Three participants shared incredibly shocking experiences on “Fit For TV” — Ryan Benson, the winner of Season 1, and Danny Cahill and Tracey Yukich, who competed in Season 8. (Cahill ended up winning Season 8.) Even Bob Harper shared unsettling stories, including how producers encouraged both him and Jillian Michaels to push contestants to the brink of physical exhaustion, often resulting in them becoming ill from overexertion. “Producers loved that,” Harper recalled. “They would say, ‘We want them to throw up. We want the chaos and insanity of it all.”

The mental strain imposed by Michaels on contestants is well documented on film, notably moments where she screamed in their faces, forced them to continue exercising after being sick, and poured water on them. Contestants like Cahill alleged that apart from calorie restrictions, they were also given caffeine supplements known as “stackers” to accelerate weight loss. “My calorie intake was lower than it should’ve been,” Cahill noted. “I was consuming 800 calories and burning 6,000 to 8,000 each day. Reducing calories helped me lose more weight.” Dr. Robert Huizenga pointed out that using such pills was against the show’s rules: “Everybody had signed off, including trainers and producers, that caffeine pills weren’t allowed.” Yet, according to contestants, Harper and Michaels distributed them regardless.

Benson also shared his experience, explaining that before clinching victory in the Season 1 finale, he went for more than a week without food. “In the last 10 days, I stopped ingesting any food,” Benson admitted. “I was following the master cleanse, consuming only lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper — methods that are extremely unhealthy just to shed weight.” The outcome was alarming; Benson disclosed, “At the final weigh-in, a urine test showed there was blood in my urine, indicating severe dehydration.”

Yukich also faced significant challenges during Season 1 of “The Biggest Loser.” In the first episode of Season 8, she collapsed during a challenge that involved running a mile while carrying heavy bags. “I narrowly escaped death,” recalled Yukich, who was hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis, an injury from overexercising where muscles disintegrate, yet she chose to continue competing. “Rhabdomyolysis occurs when your body begins to shut down,” she explained. “It started with my liver, moved to my kidneys, and was threatening my heart, nearly leading to my death.”

This is only a portion of the grievances and accusations leveled by past contestants of “The Biggest Loser” featured in “Fit For TV.” Despite Harper’s participation in the documentary — which seemed like a gesture of remorse for his past behavior, especially given how harshly he treated some contestants like Joelle Gwynn — his former colleague Michaels is now voicing her perspective.