September 2, 2025 • 29 mins
Fast results may look appealing, but lasting change is where true success lies. Join Erin Power as she unpacks lessons from The Biggest Loser documentary and what it means for health coaching.
In this episode, Erin shares insights gained from binge-watching the three-part documentary on Netflix about The Biggest Loser. Erin discusses the inspirational aspects of the show and reflects on how the documentary exposes both the strengths and weaknesses of its approach to weight loss.
Episode Overview:
0:00 Intro
3:55 - Lesson 1: The #1 Rule for Coaches - Stay In Your Lane
8:49 - Lesson 2: People Are Desperate for Real Change
15:22 - Lesson 3: The Breaking Point: "I Can't Do This On My Own"
17:39 - Lesson 4: The Show's Biggest Failure (And Your Biggest Goal)
21:26 - Lesson 5: Why "Fast Results" Are Garbage
27:43 - Your Mission: How to Be Better Than The Biggest Loser
29:01 - Outro
Connect with Erin on:
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Website: primalhealthcoach.com
Instagram: @primalhealthcoach
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Health Coach Radio is your backstage pass into the world of health and fitness coaching, hosted by Primal Health Coach Institute Coaching Director, Erin Power, and powered by the legacy of founder Mark Sisson. Each episode is packed with real stories, expert strategies, and practical inspiration to help you grow as a coach and make a difference.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
I don't know about you, but I absolutely sprinted to my television and binge watched
the three episode documentary series on The Biggest Loser, which was a TV show that I was
obsessed with in the 2000s. I loved this show. I found it so inspiring. It made me cry every week.
(00:21):
I loved it with every fiber of my being. I felt so inspired by the contestants. I wanted them to
have these amazing outcomes. I jumped for joy when they lost 15 pounds a week. I was riveted.
Now looking back, I recognize it was slightly train wreckish. Obviously a documentary on Netflix
(00:43):
is going to try to emphasize the train wreckish tendency of something like that. But I still looked
back on the years I spent watching that television show when it was live on the air and thought a lot
about what we can learn as health and wellness coaches from The Biggest Loser. So please enjoy
this episode where I take you through some of the takeaways I took away from The Biggest Loser
(01:08):
documentary that we can apply to our health coaching practices. Hi, I'm Erin Power. I'm a
health coach, a health coaching educator and mentor and your host of Health Coach Radio.
This podcast delves into the art, science and business of health coaching. Whether you're
aspiring to land a coaching dream job, or to embark on your own entrepreneurial adventure,
(01:29):
we cover it all. Our mission is to help you grow your career, elevate your income,
change the lives of the clients who need your help, and leave a lasting mark in this rapidly
growing field. It's time for health coaches to make an impact. It's time for Health Coach Radio.
Hey coaches, Erin here, and I literally just finished watching the three-part Netflix
(01:54):
series on The Biggest Loser, the documentary that was posted to Netflix in mid-August of 2025.
I'm sure you watched it too. I'm just curious. I was around. I was alive. I was in the zeitgeist
of health and wellness during the rise to fame of The Biggest Loser. I wonder if anybody else
(02:16):
listening was as well. I loved this show. I was thinking about how much I love this show,
And I had it on my schedule to watch it every week.
And I T-voted it.
I PBR'd it.
I recorded it to my television and watched it later because I was so invested in this
(02:38):
weight loss journey of these folks on every season of this show.
I was very, very into it.
I loved it.
I would cry every episode.
I would feel so proud of them.
A lot of that nostalgia came flooding back for me.
Now, this documentary series got really, there's a lot of commentary on it on social media,
(02:59):
a lot of disparaging commentary about some of the people who were on the show, specifically
the trainers, which I think is interesting because we know we're health coaches, we're
fitness coaches.
That's what we do.
So I really think there's a lot for health and fitness and wellness coaches to learn
about The Biggest Loser and what we saw in the documentary, kind of this sort of distillation
(03:19):
of the whole process, not just what we can do better, but understanding the health consumer,
let's call them, the person looking to lose weight or get healthier. So I don't, if you watched it,
I'd love to know what you think. Here's five lessons I learned from watching the Biggest Loser
(03:43):
documentary. By the way, this is not to trash the show because I loved it. This is simply to pull
for health coaches about what worked, what doesn't work, and what we can do better.
So the first lesson that I want to mention is one that is very near and dear to my heart,
and I will plant this flag in the ground deeply and forever. And it is in the realm of staying in
(04:10):
one's lane, where the trainer lane is, the fitness coach, the health coach lane versus the medical
professional lane. And, you know, to a certain extent, you know, TV producers, which television
producers are not people that, you know, most of us health coaches are going to end up having to
collaborate with. But let's talk about the push pull that happened between the doctors on the show
(04:30):
and the trainers on the show. And this is all speculation. This is just what the documentary
series alleged happened. The doctors were trying to keep the weight loss healthy.
They really did, they were really trying to be intentional and safe with the weight loss,
(04:51):
but the trainers at the behest of the television producers needed to make it more dramatic
for television.
And there were some shady actions put into place, allegedly some supplements that maybe
shouldn't have been there.
The doctors and the trainers did not see eye to eye on what should be done.
Health coaches are experts.
fitness coaches are experts in the health and fitness behaviors that we are trained in. And
(05:17):
doctors obviously are licensed healthcare professionals who have a greater degree of
scope of practice than we do. And there is a hierarchy there. If your client, if anyone's
client has a doctor's order for or against something, our job is to accept that, help the
client, advocate for themselves with that medical decision, and help the client execute lifestyle
(05:42):
changes with the doctor's advice in play. And I just mentioned this because sometimes
the doctor-patient relationship can be difficult, and sometimes the medical system is called into
question, the issues systemically with the healthcare system, doctor shortages, funding
(06:04):
shortages, just systemic problems like that. And sometimes I honestly do see a lot of health and
wellness coaches exuberantly come down on the health and wellness and the medical profession,
and I'm not into that. I just don't think that's a good look for us, quite frankly.
