4 Ways the Biggest Loser Hurt Us: A Christian's Perspective on the Fit for TV Documentary [Podcast Transcript]

Title: 4 Ways the Biggest Loser Hurt Us: A Christian's Perspective on the Fit for TV Documentary

Podcast Date: August 29, 2025

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In this compelling episode, Heather Creekmore unpacks the cultural impact of Netflix's Fit for TV: The Biggest Loser Documentary. With her trademark blend of vulnerability and biblical wisdom, Heather examines how The Biggest Loser influenced society's attitudes toward weight loss, body image, health, and the meaning of transformation. Drawing from years of body image ministry and personal experience, she delves into the most damaging messages perpetuated by the show and offers hope for those seeking authentic freedom—especially Christian women who have struggled under the weight of diet culture.

Key Topics Discussed:

• The Damaging Legacy of ‘The Biggest Loser’ TV Show

  • How The Biggest Loser established a false definition of "salvation" through weight loss

  • The cultural obsession with before-and-after photos and the illusion of transformation

  • Exploring the "Biggest Loser Gospel" vs. the true Gospel of Jesus

• Disordered Fitness & Diet Standards

  • The normalization of extreme calorie deficits and dangerous exercise routines

  • How toxic weight loss methods impacted contestants’ metabolisms and overall health

  • The misleading belief that weight loss equates to happiness, rest, and peace

• Mental Health & Emotional Consequences

  • The toll of public weight shaming and abusive coaching tactics

  • Why extreme methods for body transformation often worsen fixation on food and body image

• The Illusion of Control Over Body Size

  • Dispelling the myth that weight is just a matter of discipline and self-control

  • The harm in assuming all bodies can—and should—fit a narrow ideal

• Christian Perspective on Body Image

  • Why body shaming and weight stigma are incompatible with biblical teachings

  • Understanding the sin of favoritism and prejudice based on appearance (James 2)

  • Embracing our purpose as part of the body of Christ—beyond body size or shape

• Finding True Freedom from Diet Culture

  • Heather’s call to reject the idolatry of thinness and pursue holistic health and spiritual purpose

  • Wisdom for women navigating body image struggles in the church and beyond

Links & Resources Mentioned:

• ImproveBodyImage.com – 40-Day Body Image Freedom Challenge, resources for Christian women

• HeatherCreekmore.com – Books, speaking, and 10 days of encouragement
  
  

Takeaways:
Whether you followed The Biggest Loser or felt its ripple effects in your life, this episode offers compassionate clarity. Heather encourages listeners to critically examine cultural messages about weight, celebrate our God-given bodies, and find lasting transformation through the hope of Christ—not the promise of diet culture.

Subscribe and Share:
If this episode resonated with you, leave a review, share with a friend, and check out the resources at improvebodyimage.com. Join Heather next time as she continues to tackle the tough topics shaping body image and faith for Christian women today.

For more support and practical guidance on becoming free from body shame, diet culture, and comparison traps, start your journey at improvebodyimage.com.

Loved the episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—Heather and the team love hearing from you!

For more Christian podcasts, check out lifeaudio.com.

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.

Transcript

Heather Creekmore [00:00:02]:
Life Audio. Hey, friend. Heather Creekmore here. You've watched it maybe by now. Fit for tv. The Biggest Loser documentary on Netflix. It's been out for a couple weeks. I'm sorry, I got to this as fast as I could.

