Biggest Loser Winner Looks Back on Controversial 2014

Not all reality show competition winners end with a happily ever after. When Rachel Frederickson took home the title of The Biggest Loser on season 15 of the show last February, she was not expecting quite a turn of events afterwards. Not even working her hardest in shedding those dreaded 155 pounds could've prepared her for the after-effect of her victory. Why? It would seem that shortly after she was declared as the winner fans of the show as well as critics took hold of social media to express their thought about her dramatic weight loss.

Frederickson shared her story on the Today's show 2014 voices where she opened up on the backlash she received from her critics. She admits that when she stood on the stage during the finale, she felt confident and proud of her achievements but was sad that the sense of good feeling did not last long as commentaries of her weight loss journey was suddenly put into a negative light by the show's audience on social media. "Comments during the controversial storm following my weight loss were hurtful. My self-esteem once again was affected by other people's voices - this time, the kind that live forever in Facebook posts or written in the pages of magazines. People tried to bring me down and (privately) succeeded."

It is ironic enough that the opinions of others were also the cause of her weight gain. The 24 year old voice actress shared that her initial weight gain was after the boy she loved and followed all the way across the Atlantic after high school told her that she was not enough for him.  "It didn't take long before the voice of a boy I loved started diminishing my self-esteem," she recalls. "His voice told me I wasn't enough, and I believed it. I started listening to a louder voice than my own, and in turn, I lost the person I loved being. Fast forward to a lonely, overweight girl. I made a decision to start fighting for myself again and I was so excited and grateful to be chosen as one of the contestants on Season 15 of The Biggest Loser."