Not only is it not a good look for us to be, you know, butting heads with our clients,
(06:24):
medical professionals, it confuses the client because they trust their doctor and they trust
do. And now there's this sort of this infighting happening. And I get very worried about the
health coaching industry writ large when we health and wellness coaches veer outside of our scope of
(06:46):
practice. That's the flag I plant in the ground. So you're going to hear that a lot from me if you
keep listening to this show. I very strongly believe that we all as health and wellness
coaches must remain in our lane so that our industry remains available to us. Because the
more we breach the boundaries of what we're allowed to do and supposed to do, the sooner
(07:10):
we'll be on the path of being regulated. And once we're regulated, I mean, you know, the show's over
for us. We're not going to be able to have the ability to work with clients the way we do.
We don't really want to be regulated. That's a very personal opinion. But when I train health
coaches at Primal Health Coach Institute, I'm so very, very strenuous and staunch about health
(07:31):
coaching scope of practice. And it grinds my gears whenever I see a health and wellness coach
overstep their bounds. And allegedly the trainers may have done that in this documentary. Now,
plot twist, apparently the trainers are fighting back against this allegation. Ooh, drama. I don't
know. I'm just a watcher, okay? So I'm just going by what I saw. So the takeaway here is the siloed
(07:58):
health approach is the them versus them, us versus them approach. It's not really beneficial for a
health consumer looking to get healthier. Health coaches and doctors must collaborate or be in at
least an enjoyable blended working relationship if it's necessary for health coaches to collaborate
with what doctors are saying, doctor's orders, please do. Bridge the lifestyle support with the
(08:22):
medical oversight. Our scope of practice is in behavior change, helping clients execute the health
and lifestyle changes in their life that will help them to get and stay healthy. And in a lot of cases,
they're going to be combining our insight with what their doctor's asking them to do. And we have
to be very, very careful and cooperative about that. Lesson two that I learned as a health coach
(08:49):
from watching The Biggest Loser documentary is that people are desperate for change.
That's what I took away. Now, I know that there's a lot of polarizing opinions on this, okay?
What I saw whenever I watched this show back in the early 2000s when it was on the air,
Even when I was revisiting the show, watching the documentary, what I saw was, wow, these
(09:13):
people are so desperate for help that they're putting their lives on hold for months.
They're applying and reapplying and almost kind of really embarrassing themselves to
do things to get on the show, submit their video, go to the casting calls.
They'll try and try and try again.
Some people try multiple times.
They want to get on the show.
They know this is their chance to finally get weight under control.
(09:34):
They will do it.
And after season one, like once season one was done and dusted, everybody knew what this show
was about. You're going to be on TV. You're probably going to throw up on a treadmill in
front of millions of TV viewers. You're going to be yelled at and belittled. You have to take your
shirt off and stand on a scale on television. It's very embarrassing, very psychologically difficult.
(09:58):
I mean, I think that again is part of the TV magic, right? We have to make it kind of like
this train wreck we can't look away from, like the more compelling, the better. And in some ways,
humiliating, embarrassing people is very compelling. Unfortunately, I feel for these people.
And by the way, parenthetically, one of the reasons I love The Biggest Losers is because my mom was a
(10:19):
very, very, very obese woman and tried everything and battled her body for decades of her life,
tried everything, every crazy thing you can think of. She was so desperate for help.
And I just kind of think, you know, maybe my mom could have gone on The Biggest Loser.
Maybe she could have lost 100 pounds.
And maybe that would have kick-started some health in her life.
(10:41):
Now, you know, statistically, the long-term results of The Biggest Loser weren't great.
That is a factor.
But when I was watching it in the moment, in the early 2000s watching this show, I thought,
wow, there's a lot of people really desperate here, just like my mom is.
And so it was a very personal feeling for me.
And I am an empathetic person.
I would hope many of us in the health and wellness industry are, but I naturally skew sort of
(11:07):
empathically. And that's why I cried every time I watched this show, because I was really feeling
for these people who were so, so desperate to do anything. They were also incentivized, though.
That's going to be the argument I get from people on this one. Oh, they didn't want it. There was an
incentive. There was a cash prize on the line. And, you know, maybe some people on some level
wanted to get on TV so they could achieve some kind of celebrity status, potentially. There was
(11:31):
prize on the line. And at the time it was $250,000 cash if you won. And there was an at-home cash
prize as well. So if you went home, if you didn't make it to the very end, but you went home and
lost enough weight, you could win an additional cash prize if you did it on your own. So there's
a cash prize, but you had a one in 20 or so shot of winning it. And you had to be put through the
actual literal ringer, like hard work, objectively hard work. I don't think any of us could have done
(11:54):
it. Eating 800 calories or whatever, a thousand calories and exercising a minimum of four hours
the day is hard, man. That's really hard. It would be hard for any of us to do that. So the incentive,
the cash incentive is, is there. I, I'm doubtful that it's enough by itself to get people to do
that much work. I just, I'm doubtful. Like it might be a little bit of a carrot on the end of
(12:19):
the stick, but I, I get the sense, this is just personally my opinion, that people really went on
the show because they wanted, they were desperate for the help. And the cash prize was a nice little
extra incentive. And it's an external incentive, right? There's an extrinsic motivation. Oh, I could
win money. I could be on TV. Maybe I'll become a motivational speaker and, you know, get some kind
(12:40):
of notoriety. Those are extrinsic motivations. But intrinsically, what was motivating people to do
all this really hard work was just the desperation for help. So I'm always moved by that. And as a
health coach, hear me when I say this, we have to figure out how to tap into, on some level,
(13:06):
the pain of staying stuck. The pain of staying stuck where you are must be greater than the pain
of change. Making the change is hard. Going in the biggest loser, going to the ranch and being
punished by the trainers and the restrictive diet is hard, but staying stuck in the current body is
You have to bring that to light. Sometimes you have to help your clients see that the pain of
(13:30):
staying stuck is worse than the potential pain of the transformation. Now, you're a health and
wellness coach. You're not going Bob and Jillian on these people. They did it for TV. Bob and Jillian,
as far as I'm concerned, are very great qualified trainers. I have no personal opinion for or against
either of them. When you are in relationship with your health coaching clients, you're not going to
(13:52):
be punishing and belittling and berating them and making them throw up and feel that bad. That's
probably not the kind of health coach you are. Although maybe that is your brand. I don't know.