Heather Creekmore [00:00:16]:
I've been dropping kids off at college and all the things, but today we're gonna dig in. We're gonna look at what I'm gonna surmise as like the four biggest damaging effects of the Biggest Loser on our culture. Because remember, this is a show that millions and millions of people loved to watch. And for years and years, I've been talking about the Biggest Loser definition of salvation. So the Biggest Loser is something like I kind of already, in my head, in my work, kind of woven in what some of the messaging there was and how that was damaging to us. But the documentary exposed some things and so there's even more to dig into from a biblical perspective there. So that's where we're going today. I'm glad you're here for it.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:05]:
If you're brand new to the show, welcome. You've picked a doozy to jump in on, but this show is really to help you learn how to live in this world, but not of it, man. We're distracted by a lot of things, Body image being just one of them. But we hope to help encourage you on your journey journey to be more like Jesus. And we're glad you're here. If you want to learn more, you can go to heathercreekmore.com or if you want to get started on the body image freedom journey, go to improvebodyimage.com We've got all kinds of great resources for you there, including our 40 day journey that's coming up. October 1st, we'll start reading. October 7th, we'll start meeting.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:46]:
So learn all about that and save your [email protected] now let's get to today's show. Well, here's where we're going to go today. Like I said, I've been talking about the Biggest Loser definition of salvation since about 2016. And I was so curious to see what would come out of this documentary. And the biggest things that stood out to me from watching this were not only about how we culturally praise and worship the thin ideal, but also about how the Biggest Loser normalized, dare I say, an abusive style of weight loss and exercise. And I mean, I'll be honest. Like, I remember decades ago thinking, man, if I could just find someone who would yell at me and then I would get skinny. Like, we completely bought in to this doctrine that the Biggest Loser taught, and we thought it was healthy.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:55]:
How twisted is that? But then today, we're gonna end at a place where maybe you're not expecting me to go, and that is that the Biggest Loser may have really harmed us mentally in terms of our perceptions, but also how we treat people who are overweight and what we believe about them. And I think as Christians, it's really important for us to examine these beliefs and look really hard at our attitudes and our behaviors there, because, friends, they're just not biblical. So today, I'm going to give you four ways that the Biggest Loser hurt us. And the first one, of course, is that it gave us a false definition of salvation. I'm sure that before and after pictures existed before the Biggest Loser, but the Biggest Loser just kind of took that concept and blew it up in a way nothing else hood could, right? And before and after pictures, what they do is they really symbolize something for us. And especially when it came to the Biggest Loser, the before picture symbolized a sort of hell. This person was in a body that they did not want to be in. They did not like their body.

Heather Creekmore [00:04:13]:
Their body was uncomfortable. Their body was. Maybe they felt it was unattractive. Maybe they didn't have the mobility they wanted. No matter what it was, they were just not in a good place, at least according to their own assessment, with their body. And then that after picture showed what it showed them in that good place. It showed them in a place of arrival, in a place of peace, in a place of contentment, in a place of rest. Now, later, we're going to talk about how that was a false rest, right? But the before and after picture, friends, this resonates with us so much because it gives us a picture of hell and heaven.

Heather Creekmore [00:04:58]:
A before and after story is a salvation story. When I used to speak at mom's groups, like, I use this illustration to start almost every time. I haven't done it in a while, but I would always ask, why did we watch the Biggest Loser? Why did we enjoy watching that show? What did it give us? And I get some answers like, you know, it gave us, like, you know, the fact that it was possible or it was good entertainment. But the one answer, and someone would normally get it, the answer as to why we watched the show was it gave us hope, but it wasn't necessarily hope for weight loss. Right? Like, I interviewed Lisa Whittle, and that show's coming out next week, and she kind of makes the comment at the end when I ask her this question about the documentary. She makes the comment that she liked it because, you know, it made her think that that kind of weight loss was possible. But I think it's deeper than that. I think that the hope it gives us is for transformation.

Heather Creekmore [00:05:59]:
And this is where it gets really tricky, right? Because, of course, the Biggest Loser was about body transformation. But that wasn't all it preached. It really preached this hope that if you could have body transformation, everything else in your life would change. You would really have life transformation. And you could see that, like, even in the ways Bob and Jillian kind of became psychologists for, like, helping these people work through their issues, right? They always had this deeply held belief, the contestants, and probably Bob and Jillian, too, this deeply held belief that weight loss would change every part of their lives. They would be better parents, they would be better spouses. They would be better employees. They would just be better, better across every measure if they could just lose weight.

Heather Creekmore [00:06:53]:
And so it was kind of like you had to just go to the farm or ranch. Farm. You had to go to the ranch for, like, this period of time and kind of just pay your penance. Like, just go through hell for six months. And then after your six months of hell, you would have earned your salvation, you would have earned your freedom, you would have earned your rest, your peace, right? Like, friends, can you hear. It's so insidious, but can you hear that this is a false gospel? The Gospel of Jesus Christ does not preach that you have to go through hell to earn heaven. The Gospel of Jesus Christ preaches that Jesus did that for us. He went through hell so that we could have heaven.

