Former 'Biggest Loser' contestants claim trainers supplied drugs to aid weight loss
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Lezlye Donahue survived Hurricane Katrina. Going on “The Biggest Loser,” she says, was worse than that.
“It’s my biggest nightmare,” she says, “and it’s with me to this day.”
Following a controversial study that claims to explain why almost all “Biggest Loser” contestants regain massive amounts of weight, numerous ex-Losers reached out to The Post to dispute its findings — exclusively revealing that the show encouraged contestants to take street drugs while starving themselves and to lie about how much weight they were losing.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trainer Bob Harper takes part in a panel discussion of NBC Universal's show "The Biggest Loser" during the 2013 Winter Press Tour for the Television Critics Association. (REUTERS/Gus Ruelas)
The federally funded study, conducted by Dr. Kevin Hall at the National Institutes of Health and published two weeks ago, says changing metabolic rates, hormone levels, and genetic predispositions explain post-show weight gain.
What’s missing, former Losers tell The Post, is any examination of the show’s secret and brutal tactics, which include providing illicit drugs to contestants and submitting them to questionable medical exams by the show’s resident doctor, Rob Huizenga, known as “Dr. H.”
Huizenga collaborated with Hall on the NIH’s study.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“People were passing out in Dr. H’s office at the finale weigh-in,” says Season 2’s Suzanne Mendonca. “On my season, five people had to be rushed to the hospital. He knew exactly what we were doing and never tried to stop it.”