But we have to be able to bring to light that the change is important enough to make. And though it
will be hard, what's harder is staying stuck. And then we guide and encourage our clients to
(14:13):
continue marching toward the change, marching away from staying stuck where they were. People
Biggest Loser back in the early 2000s, and I re-observed it when this documentary brought
it back to life. There are people who are very desperate for change. They need your help.
They're out there. Keto, carnivore, paleo, AIP, SCD, low FODMAP, so many diets, so much confusion.
(14:39):
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(15:04):
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The third lesson I took away is that part of the desperation is,
(15:28):
I can't do this on my own.
I tried.
I need outside help.
So we can make assumptions that most of the people who got to that very, very overweight level
and eventually found themselves in The Biggest Loser probably had tried one or two or several
dozen weight loss attempts before they went on television. They put themselves out there because
(15:55):
they knew they needed outside help. Maybe this is my chance. In fact, people literally said that
on the documentary. Some of the past Biggest Loser participants that they interviewed
reiterated, I needed to go on the show. I needed help. I knew I needed help. Now,
they're at a stage of change where they are seeking outside help. They're shoppers. They're
(16:18):
looking around. They're at a readiness level to accept outside help. That's who you want to work
with. Not everybody's at that level. You're not going to just slide into someone's DMs and say,
hey, can I help you get healthy? If they're not ready to get healthy, if they're not looking for
you, they're not really worth your time and energy. When they're ready, they're ready. And they're
(16:42):
going to know they need outside help. People know they need outside help at some point. I think
almost everybody who's struggled with health, whatever that is, in this case, the biggest loser,
it's weight. But for people who have struggled with health for a long time, they get to a breaking
point where they say enough is enough. I need outside help. And I'll tell you what, virtually
every client in my roster is at that point. Like that's, that's the point when somebody hires a
(17:07):
health coach. They say, you know what? I've spun my wheels long enough. It's time to make a move.
I realize I need help because doing it on my own is not working. That's amazing.
Isn't it nice that humans know that? So this is a rally cry for you, health coach.
At some point, the health consumer comes to their breaking point where they say, I need help.
(17:33):
And the people in The Biggest Loser got to that point.
The fourth lesson that I picked up from The Biggest Loser, and I do hope to do an entire podcast episode about this, a teaching type of podcast episode,
is that self-efficacy is always the key outcome we need to get to in our health coaching
(17:55):
relationship. So while on the show, the contestants relied on the system, the trainers, the schedule,
the menu, the meal plan, the doctor visits, they were sequestered at a ranch in Malibu.
They couldn't go anywhere. The whole scenario was very locked down. They were in a bubble.
(18:19):
So there was no outside influence to derail them. Well, that's not realistic, is it? No.
And that's why now we see these atrocious statistics on the just abject temporariness
of the fat loss from Biggest Loser. When people came back into their real lives and started living
(18:44):
their lives again, and they didn't have a trainer screaming at them every day, guess what happened?
They gained all the way back and more. Now, hang on. There's a lot of metabolic factors at play
there. Majorly. They majorly down-regulated the metabolic rate to an astonishing level by just
ratcheting down food and ratcheting up exercise. That's definitely at play.
(19:05):
You know, but imagine having an expert diet coach in their life when they get home.
Once the biggest loser is done, done.
Cash money has been handed out.
You either won or you didn't.
Now you're going to execute your life.
Maybe there's a diet coach that helps them to reverse diet back up to a regular metabolic rate,
helps them baby step themselves back into their lives.
(19:28):
The process during the biggest loser obliterated self-efficacy.
And self-efficacy is the belief and knowledge that I have the skills and resources to do this on my own in my life, basically.
Obliterated.
There was zero self-efficacy built into this process, which is one of the reasons why the weight loss rates were very unsustainable.
(19:55):
The Biggest Loser contestants did not learn the tools and skills to facilitate this on their own.
so i think this is a really powerful takeaway for coaches because the outcome we're trying to get
for our clients is yes the desired health outcome they want their main health goal in the case of
(20:16):
biggest loser it's weight loss and probably some metabolic health improvement and you know probably
some improved biomarkers because they're very very overweight sick people you might be working with
folks on performance or pre or postnatal or maybe you're mad helping people manage their autoimmune
symptoms you might have a very specific niche in fact I sincerely hope you do a very specific
expertise that you offer and we're getting an outcome for our client we're helping our client
(20:42):
get their outcome and paired up with that is not only did you get the outcome but you also know how
to do it yourself you know how to do it on your own graduating the client out of our care with
high confidence that they can maintain the intervention is the main objective of a health
(21:04):
coaching relationship. Self-efficacy is key and self-efficacy was not factored in to The Biggest
Loser. Once they were done, they were kind of left hung out to dry and it didn't pan out well for
pretty much everyone. And the fifth lesson I learned from watching The Biggest Loser documentary
(21:28):
very simple but for me very powerful and just reiterates for me because as a health coach I
work in the weight loss space and you know one of the reasons I got into the weight loss space
is because my mom was very overweight and battled her weight for such a long time and that's a very
deep meaningful motivation for me to do this work fast results are garbage this is a personal
(21:51):
preference here I really do believe especially in the weight loss space that just hustling
to get the most dramatically fast weight loss is not the play because of all the metabolic
factors that come in the the adaptation that happens when you start just really deeply
restricting food and ramping up exercise you know this is what the research showed and there was
(22:12):
all these articles in the newspaper years and years ago about the slowed down metabolisms of
biggest loser competitors. And it's like, well, it's definitely dysregulated their metabolism.