Heather Creekmore [00:07:43]:
Right? And it's. It's also a false gospel because it shows us this picture, these images that joy, peace, rest, contentment, freedom come with changing your body size. And it's just not true. I mean, I talk to dozens and dozens of you each week, and you tell me your stories. You tell me how you did lose the weight, and it didn't change everything. In fact, the studies will show that when you do lose a sizable amount of weight, what actually happens is you become more fixated on your body and food and on what you weigh. Like, you thought. You thought about your body a lot before you lost the weight.

Heather Creekmore [00:08:26]:
Just wait. After going through this transformation, it becomes all consuming. And then what we saw in this documentary was language. Like, oh, my goodness, y'. All. The first episode is called Winning the Lottery. The language is so clear in the first episode that people were so desperate to do this. This was better than winning the Lottery.

Heather Creekmore [00:08:47]:
This was the best thing that could ever happen to them. Weight loss is the best thing that could ever happen to them, friend. Do we believe that? Do we think that's true? Like, I've kind of thought that was true before, but again, it's a false gospel. That's not the best thing that could ever happen to me. The best thing that could ever happen to me is that Jesus saved me from literal hell. Not just the hell of having a body I don't like on this earth. No, he saved me from literal hell. Living here on this planet for 70, 80, 90, 100 years, if God gives them to me, is the only hell I'm ever going to have to experience because I get to spend eternity in heaven with him forever.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:35]:
And so I think we should be saddened by the messaging here that taught a whole culture, even Christians. Oh, yikes. We bought it, friends. We did. We bought it. But it taught us as a culture that heaven was living in a thin body. Heaven was being able to run marathons. Heaven was being able to wear a single number size, friends.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:58]:
That's not heaven. And then the other stark reality to this, right, is that before and after pictures. That after picture, and I've talked about this before, it shows us, like a millisecond of this person's life, a literal millisecond, the amount of time it took to snap the picture. That's what we see. And this documentary coming out so many years after the show's finished shows us what really happens. Most of the contestants did not keep the weight off that they lost. Even those in the documentary that seemed to be smaller confessed to using GLP wands or doing something different because they had gained their weight back and then had to find a new path to re lose it, right? The rest, the piece of contentment, did not last past that millisecond of taking that after photo. You don't get to rest when you hit your goal weight.

Heather Creekmore [00:10:54]:
You have to go to maintenance, right? You have to always be thinking about it, always be working on it. And please hear me, y'. All, like, there's nothing wrong with losing weight. That's not a sin. There's nothing inherently evil about that. If you desire to lose weight. There's nothing bad about that in and of itself. My caution is against what I'm going to call the idolatry here.

Heather Creekmore [00:11:19]:
My caution is against believing a Biggest Loser definition of salvation. Believing that weight loss will solve everything. Believing that weight loss. This is what I believed, friends. I write about this in compared to who My first book, but believing that I had my God and Jesus salvation for later. But the kind of salvation I really needed for now was weight loss. It was the Biggest Loser definition of salvation. So that's my first concern with this documentary.

