14 DAY TRIAL // Rachel Frederickson, a 24-year-old former swimmer turned voiceover artist, is the winner of the latest season of The Biggest Loser, going down from a size 20 to a size 0 / 2 after dropping almost 60 percent of her initial body weight. Almost one month after she was named winner, she’s finally addressing the controversy around the season finale.
The last episode in the season, the big reveal one, which also saw Frederickson step on the scales for the last weigh-in, got viewers extremely furious and worried that she might have traded one unhealthy lifestyle for another. In other words, Rachel seemed to have lost too much weight.
In the months after her departure from The Biggest Loser ranch, she lost almost as much weight as she had whilst there, which seemed a bit strange since she no longer had nutritionists, trainers and all kinds of experts guiding her in her weight loss efforts. So many assumed that she simply stopped eating just to make sure she would be the winner.
Speaking with Savannah Guthrie on The Today Show (video of the interview is embedded below), Rachel offers assurance that her weight loss was 100 percent healthy. However, she understands – up to a point – why people reacted the way they did.
“You know, I did work so hard for the finale and finding myself again. I felt amazing on the stage. I felt like I shined in my dress. Then I got off the stage, and Twitter was all abuzz,” she recalls.
“I was (surprised), because I felt proud of everything I'd accomplished. My journey was my own, and I loved it; I lived it. So, I felt really proud of what I did. It was absolutely healthy weight loss. I dieted and exercised and did it healthy the whole way. I appreciate all the concern, and I can see where it comes from,” she continues.
She believes people assumed she had lost the weight in an unhealthy way because of what she calls “the movie magic,” seeing 7 months of her life cut down to just a handful of episodes. Because of that, her journey was perceived as to have lasted less than it actually did.
Plus, Frederickson underlines, people should never forget that she was very unhealthy at her starting weight, that of 260 pounds (117.9 kg). “I'm the healthiest, most alive I've ever felt,” she says, adding that the maintenance stage is perhaps even more challenging than the losing weight part.
All things said, we have only her word to go by as far as how healthy her weight loss was after she left the ranch. What is certain is that, just like all other previous winners of the show, Rachel seems to have gained a few pounds since she went back to her pre-fame life.