You know, that's where, for example, I mentioned earlier, like a reverse diet would have been a
great plan. It's like, let's bring you up out of 800 calories to a normal caloric range so you
(22:36):
metabolically can re-op regulate. I think for television, losing 10 to 20 pounds a week is very,
very compelling for the desperately obese human losing 10 to 20 pounds a week is
just an absolute life-changing paradigm to consider imagine i know i know my mom if she
(22:58):
could imagine losing 20 pounds in a week 10 pounds in a week that would have blown her mind
absolutely but we already know that these very blistering fast breakneck speed weight loss
approaches. They don't teach you anything. They don't offer self-efficacy. There is a metabolic
downregulation. It ain't great for long-term results. It's really good for short-term results.
(23:22):
It's real good for TV, but there's no long-term health outcomes as evidenced by the fact that
almost all the competitors and the biggest loser gained back every pound they lost or more. So
maintenance was nearly impossible for these folks. And the takeaway here is that faster just isn't
better. Real success is sustainable change that protects metabolism and builds habits and develop
(23:48):
self-efficacy. So this sort of empowerment and enlightenment of the client, they've made a change
at a pace that feels reasonable and maintainable. As far as I'm concerned, and I say this all the
time in my social feed, weight loss must feel easy. If it feels easy, you'll probably keep it up. If
(24:12):
once the money was given away and all the cameras and lights shut down on Biggest Loser,
not too many people, not too many contestants of the show continued to run on a treadmill
for hours a day and chew gum when they felt hungry. Because that was one of the,
one of their diet tactics was when you feel hungry, chew gum instead of eating food,
(24:33):
which is crazy to me. They did have a gum sponsor, so that's why. But these very fast
outcomes. People think they want them. People might pressure you to give them as the health
coach. They might say, hey, health coach, really like your program, really like what we're doing
here. I'd like to see faster results, though. Is there any way we can speed this up? And that's
(24:57):
where you have to kind of hold the frame of saying, well, client, there are ways we can speed
this up because this is a client-centered approach. If the client says, I'd like this to go faster,
your kind of reaction or response to that would be, I hear you client, you'd like to have faster
results. Let's talk about some ways we can make this go faster for you. And then just have a real
honest conversation with your client about how to make it go faster. For example, I have a weight
(25:20):
loss client right now who wants it to go faster. And she said, Hey, I want to discuss some tactics
to help this like really accelerate so I can get some fat loss going quickly. Now I don't like fast
fat loss. I don't offer fast fat loss, but my client who paid me to help her with fat loss now
would like to ramp up the pace a little bit. So I said, okay, we've got some options. I hear you.
(25:42):
You want this to go faster. So here's some options we can do. We can talk about really increasing
your exercise. We can talk about really ratcheting down your food intake. We can talk about doing
some sort of macro tracking or caloric restriction. Here's some other options we can try. Which of
these feels best to you to play with nudging fat loss a little faster? Now, in this particular case,
(26:04):
my client didn't want to do any of those things. She didn't want to track her calories. She didn't
want to restrict any food. She didn't want to ramp up exercise and she has an injury so she can't.
So we had to have just a really real conversation about, okay, well, let's refocus on the goal and
the vision here. Her vision, her goal, her long-term outcome desire is to have effortless,
sustainable weight loss. If anybody had that conversation with the biggest loser competitor,
(26:30):
would you like effortless, sustainable weight loss, or you just want to get it off quickly for
the TV show, that would have been really fascinating to know, because that would have gone a long way
in developing the programming, right? Maybe you're listening to this, and you are a, like a bikini or
bodybuilding competition prep coach, and your whole program is fast, dramatic body recomposition.
(26:51):
That might be your wheelhouse, in which case, this is kind of what you do, right? This is your whole
thing is like, we get it going quickly, we get to dramatic body recomposition. But then you have a
to get them sort of reverse-sided back out.
I don't know.
As a weight loss coach, I found it very compelling
(27:12):
that the speed of the weight loss was glorified
and socialized in that way.
And I think that's what people think they want,
but we know that meaningful change takes time.
That's something that you as a health coach
would be wise to practice nurturing in your clients. So,
(27:43):
practical takeaways for health coaches from The Biggest Loser documentary released in
August of 2025. Collaborate, don't compete with medical professionals, don't throw doctors under
the bus. Recognize that clients are motivated and sometimes desperate, but help them connect with
intrinsic reasons to change and what they want their long-term outcomes to be. So build client
(28:08):
self-efficacy so they don't need you forever and focus on sustainable change rather than flashy
results. So reflect, if you were invited to coach the biggest loser, what would you do differently?
Health coaches were uniquely positioned to rewrite the weight loss story away from these kinds of
(28:30):
crash diet paradigms and towards sustainable, empowering, self-efficacious transformation.
And I really want you to feel inspired by that.
Watching the Biggest Loser documentary reminded me of kind of the old school,
I tell you what to do and you do it method that doesn't really work to help people build
(28:51):
lifelong habits.