Heather Creekmore [00:11:49]:
Let's move on to number two right after this quick break. Okay? My second concern with the Biggest Loser documentary is that it gave us a really whacked out view of health. And I think most of us intuitively knew that working out that much may not have been healthy, but the documentary really went behind the scenes and showed us some of the scary details. Like the contestants were probably eating 800 calories a day, and they were working out hard for at least eight hours a day. So they were not just in a calorie deficit. Like, their bodies were hurting and yet. And we'll get to this in a little bit. But like, we thought that was okay.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:40]:
We thought that was what they needed. We thought that was healthy, right? And so how many of us watching that show, living in that era, in our culture, did similar things, right? Tried to work out as long and as hard as we could on a calorie deficit. Friends, this takes a toll on the body. And I thought it was interesting that the show's doctor was trying to speak up, apparently, you know, arguing with Bob and Jillian around their calorie intake. And so there was a health professional around or in the mix who was advocating that this actually wasn't health for these people. But remember, y', all, it was a TV show, right? And so a TV show would not be very interesting if people only lost 2, 3, 5 pounds a week. That would be super boring, right? And so they had to be extreme because it was television, because it made for a better show. And so the definition of health that the Biggest Loser gave us was that health means the scale is going down.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:57]:
Now, some of you come from an eating disorder background, and you know that you adopted that definition of health, and you know where that led you, right? So that's one side of this. Others of you. Maybe you still have that definition of health. That health always means the scale is going down. But, friend, I hope you can see that what they did on the Biggest Loser was anything but healthy, right? God made our bodies to run on food. You only have energy to do the things that you're asking your body to do from a couple different places. From food, from eating, which is the preferred source, right? Or from hormones, right? We have cortisol to help us when the food isn't available, right? So, friends, like we talk about hormones so much more now than we did when this show was big. But honestly, these people were just running on stress hormones and losing weight because they had a calorie deficit and were working out crazy, crazy, crazy lengths of time.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:06]:
Friends, none of that was actually healthy. And, you know, you can find the research that shows us that. It's called the Big Loser study. It came out, like, kind of towards the end of the show, and it actually, I think, probably was part of why the show ended. Maybe. I don't know if I really have the authority to say that, but what they found in the Biggest Loser study was that most of the people that were on the show, and it was a very small sample size, so there's some criticism, but this was a sample size only of people that were on the show. Their metabolisms slowed down so, so much that even a year, two years, I think it went all the way to six years after the show. Their metabolisms never recovered from what had happened to them during that period of time.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:57]:
And so what that meant was they could eat the amount. Exact same amount that they ate on the show was 800 calories. Right? So they start to try to inch their calories up as they're no longer in that situation anymore and they're exercising less. And of course, they gained all the weight back. Now, we know that there are studies out there that show if you lose a significant amount of weight. Really? Actually, I don't even know if that's a disclaimer. Weight loss usually results in regaining the weight with a 95% surety rate. Like, if you lose weight, you are 95% likely to gain it all back within five years.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:38]:
And that's exactly what they found in the Biggest Loser study, that the people gained it all back, plus more in a lot of cases. And it's because they did significant damage to their metabolisms. Friend, the Biggest Loser method was not healthy in any way, shape, or form. Now that's physical health. Let's talk about mental health. Oh. Cause, see, I worked in gyms while this show was out. And, you know, I was always nice.

Heather Creekmore [00:17:07]:
Like, I was never. I was never gonna shame anyone or tell them they didn't deserve a break or say it was good when they threw up. Like, I would have never, ever gone that far. But I did work in gyms where I saw that and where those kind of trainers or fitness instructors were praised. And people wanted a fitness instructor like that. They wanted someone who would, for lack of a better word, abuse and be mean to them. Like, can we Just like, pause for a second and say, that's never going to be healthy. Being abused, mocked, and yelled at is never going to be healthy for any human.

Heather Creekmore [00:17:49]:
You know, And I'm going to talk in a second about how just even more damaging is the fact that it kind of made that acceptable for people of certain body sizes. Right. That was really wrong. But just generally right. This was not healthy. And if you knew someone in your real life doing this, right, like, getting yelled at all the time, screamed at, abused, like, you'd probably be concerned about that person. Right? Or let me rephrase and see how uncomfortable this can get. If you knew someone in your real life who had a thinner body and was putting themselves through this, eating 800 calories a day, working out eight hours a day, getting mocked, yelled at, abused, you'd be really concerned about them.

Heather Creekmore [00:18:39]:
But, ooh, let me challenge you here. If you knew someone with a bigger body, would you feel the same way? Or would you congratulate them for trying to, quote, unquote, get healthy? Friend, that's what Biggest Loser taught us, and it is whacked out. It's not science. It's not that people with larger bodies have quote, unquote, enough to spare so that they can do these crazy things and it won't impact them. No, it's just not true. Health is not a number on the scale. Did you catch the part, I think it was the second episode where one of the contestants almost died. Like, literally, she did code for several minutes and then she came back.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:24]:
But she almost died in the first challenge because the exercise was too for her. There were other contestants in the show that claimed that they know they messed up body systems from what they did during that season. Right. We know reducing calories is always going to impact your thyroid, which, back to the metabolism thing is going to have an impact on your metabolism. We know that not eating enough and exercising too much creates a hormonal imbalance. We know these things from science. And yet the Biggest Loser taught us, ignore all of that. And this is what you have to do if you want the ultimate goal, if you want heaven.

