Viewer ratings for NBC’s popular reality show “The Biggest Loser” might fall flat this season due to speculations of mistreatment of contestants behind the camera. As the show was preparing to head into its 16^th season, former contestant Kai Hibbard spoke out about her inhumane “Biggest Loser” experience. Hibbard participated in the show during its third season and has developed an eating disorder ever since. Hibbard described the show as a “fat-shaming disaster” that she was “embarrassed to have participated in.”

Once the contestants arrived, they are given a medical exam and begin training immediately for extreme amounts of time.

“I thought I was going to die,” said Hibbard. “I couldn’t take any more.”

The former contestant also stated that the trainers would constantly yell and satirize the participants for being overweight.

“They’d get a sick pleasure out of it,” said an anonymous contestant. “They’d say, ‘It’s because you’re fat. Look at all the fat you have on you.’ And that was our fault, so this was our punishment.”

“Biggest Losers” also reportedly experienced severe malnutrition during the show. Hibbard described the food to be lacking nutritional value and below the recommended intake of calories. Contestants began losing up to 30 pounds a week and decided to get bloodwork done to monitor their health. Hibbard said a doctor prescribed her and other contestants electrolyte drinks but they were denied by the trainers due to fear of weight gain.

Hibbard also said that the show caused many injuries for the participants, the result of excessive and continuous workouts.

“One contestant had a torn calf muscle and bursitis in her knees,” Hibbard said. “The doctor told her, ‘You need to rest.’ She said, ‘Production told me I can’t rest.’ At one point after that, production ordered her to run, and she said, ‘I can’t.’” Although the contestant was badly injured, Hibbard said she was edited to look lazy.

“You’re brainwashed to believe that you’re super-lucky to be there,” Hibbard said.

Long time trainer Jillian Michaels left the show for the third and final time in 2014 concerned about the direction the show was going. After Rachel Fredrickson’s 155 pound “Biggest Loser” weight loss, Michaels was concerned that the change might have been too extreme.

“I was stunned,” said Michaels. “I thought she had lost too much weight.”

Fredrickson, season 15, went through a drastic weight loss that has also raised controversy leaving viewers scared that the show pushes the contestants too far.

Creator and executive producer of “The Biggest Loser”, Dave Broome, spoke up about the recent show shaming.

“We put together an incredible medical team of doctors, nutritionists and therapists,” said Broome. “You name it we’ve had it and continue to evolve [our supervised care]. [There are] millions of people around the world whose lives have been changed.”

Current contestants also vouch that Kai Hibbard’s claims are far from the truth.

“I just find it hard to believe when almost every other contestant talks publicly about the positive aspects. The show is like life: There are positive and negative aspects. I’m sorry she chooses to see only the few negative aspects,” said season 8 winner Danny Cahill.