We have an amazing opportunity to get into the lives and integrate in the lives of our
clients, help them establish the behaviors and make the changes that actually stick.
This podcast was brought to you by Primal Health Coach Institute.
To learn more about how to become a successful health coach, get in touch with us by visiting
primalhealthcoach.com forward slash call.
(29:13):
Or if you're already a successful health coach, practitioner, influencer, or thought leader
with a thriving business and an interesting story, we'd love to hear from you.
Connect with us at hello at primalhealthcoach.com and let us know why we need to interview you for Health Coach Radio.
Thanks for listening.
I don't know about you, but I absolutely sprinted to my television and binge watched
the three episode documentary series on The Biggest Loser, which was a TV show that I was
obsessed with in the 2000s. I loved this show. I found it so inspiring. It made me cry every week.
(00:21):
I loved it with every fiber of my being. I felt so inspired by the contestants. I wanted them to
have these amazing outcomes. I jumped for joy when they lost 15 pounds a week. I was riveted.
Now looking back, I recognize it was slightly train wreckish. Obviously a documentary on Netflix
(00:43):
is going to try to emphasize the train wreckish tendency of something like that. But I still looked
back on the years I spent watching that television show when it was live on the air and thought a lot
about what we can learn as health and wellness coaches from The Biggest Loser. So please enjoy
this episode where I take you through some of the takeaways I took away from The Biggest Loser
(01:08):
documentary that we can apply to our health coaching practices. Hi, I'm Erin Power. I'm a
health coach, a health coaching educator and mentor and your host of Health Coach Radio.
This podcast delves into the art, science and business of health coaching. Whether you're
aspiring to land a coaching dream job, or to embark on your own entrepreneurial adventure,
(01:29):
we cover it all. Our mission is to help you grow your career, elevate your income,
change the lives of the clients who need your help, and leave a lasting mark in this rapidly
growing field. It's time for health coaches to make an impact. It's time for Health Coach Radio.
Hey coaches, Erin here, and I literally just finished watching the three-part Netflix
(01:54):
series on The Biggest Loser, the documentary that was posted to Netflix in mid-August of 2025.
I'm sure you watched it too. I'm just curious. I was around. I was alive. I was in the zeitgeist
of health and wellness during the rise to fame of The Biggest Loser. I wonder if anybody else
(02:16):
listening was as well. I loved this show. I was thinking about how much I love this show,
And I had it on my schedule to watch it every week.
And I T-voted it.
I PBR'd it.
I recorded it to my television and watched it later because I was so invested in this
(02:38):
weight loss journey of these folks on every season of this show.
I was very, very into it.
I loved it.
I would cry every episode.
I would feel so proud of them.
A lot of that nostalgia came flooding back for me.
Now, this documentary series got really, there's a lot of commentary on it on social media,
(02:59):
a lot of disparaging commentary about some of the people who were on the show, specifically
the trainers, which I think is interesting because we know we're health coaches, we're
fitness coaches.
That's what we do.
So I really think there's a lot for health and fitness and wellness coaches to learn
about The Biggest Loser and what we saw in the documentary, kind of this sort of distillation
(03:19):
of the whole process, not just what we can do better, but understanding the health consumer,
let's call them, the person looking to lose weight or get healthier. So I don't, if you watched it,
I'd love to know what you think. Here's five lessons I learned from watching the Biggest Loser
(03:43):
documentary. By the way, this is not to trash the show because I loved it. This is simply to pull
for health coaches about what worked, what doesn't work, and what we can do better.
So the first lesson that I want to mention is one that is very near and dear to my heart,
and I will plant this flag in the ground deeply and forever. And it is in the realm of staying in
(04:10):
one's lane, where the trainer lane is, the fitness coach, the health coach lane versus the medical
professional lane. And, you know, to a certain extent, you know, TV producers, which television
producers are not people that, you know, most of us health coaches are going to end up having to
collaborate with. But let's talk about the push pull that happened between the doctors on the show
(04:30):
and the trainers on the show. And this is all speculation. This is just what the documentary
series alleged happened. The doctors were trying to keep the weight loss healthy.
They really did, they were really trying to be intentional and safe with the weight loss,
(04:51):
but the trainers at the behest of the television producers needed to make it more dramatic
for television.
And there were some shady actions put into place, allegedly some supplements that maybe
shouldn't have been there.
The doctors and the trainers did not see eye to eye on what should be done.
Health coaches are experts.
fitness coaches are experts in the health and fitness behaviors that we are trained in. And
(05:17):
doctors obviously are licensed healthcare professionals who have a greater degree of
scope of practice than we do. And there is a hierarchy there. If your client, if anyone's
client has a doctor's order for or against something, our job is to accept that, help the
client, advocate for themselves with that medical decision, and help the client execute lifestyle
(05:42):
changes with the doctor's advice in play. And I just mentioned this because sometimes
the doctor-patient relationship can be difficult, and sometimes the medical system is called into
question, the issues systemically with the healthcare system, doctor shortages, funding
(06:04):
shortages, just systemic problems like that. And sometimes I honestly do see a lot of health and
wellness coaches exuberantly come down on the health and wellness and the medical profession,
and I'm not into that. I just don't think that's a good look for us, quite frankly.
Not only is it not a good look for us to be, you know, butting heads with our clients,
(06:24):
medical professionals, it confuses the client because they trust their doctor and they trust
do. And now there's this sort of this infighting happening. And I get very worried about the
health coaching industry writ large when we health and wellness coaches veer outside of our scope of
(06:46):
practice. That's the flag I plant in the ground. So you're going to hear that a lot from me if you
keep listening to this show. I very strongly believe that we all as health and wellness
coaches must remain in our lane so that our industry remains available to us. Because the
more we breach the boundaries of what we're allowed to do and supposed to do, the sooner
(07:10):
we'll be on the path of being regulated. And once we're regulated, I mean, you know, the show's over
for us. We're not going to be able to have the ability to work with clients the way we do.