Heather Creekmore [00:20:01]:
Oh, I'm gonna say it again. If you want salvation, you've gotta go through hell. And who cares what it does to your body as long as you get the results for that one second picture. But, friend, that's not really a good view of health or how you should treat your body as an image bearer. God created your body. To be a good steward of your body means you're not abusing it. That you're taking care of it, that you're feeding it, that you're listening to it, that when your body says, no, I can't do this anymore, I am shutting down. You say, I'm gonna pause right now.

Heather Creekmore [00:20:40]:
I think I'm done with this workout. Oh, Friends, did the Biggest Loser wreck our definition of health? I think so. In addition to this reality, and maybe this should have gone in the last point with health. You know, there was a lot of product placement in the Biggest Loser. So the food that they were eating, those 800 calories they were eating, were not necessarily what we would call, like, nourishing calories. Right. Bob and Jillian weren't actually teaching them how to eat what we would call now in this era, eat well and get good nutrients. They were just.

Heather Creekmore [00:21:15]:
Just eating whatever food was there. And please hear me. I'm really sensitive to this topic of food because I know a lot of you are on a recovery journey from an eating disorder, and there's no such thing as good foods and bad foods. And I think that mentality, that mindset, that food purity or food holiness mindset is so, so damaging for us. So that's not what I'm trying to say here at all. But instead, I'm Saying from a 2025 perspective, if you go back and look at the show and see that may 800 of those there, 800 calories, were from, like, Quaker granola bars or other things that we now would recognize don't have a significant range of nutrients in them. Like, those messages got in for us, too, Friends. Like, I didn't care about nutrients.

Heather Creekmore [00:22:08]:
I cared about calories. And that message was there. It didn't matter what you ate. Just hit that number or go below that number is probably more likely than message, and then you are healthy. That's just not true. Okay. The third troubling thing from the Biggest Loser is I think that it taught us that all bodies are easily controllable. And if your size isn't what size you want your body to be, it's because you just need to work harder and eat less.

Heather Creekmore [00:22:42]:
And, you know, again, this myth has been, like, largely dispelled mostly because of all the buzz about, around, like, hormone health and the conversations that have been happening around GLP1s and the effect that they've had. And so I think more so now than 15, 20 years ago. Like, we certainly understand that weight loss or your weight is more than just how much you eat and how much you exercise. Oh, friend. But is it still in there? Like, in the back of your head because we learned it for so long. I mean, we chanted it. We knew it. Like, you are what you eat.

Heather Creekmore [00:23:21]:
Input, you know, has to be less than output, right? How many of us still fight this belief that we can just control our body size through diet and exercise period alone? End of sentence. I mean, that's what the show tried to teach us, that you were kind of just lazy if you didn't, like, work as hard as them and do the things to get those results. Now, some of the contestants, y', all, like, they would lose £14 the first week, okay? But again, remember, this was television, so we don't really know they can edit it to say whatever they want. We don't really know if that was a real week or if that was two weeks or if that was three weeks. We have no idea. There is no fiduciary duty on the part of the television show to present an accurate story in reality television. I just want to be clear about that. So in the documentary, this is a little bit of an aside, but they talked about the pressure around signing a really crazy, long reality television contract.

