• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 6 hours ago

The old weight-loss reality-competition show “The Biggest Loser” was the target of criticism and controversy practically from its start in 2004, but nevertheless ran for 18 seasons.

A new three-part documentary that started last week on Netflix asks the question: Was “The Biggest Loser” fit for TV?

The show -- titled “Fit For TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser” -- gets into all of that with the cooperation of 14 interview subjects.

They include eight contestants, creator David Broome, executive producer J.D. Roth, show trainer Bob Harper, host Alison Sweeney, medical expert and show consultant Robert Huizenga M.D., and Aubrey Gordon, author of the book You Just Need to Lose Weight -- And 19 Other Myths About Fat People.

Those who were around the TV business in the early 2000s undoubtedly remember the explosion in reality television that started ostensibly with the arrival of “Survivor” on CBS in 2000.

What followed were years of bizarre, attention-getting reality concepts designed, at least in part, to arrest remote-control channel surfing.

Many of the ones that drew the most commentary were the ones featuring celebrities such as “The Surreal Life,” “Celebrity Rehab” and “Celebrity Fit Club,” which premiered on VH-1 a year after “The Biggest Loser” premiered on NBC.

“The Biggest Loser” was not a celebrity competition, however. In the show, a group of overweight contestants (such as the ones seen in the above photo) competed to lose weight over a period of 30 weeks with the guidance of personal trainers and under the supervision of medical professionals.

The winner was the contestant who lost the most weight in the highest percentage relative to their starting weight.

The winner took home a cash prize of $250,000 and the title of “biggest loser.” What could possibly go wrong?

Well, according to critics, a lot could go awry. From the get-go, fitness and obesity experts complained that the rates of weight loss on the show were unhealthy and ill-advised, and that some of the training regimens looked too extreme and risky for the contestants.

Indeed, the Netflix press material inventories one controversy after another. For example, Season 15 featured one of the most drastic weight losses in the entire run of the show.

That season’s 5’4” winner started the competition at 260 pounds and ended the season at 105 -- a loss of some 60% of her body weight in 30 weeks.

Other controversies and incidents dogged the series. One of them had to do with allegations that the trainers on the show were providing caffeine supplements to the contestants to intensify their workouts and speed their weight loss.

In another incident during the filming of Season 8, one contestant collapsed in a physical challenge and had to be rushed to the hospital.

In interviews in the documentary, contestants reveal that they are still feeling some aftereffects years after they appeared on the show.

“Those who participated on ‘The Biggest Loser’ divulge the extremes they were guided to take in order to lose weight and the effects they’ve lived with since then -- from disordered eating to mental health issues,” says Netflix.