We don't really want to be regulated. That's a very personal opinion. But when I train health
coaches at Primal Health Coach Institute, I'm so very, very strenuous and staunch about health
(07:31):
coaching scope of practice. And it grinds my gears whenever I see a health and wellness coach
overstep their bounds. And allegedly the trainers may have done that in this documentary. Now,
plot twist, apparently the trainers are fighting back against this allegation. Ooh, drama. I don't
know. I'm just a watcher, okay? So I'm just going by what I saw. So the takeaway here is the siloed
(07:58):
health approach is the them versus them, us versus them approach. It's not really beneficial for a
health consumer looking to get healthier. Health coaches and doctors must collaborate or be in at
least an enjoyable blended working relationship if it's necessary for health coaches to collaborate
with what doctors are saying, doctor's orders, please do. Bridge the lifestyle support with the
(08:22):
medical oversight. Our scope of practice is in behavior change, helping clients execute the health
and lifestyle changes in their life that will help them to get and stay healthy. And in a lot of cases,
they're going to be combining our insight with what their doctor's asking them to do. And we have
to be very, very careful and cooperative about that. Lesson two that I learned as a health coach
(08:49):
from watching The Biggest Loser documentary is that people are desperate for change.
That's what I took away. Now, I know that there's a lot of polarizing opinions on this, okay?
What I saw whenever I watched this show back in the early 2000s when it was on the air,
Even when I was revisiting the show, watching the documentary, what I saw was, wow, these
(09:13):
people are so desperate for help that they're putting their lives on hold for months.
They're applying and reapplying and almost kind of really embarrassing themselves to
do things to get on the show, submit their video, go to the casting calls.
They'll try and try and try again.
Some people try multiple times.
They want to get on the show.
They know this is their chance to finally get weight under control.
(09:34):
They will do it.
And after season one, like once season one was done and dusted, everybody knew what this show
was about. You're going to be on TV. You're probably going to throw up on a treadmill in
front of millions of TV viewers. You're going to be yelled at and belittled. You have to take your
shirt off and stand on a scale on television. It's very embarrassing, very psychologically difficult.
(09:58):
I mean, I think that again is part of the TV magic, right? We have to make it kind of like
this train wreck we can't look away from, like the more compelling, the better. And in some ways,
humiliating, embarrassing people is very compelling. Unfortunately, I feel for these people.
And by the way, parenthetically, one of the reasons I love The Biggest Losers is because my mom was a
(10:19):
very, very, very obese woman and tried everything and battled her body for decades of her life,
tried everything, every crazy thing you can think of. She was so desperate for help.
And I just kind of think, you know, maybe my mom could have gone on The Biggest Loser.
Maybe she could have lost 100 pounds.
And maybe that would have kick-started some health in her life.
(10:41):
Now, you know, statistically, the long-term results of The Biggest Loser weren't great.
That is a factor.
But when I was watching it in the moment, in the early 2000s watching this show, I thought,
wow, there's a lot of people really desperate here, just like my mom is.
And so it was a very personal feeling for me.
And I am an empathetic person.
I would hope many of us in the health and wellness industry are, but I naturally skew sort of
(11:07):
empathically. And that's why I cried every time I watched this show, because I was really feeling
for these people who were so, so desperate to do anything. They were also incentivized, though.
That's going to be the argument I get from people on this one. Oh, they didn't want it. There was an
incentive. There was a cash prize on the line. And, you know, maybe some people on some level
wanted to get on TV so they could achieve some kind of celebrity status, potentially. There was
(11:31):
prize on the line. And at the time it was $250,000 cash if you won. And there was an at-home cash
prize as well. So if you went home, if you didn't make it to the very end, but you went home and
lost enough weight, you could win an additional cash prize if you did it on your own. So there's
a cash prize, but you had a one in 20 or so shot of winning it. And you had to be put through the
actual literal ringer, like hard work, objectively hard work. I don't think any of us could have done
(11:54):
it. Eating 800 calories or whatever, a thousand calories and exercising a minimum of four hours
the day is hard, man. That's really hard. It would be hard for any of us to do that. So the incentive,
the cash incentive is, is there. I, I'm doubtful that it's enough by itself to get people to do
that much work. I just, I'm doubtful. Like it might be a little bit of a carrot on the end of
(12:19):
the stick, but I, I get the sense, this is just personally my opinion, that people really went on
the show because they wanted, they were desperate for the help. And the cash prize was a nice little
extra incentive. And it's an external incentive, right? There's an extrinsic motivation. Oh, I could
win money. I could be on TV. Maybe I'll become a motivational speaker and, you know, get some kind
(12:40):
of notoriety. Those are extrinsic motivations. But intrinsically, what was motivating people to do
all this really hard work was just the desperation for help. So I'm always moved by that. And as a
health coach, hear me when I say this, we have to figure out how to tap into, on some level,
(13:06):
the pain of staying stuck. The pain of staying stuck where you are must be greater than the pain
of change. Making the change is hard. Going in the biggest loser, going to the ranch and being
punished by the trainers and the restrictive diet is hard, but staying stuck in the current body is
You have to bring that to light. Sometimes you have to help your clients see that the pain of
(13:30):
staying stuck is worse than the potential pain of the transformation. Now, you're a health and
wellness coach. You're not going Bob and Jillian on these people. They did it for TV. Bob and Jillian,
as far as I'm concerned, are very great qualified trainers. I have no personal opinion for or against
either of them. When you are in relationship with your health coaching clients, you're not going to
(13:52):
be punishing and belittling and berating them and making them throw up and feel that bad. That's
probably not the kind of health coach you are. Although maybe that is your brand. I don't know.