Heather Creekmore [00:24:27]:
And I knew exactly what they were talking about, because I've actually signed a reality TV contract. I was on Netflix on the show. Nailed it. And that thing was scary. Like, the contract says they can do whatever they want to you. They can make you say whatever they want you to say on television through editing. Like, I literally sat and recorded conjunctions with the producer so that they could, like, edit my words and make me say whatever they wanted me to say. And you sign it because of the pressure.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:00]:
Like, the one woman said, she asked if she'd get a lawyer, and they were like, sure, we can get you a lawyer, but that's probably going to take, like, six hours. And in that six hours, we've got, like, 10 other people that want your spot. So if you want to give up your spot, you can do that. And she's like, no, of course I'll sign, right? Because back to that Biggest loser definition of salvation, like, this was salvation. Of course you're going to sign. Now, I signed under a slightly different pretense for the show I was doing, but again, when I got the call, they were like, you've got three hours to sign the contract and send it back. And so I just kind of prayed and signed and hoped for the best, but what they did to these contestants was really mean. They put them in hotel rooms by themselves.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:38]:
And, I mean, that's kind of a reality show norm as well. I was put In a hotel room by myself. I've heard on some shows they take your phone. They did not take my phone, praise God. But you can't leave your room. They're responsible for you. So you can't leave your room. You can't leave it alone.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:52]:
So I would have production assistant, the 20something, come and get me out of my room and take me to breakfast or take me to, you know, dinner or take me to the shoot. But you're by yourself. You're in isolation. And so I'm picturing these people in isolation by themselves, just desperate. This is going to be their chance. They are desperate to melt off this layer of flesh so that they can become their best selves. Like, that's the narrative. And so of course they're going to sign.

Heather Creekmore [00:26:25]:
Of course they're going to do whatever it is that they're asked to do. But, friend, those early days of the show, oh, goodness, they were yucky, right? They were trying to embarrass people. And the producer even says in the documentary that they really didn't know what they were going for. They just knew that fat people were going to be desperate. And so there's like, they made them, like, sing and dance about being overweight. And they made them build towers of food that they carried in their mouths. And they put them in, like, temptation challenges, where they were in a room full of delicious food for a certain amount of time, and the person who ate the most delicious food would actually get to go home and see their family. Remember, they were gone for six months, so that's a big deal.

Heather Creekmore [00:27:10]:
But yet they were trying not to ruin their, you know, weight loss goal for the week by eating the tempting food and all kinds of crazy stuff. And the underlying premise under all this, remember our point three is that their bodies are really just not being controlled well. And so if they could be in a controlled environment, they could learn how to control their body. And the outcome of control will always be, be a thin, sleek body. And, friends, that has saturated our culture, that belief system that if your body is not the way you want it to be, the size you want it to be, it's really just a problem of control. I mean, how many of you, my friends, you can raise your hand on this? I'll see it. How many of you, when you feel the scale creeping up a little bit or you feel like you've been eating more than you want to be eating, you say things like, I'm out of control, right? It's just gotten out of control. Like, we believe that it's all controllable.

Heather Creekmore [00:28:14]:
Now, is some of it under our control? Of course it is. No one's saying that it's healthy or wise to drive through fast food restaurants three or four times a day, eat it in your car. Like, no one's saying that. No one's saying it's. It's not healthy to move and exercise. Of course. Please don't go black and white on me. I know those of us with body image issues, we like to go black and white, but I think actually maybe the biggest loser shows us how black and white is really dangerous because they went from one extreme because, you know, they.

Heather Creekmore [00:28:53]:
They all had their stories, and some of the stories really were like, I drove through six fast food restaurants a day, right? But the pendulum swung from that all the way to this extreme. Unsustainable, unhealthy, crazy, crazy. Six months of believing that they could just control their body down to the size they wanted. And what did their bodies do? Like we talked about last, number two, right? Their bodies didn't stay there because it wasn't healthy. Right? Our bodies are so different, friend. And I wish that I could tell you that God actually made us all to be size twos. And if you could just get the formula right, you'll be a size 2 as well. I am not even close to a size 2.

Heather Creekmore [00:29:43]:
I think I wore a size 2 for three weeks before my wedding because I'd only eaten cantaloupe and turkey breast for way too long. It was an eating disorder. I am not praising that behavior. It was biggest loser era. So I thought I was doing something healthy. I was not, friend. That's just not true. Like, we all have different genetics.

Heather Creekmore [00:30:06]:
We all have different body types, body sizes. We're all shaped differently. And it doesn't mean that we're all supposed to be a size 2 or size 4 ever, right? And it's hard in a culture that idolizes that size body. It's hard in a culture that praises that size body and says size body is the healthy body. I mean, you almost feel like you need to wear a T shirt. Like, I was actually talking to a friend this summer, and she's like. Like, I know I don't look like it, but I eat really healthy and I exercise every day. And she's like, the doctor doesn't know why I'm still 50 pounds overweight, according to the doctor's chart, but I know what I do is healthy.

