Season two contestant Suzanne Mendonca plans to file a class action lawsuit against NBC and the long-running program, alleging that it’s responsible for permanently slowing down her metabolism.
The lawsuit comes after a study by the National Institutes of Health in which many former contestants were analyzed over a period of six years. The results suggest that some of the ‘losers’ resting metabolic rates have slowed down over time, making successful weight management tougher.
Mendonca’s decision comes after having gained 150 pounds following her time on the show.
“The reason why I gained my weight back is 100 percent The Biggest Loser,” the former contestant claimed in a video interview for TMZ. “There’s a research that just came out that it just disturbed and ruined our metabolic rate. They ruined us.”
Mendonca also alleges that she was restricted to only 800 calories per day and spent much of the time vomiting and dehydrated.
The study, however, shows that 57 percent of participants successfully maintained at least 10 percent weight loss, proving to be better than most conventional regimens.
“We found that The Biggest Loser participants regained a substantial amount of their lost weight in the 6 years since the competition but overall were quite successful at long-term weight loss compared with other lifestyle interventions,” the study found.
The former ‘loser’ says that participating on the show was the biggest mistake of her life. “We’re in the process of filing a civil class action against them,” she explained to TMZ. “They deserve to be responsible.”
Industry attorneys believe that the odds are not in her favor, however. “She would likely say ‘until this study came out I didn’t realize this was harmful to me,’ but that is contradicted by her own life experience,” litigator Jeremiah Reynolds argued following Mendonca’s claim. “She’s known for a long time that whatever happened on the show didn’t work.”
NBC has declined to comment on the matter.