But we have to be able to bring to light that the change is important enough to make. And though it
will be hard, what's harder is staying stuck. And then we guide and encourage our clients to
(14:13):
continue marching toward the change, marching away from staying stuck where they were. People
Biggest Loser back in the early 2000s, and I re-observed it when this documentary brought
it back to life. There are people who are very desperate for change. They need your help.
They're out there. Keto, carnivore, paleo, AIP, SCD, low FODMAP, so many diets, so much confusion.
(14:39):
And if health coaches are having a hard time keeping up, imagine how clients must feel.
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(15:04):
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The third lesson I took away is that part of the desperation is,
(15:28):
I can't do this on my own.
I tried.
I need outside help.
So we can make assumptions that most of the people who got to that very, very overweight level
and eventually found themselves in The Biggest Loser probably had tried one or two or several
dozen weight loss attempts before they went on television. They put themselves out there because
(15:55):
they knew they needed outside help. Maybe this is my chance. In fact, people literally said that
on the documentary. Some of the past Biggest Loser participants that they interviewed
reiterated, I needed to go on the show. I needed help. I knew I needed help. Now,
they're at a stage of change where they are seeking outside help. They're shoppers. They're
(16:18):
looking around. They're at a readiness level to accept outside help. That's who you want to work
with. Not everybody's at that level. You're not going to just slide into someone's DMs and say,
hey, can I help you get healthy? If they're not ready to get healthy, if they're not looking for
you, they're not really worth your time and energy. When they're ready, they're ready. And they're
(16:42):
going to know they need outside help. People know they need outside help at some point. I think
almost everybody who's struggled with health, whatever that is, in this case, the biggest loser,
it's weight. But for people who have struggled with health for a long time, they get to a breaking
point where they say enough is enough. I need outside help. And I'll tell you what, virtually
every client in my roster is at that point. Like that's, that's the point when somebody hires a
(17:07):
health coach. They say, you know what? I've spun my wheels long enough. It's time to make a move.
I realize I need help because doing it on my own is not working. That's amazing.
Isn't it nice that humans know that? So this is a rally cry for you, health coach.
At some point, the health consumer comes to their breaking point where they say, I need help.
(17:33):
And the people in The Biggest Loser got to that point.
The fourth lesson that I picked up from The Biggest Loser, and I do hope to do an entire podcast episode about this, a teaching type of podcast episode,
is that self-efficacy is always the key outcome we need to get to in our health coaching
(17:55):
relationship. So while on the show, the contestants relied on the system, the trainers, the schedule,
the menu, the meal plan, the doctor visits, they were sequestered at a ranch in Malibu.
They couldn't go anywhere. The whole scenario was very locked down. They were in a bubble.
(18:19):
So there was no outside influence to derail them. Well, that's not realistic, is it? No.
And that's why now we see these atrocious statistics on the just abject temporariness
of the fat loss from Biggest Loser. When people came back into their real lives and started living
(18:44):
their lives again, and they didn't have a trainer screaming at them every day, guess what happened?
They gained all the way back and more. Now, hang on. There's a lot of metabolic factors at play
there. Majorly. They majorly down-regulated the metabolic rate to an astonishing level by just
ratcheting down food and ratcheting up exercise. That's definitely at play.
(19:05):
You know, but imagine having an expert diet coach in their life when they get home.
Once the biggest loser is done, done.
Cash money has been handed out.
You either won or you didn't.
Now you're going to execute your life.
Maybe there's a diet coach that helps them to reverse diet back up to a regular metabolic rate,
helps them baby step themselves back into their lives.
(19:28):
The process during the biggest loser obliterated self-efficacy.
And self-efficacy is the belief and knowledge that I have the skills and resources to do this on my own in my life, basically.
Obliterated.
There was zero self-efficacy built into this process, which is one of the reasons why the weight loss rates were very unsustainable.
(19:55):
The Biggest Loser contestants did not learn the tools and skills to facilitate this on their own.
so i think this is a really powerful takeaway for coaches because the outcome we're trying to get
for our clients is yes the desired health outcome they want their main health goal in the case of
(20:16):
biggest loser it's weight loss and probably some metabolic health improvement and you know probably
some improved biomarkers because they're very very overweight sick people you might be working with
folks on performance or pre or postnatal or maybe you're mad helping people manage their autoimmune
symptoms you might have a very specific niche in fact I sincerely hope you do a very specific
expertise that you offer and we're getting an outcome for our client we're helping our client
(20:42):
get their outcome and paired up with that is not only did you get the outcome but you also know how
to do it yourself you know how to do it on your own graduating the client out of our care with
high confidence that they can maintain the intervention is the main objective of a health
(21:04):
coaching relationship. Self-efficacy is key and self-efficacy was not factored in to The Biggest
Loser. Once they were done, they were kind of left hung out to dry and it didn't pan out well for
pretty much everyone. And the fifth lesson I learned from watching The Biggest Loser documentary
(21:28):
very simple but for me very powerful and just reiterates for me because as a health coach I
work in the weight loss space and you know one of the reasons I got into the weight loss space
is because my mom was very overweight and battled her weight for such a long time and that's a very
deep meaningful motivation for me to do this work fast results are garbage this is a personal
(21:51):
preference here I really do believe especially in the weight loss space that just hustling
to get the most dramatically fast weight loss is not the play because of all the metabolic
factors that come in the the adaptation that happens when you start just really deeply
restricting food and ramping up exercise you know this is what the research showed and there was
(22:12):
all these articles in the newspaper years and years ago about the slowed down metabolisms of
biggest loser competitors. And it's like, well, it's definitely dysregulated their metabolism.