Heather Creekmore [00:30:57]:
And it's. That's the. That is the mindset. That's the Logic. That's what Biggest Loser taught us. That's so damaging. It taught us that our bodies are objects that we have to control through any means necessary. Be strict, rigid, abusive.

Heather Creekmore [00:31:13]:
Just beat them into shape. And, friend, I don't know about you, but I bought it. But I'm a much healthier person now that I don't believe that or subscribe to that anymore. And I hope you're coming around to the same spot. Okay, point number four, straight up, friends, the Biggest Loser taught us that it's okay to be mean to fat people. It's okay to mock, shame, berate, abuse fat people because they need to get their lives together, and then they will become their best thin self. Like, I had forgotten until I watched the documentary that the earliest days of Biggest Loser, those people weren't really that large. Like, they were probably, what's more normal now? They were maybe some of them, like, 40, 50, 60, 70 pounds over whatever the arbitrary goal weight number was.

Heather Creekmore [00:32:08]:
But as the show progressed, the people kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And I really don't think I watched it in the earliest days. So as I've thought about Biggest Loser over the years, I've really only pictured, you know, the person that weighed 400, 500 pounds going on the show trying to get down to, you know, 250. But early days, it was like a woman who weighed 210, 220 trying, you know, to get down, you know, 50, 60 pounds. And it was. It was a different animal. And it was also those early days where they shamed the people and made fun of them the most. Like I mentioned, they had to sing songs.

Heather Creekmore [00:32:45]:
That competition was called the Oversized Pop Star Competition. I mean, oh, friend, just think about what we went through in the 80s and 90s with the narrative around, I don't know, like, I'm thinking about Jessica Simpson and Nicole Richie and other celebrities who would maybe put on 10, 15 pounds and they would get so fat shamed by People magazine or the tabloids, right? Like, oh, friends. Like, the era was yicky in terms of judging people around their bodies. And the Biggest Loser just made it all okay. It kind of made it entertainment. And I know some of you came from homes where maybe your family watched it and made comments about people with larger bodies, and those comments stuck with you now to this day where you're like, man, Heather, like, it bothers me that I don't weigh what I used to weigh, because I hear my dad saying those things about those people on TV or my mom saying those things. And. And the things that they're saying are not kind, they're not loving, they're mean, and they're assumptive, right? Like, look at that lazy loser sitting on the couch.

Heather Creekmore [00:34:04]:
I bet they sit on the couch all day and eat burritos and it's just not the case. You have absolutely no idea why someone's body is the size that it is. It might be that size because God made it that size. Let's not forget that it might be that size because they've just had a really, really, really hard life. And because of abuse or trauma or other situations that they faced, their body has added weight to cope, to keep them safe. Right? That's not about overeating or emotional eating. No, no, no, friends. Your body gonna do what your body gonna do to keep you safe, to keep you feeling safe.

Heather Creekmore [00:34:57]:
It might be because they don't have a thyroid. It might be because they have some other autoimmune, some other illness. You have no idea why that person has the body size that they do. But let me take this one step further. You don't need to know. It's not your business. You don't get to judge them, though, friend, like in the church. This really has been bothering me lately.

Heather Creekmore [00:35:26]:
And again, I love the church. I love the church. Okay? I'm a church girl. I'm a pastor's wife. But, friend, we do way too much judging around body size. We are super quick to point a finger and say, gluttony, gluttony. If you don't look like a supermodel, okay, we're not that extreme. But if you don't look thin, you must be a glutton.

Heather Creekmore [00:35:47]:
Fix your glutton problem and then you will. Everything will come back into spiritual alignment. Friends, you have no idea. And it makes me think about the book of James. And in the book of James, he talks about favoritism. And the story there is really to challenge Christians not to be prejudice, right? The story there is, if a man in nice clothes comes into your church, you don't give him the good seat because he has nice clothes. And then a poor man comes in. You're like, no, you don't get to sit down at all.

