herself now and feels like she can do anything. I'm glad, and I hope that confidence continues to shine through. I hope it isn't contingent on her weight as it fluctuates over the years, and I hope that when she lands back in the silence of her kitchen - after we've all moved on to next year's biggest loser - that she feels at peace in her own skin. 

I wish her good health, whatever that might mean to her.