You know, that's where, for example, I mentioned earlier, like a reverse diet would have been a
great plan. It's like, let's bring you up out of 800 calories to a normal caloric range so you
(22:36):
metabolically can re-op regulate. I think for television, losing 10 to 20 pounds a week is very,
very compelling for the desperately obese human losing 10 to 20 pounds a week is
just an absolute life-changing paradigm to consider imagine i know i know my mom if she
(22:58):
could imagine losing 20 pounds in a week 10 pounds in a week that would have blown her mind
absolutely but we already know that these very blistering fast breakneck speed weight loss
approaches. They don't teach you anything. They don't offer self-efficacy. There is a metabolic
downregulation. It ain't great for long-term results. It's really good for short-term results.
(23:22):
It's real good for TV, but there's no long-term health outcomes as evidenced by the fact that
almost all the competitors and the biggest loser gained back every pound they lost or more. So
maintenance was nearly impossible for these folks. And the takeaway here is that faster just isn't
better. Real success is sustainable change that protects metabolism and builds habits and develop
(23:48):
self-efficacy. So this sort of empowerment and enlightenment of the client, they've made a change
at a pace that feels reasonable and maintainable. As far as I'm concerned, and I say this all the
time in my social feed, weight loss must feel easy. If it feels easy, you'll probably keep it up. If
(24:12):
once the money was given away and all the cameras and lights shut down on Biggest Loser,
not too many people, not too many contestants of the show continued to run on a treadmill
for hours a day and chew gum when they felt hungry. Because that was one of the,
one of their diet tactics was when you feel hungry, chew gum instead of eating food,
(24:33):
which is crazy to me. They did have a gum sponsor, so that's why. But these very fast
outcomes. People think they want them. People might pressure you to give them as the health
coach. They might say, hey, health coach, really like your program, really like what we're doing
here. I'd like to see faster results, though. Is there any way we can speed this up? And that's
(24:57):
where you have to kind of hold the frame of saying, well, client, there are ways we can speed
this up because this is a client-centered approach. If the client says, I'd like this to go faster,
your kind of reaction or response to that would be, I hear you client, you'd like to have faster
results. Let's talk about some ways we can make this go faster for you. And then just have a real
honest conversation with your client about how to make it go faster. For example, I have a weight
(25:20):
loss client right now who wants it to go faster. And she said, Hey, I want to discuss some tactics
to help this like really accelerate so I can get some fat loss going quickly. Now I don't like fast
fat loss. I don't offer fast fat loss, but my client who paid me to help her with fat loss now
would like to ramp up the pace a little bit. So I said, okay, we've got some options. I hear you.
(25:42):
You want this to go faster. So here's some options we can do. We can talk about really increasing
your exercise. We can talk about really ratcheting down your food intake. We can talk about doing
some sort of macro tracking or caloric restriction. Here's some other options we can try. Which of
these feels best to you to play with nudging fat loss a little faster? Now, in this particular case,
(26:04):
my client didn't want to do any of those things. She didn't want to track her calories. She didn't
want to restrict any food. She didn't want to ramp up exercise and she has an injury so she can't.
So we had to have just a really real conversation about, okay, well, let's refocus on the goal and
the vision here. Her vision, her goal, her long-term outcome desire is to have effortless,
sustainable weight loss. If anybody had that conversation with the biggest loser competitor,
(26:30):
would you like effortless, sustainable weight loss, or you just want to get it off quickly for
the TV show, that would have been really fascinating to know, because that would have gone a long way
in developing the programming, right? Maybe you're listening to this, and you are a, like a bikini or
bodybuilding competition prep coach, and your whole program is fast, dramatic body recomposition.
(26:51):
That might be your wheelhouse, in which case, this is kind of what you do, right? This is your whole
thing is like, we get it going quickly, we get to dramatic body recomposition. But then you have a
to get them sort of reverse-sided back out.
I don't know.
As a weight loss coach, I found it very compelling
(27:12):
that the speed of the weight loss was glorified
and socialized in that way.
And I think that's what people think they want,
but we know that meaningful change takes time.
That's something that you as a health coach
would be wise to practice nurturing in your clients. So,
(27:43):
practical takeaways for health coaches from The Biggest Loser documentary released in
August of 2025. Collaborate, don't compete with medical professionals, don't throw doctors under
the bus. Recognize that clients are motivated and sometimes desperate, but help them connect with
intrinsic reasons to change and what they want their long-term outcomes to be. So build client
(28:08):
self-efficacy so they don't need you forever and focus on sustainable change rather than flashy
results. So reflect, if you were invited to coach the biggest loser, what would you do differently?
Health coaches were uniquely positioned to rewrite the weight loss story away from these kinds of
(28:30):
crash diet paradigms and towards sustainable, empowering, self-efficacious transformation.
And I really want you to feel inspired by that.
Watching the Biggest Loser documentary reminded me of kind of the old school,
I tell you what to do and you do it method that doesn't really work to help people build
(28:51):
lifelong habits.
We have an amazing opportunity to get into the lives and integrate in the lives of our
clients, help them establish the behaviors and make the changes that actually stick.
This podcast was brought to you by Primal Health Coach Institute.
To learn more about how to become a successful health coach, get in touch with us by visiting
primalhealthcoach.com forward slash call.
(29:13):
Or if you're already a successful health coach, practitioner, influencer, or thought leader
with a thriving business and an interesting story, we'd love to hear from you.
Connect with us at hello at primalhealthcoach.com and let us know why we need to interview you for Health Coach Radio.
Thanks for listening.
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