Heather Creekmore [00:36:25]:
We want you to stand in the back, right? That's the story. And James is teaching that prejudice makes God mad. Okay? Bible says James 2, 9. If you treat people according to their outward appearance, you are guilty of sin and the law condemns you as a law breaker. Now, we know this around race, right? Like, I don't get to decide whether or not I love you based on your skin color. We know that I'm commanded to love you and treat you the same as I would someone from my own race. We know that people of every race are beautiful and made in God's image. They were knit together in their mother's wombs, were all the same.

Heather Creekmore [00:37:05]:
We just come in a variety of shades and colors, friend. What if we come in a variety of shapes too? See, to be prejudice against people who have larger bodies means that we consider ourselves better than them, which is pride. You can read Philippians 2, 3. Learn how. That's not so great. It means we're directly disobeying Jesus's command to treat others as we'd want to be treated. And it's not okay, friend. It hurts my heart that I've heard the stories of women who aren't allowed on the worship team because they aren't small enough.

Heather Creekmore [00:37:46]:
Or women who aren't given leadership positions because a church because of their body size. Right? We do not get to be prejudiced around body size. Let me take this one step further. Because of what culture has taught us about body size. Culture has taught us us lies and the Biggest Loser. Oh man, it just turned it up. Turned the volume to max. You don't know why someone's body is the size it is.

Heather Creekmore [00:38:15]:
And you don't need to know. You don't get to to have an opinion. You only get to love them. You don't get to abuse them, mock them, berate them, scoff at them. That's not what God calls us to. And if you've heard this in your home growing up, friend, I hope you can just see that that was just straight up sin. That was wrong. And I hope it doesn't cling to you in the same way anymore once you can categorize that.

Heather Creekmore [00:38:45]:
Those opinions that were expressed so loudly in your home, those weren't God's opinions. Those weren't the opinions of Scripture. You're not going to find a verse on that. They were just human opinions that were rooted in prejudice, favoritism, sin and pride. And that's one thing about the Biggest Loser that really still bothers me. It lumped people with larger bodies into this category of projects. Here's the haves and the thin bodies and the have nots with the bigger bodies who need to be fixed. And then how many of you, my friend, have felt like I have? Not with a larger body or a body larger than you would want it to be? Maybe it's not necessarily larger according to culture standards, and you've made yourself a project to be fixed.

Heather Creekmore [00:39:36]:
You've spent way too much of your life focused on trying to get thinner thighs or a smaller butt or a bigger butt or a flatter stomach or less strictly arms. And friends, maybe you've missed what Jesus has actually been calling you to, which is this great purpose he has for you. See, you're part of a bigger body. You are part of the body of Christ. And if you've been so focused on fixing your own body that you haven't been able to participate in that body, that's why you're stuck. That's why you haven't been able to get free yet, because he gave you gifts to use a role to play. And that's when you're going to start to feel alive. That's when you're going to find a taste of heaven.

Heather Creekmore [00:40:20]:
It won't be real heaven, but it's going to be a good taste of heaven. It's going to be delicious. Because when you start to operate as a part of the body of Christ and do what he's called and made you to do, you start to feel joy and contentment and you know why you're here and you're no longer obsessing over your body in the same way anymore. And that's, that's. I think that's where God wants us to be more so than a goal weight. He wants us all to be functioning as parts of his body. Loving others, encouraging others, exhorting others to do good works, serving in our gifting friend. It's so rich.

Heather Creekmore [00:41:02]:
So I hope that's encouraged you today. If you haven't watched the documentary yet, I don't know if you want to check it out or not. It's fit for TV on Netflix. Ooh, it's loaded. There's a lot of stuff there. Maybe if you are triggered by that Biggest Loser definition of salvation, maybe you don't want to watch it. But I hope this has given you four powerful things to think about if you do watch it or if you watch those Biggest Loser reruns to recognize the damage that this show may have caused, how it contributed to diet culture's explosion, and how, as Christians, we need to do better. Hey, thanks for listening today.

Heather Creekmore [00:41:38]:
I hope something today has helped you stop comparing and start living. Bye. Bye. The Compare to show is proud to be part of the Life Audio Podcast Network. For more great Christian podcasts, go to lifeaudio.com hey, did you know there's awesome [email protected] but we also have a brand new webpage called heathercreekmore.com where you can find out more about me, my books and you can get 10 days of encouragement. Go to heathercreekmore.com for your 10 days of encouragement today.

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.