The Biggest Loser

The Biggest Loser is an American television show, originally airing on NBC from 2004-2016, then brought back in 2020 to USA Network.

The show's premise features obese contestants (most of whom have morbid obesity) competing to lose the most weight (as a percentage of their original weight). It featured "temptations" (to try and get contestants to fail at their goals). Each week one or two contestants (those who lost the least percentage) would either be automatically eliminated from the competition, or the remaining contestants would vote to keep or eliminate them.

The show was the subject of a National Institutes of Health 2016 study which indicated that the show was generally unsuccessful in actually helping contestants lose weight: using the contestants from Season 8 (2009) the study found that most of the original 16 contestants had not maintained the weight loss, in some cases being heavier then than at the start of the contest. This led several former contestants to demand the show be cancelled, which it was in that year.

Notable contestants on the show included former Olympians Rulon Gardner and Holley Mangold, and American Idol star Ruben Stoddard.

Season 6 winner Michelle Aguilar was later featured by the Christian media company I Am Second, and currently works on staff at Prestonwood Baptist Church.