In Fit for TV, a Netflix documentary that examines the negative aspects of the NBC reality show, Jillian Michaels is retaliating against The Biggest Loser alumni who brought accusations against her.
From 2004 to 2011, Michaels worked as a fitness trainer on the weight-loss competition series. However, she did not take part in the documentary, which included interviews with her co-star Bob Harper, executive producers, former competitors, and Robert Huizenga, the show’s go-to physician.
She used social media to refute a charge in the documentary series that she and other trainers gave competitors caffeine pills in violation of The Biggest Loser’s regulations.
Michael shared images of purported emails from 2009, which she claimed demonstrated that Dr. Huizenga had authorized caffeine tablets for several Biggest Loser seasons, and that Bob Harper was not only aware of the caffeine pills but also that he had suggested the stackers fat burner.
“The Biggest Loser never banned caffeine,” Michaels continued. It’s crazy how some people continue to lie as if it were 1985, before email and texting existed.
A request for comment was not answered by either Michaels’ or Netflix’s agent.
Harper’s assertion that she never contacted him following his 2017 heart attack, which left him unconscious on the gym floor for nine minutes, was also contested by Michaels.
People kept saying, “You and Jillian have been so close,” Harper recalled in the documentary series. I thought, “Well, we were really close on television.” She is the only person I never heard from after my heart attack. That, in my opinion, said a lot.
Michaels shared a screenshot of what she claimed to be her second-to-last text conversation to Bob Harper, which she sent to her former co-star.
I find it incredibly embarrassing that you haven’t even replied to my texts. The text message says, “It’s this kind of thing that always makes me so disappointed [in] our relationship.” “Take from it what you will,” Michaels captioned the photo on Instagram.
Michaels responded to another assertion in Fit for TV in a different piece.
“I want to state unequivocally that this is false,” Michaels responded in response to the documentary’s assertion that I told a competitor at the show’s conclusion, “You’re going to make me a millionaire.”
Both the contestant and I wore mics, and the entire event was caught on camera. The audio recording would contain the comment if it had been made.
Michaels sent screenshots of the text conversations he sent to his business partner, stating that two of the show’s executive producers, Mark Koops and Dave Broome, sent him written declarations via text message verifying that this exchange never happened.
Former Biggest Loser competitors who said that Michaels pushed them to consume fewer than 1,000 calories a day were also included in the documentary series. Michaels refuted this charge:
In response to the claim that I prevented contestants from consuming enough calories, she attached a screenshot of an alleged email exchange between herself and a contestant and said, “I have an example of a direct written correspondence with a contestant, while she was home for the holidays during filming, in which I explicitly instructed her to consume 1,600 calories per day.”
Michaels also shared images of purported emails he sent to Harper and Huizenga, among others, on the importance of maintaining participants’ proper nutrition and the necessity of maintaining a consistent supply of fresh food in the BL home to provide easy access to calories.
Finally, Michaels talked on the presence of Rachel Frederickson, the woman who won Season 15 after losing 155 pounds. Concerned about the series’ medical protocol, fans reacted negatively to her final weigh-in of 105 pounds.
According to Michaels, NBC threatened to take legal action against her if she did not openly support Frederickson’s appearance. “I quit from The Biggest Loser shortly after,” Michaels continued.
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