Tracey Yukich Reveals She "Died" During "The Biggest Loser" Challenge

Former The Biggest Loser contestant Tracey Yukich has revealed a traumatic incident during her time on the NBC reality weight-loss show. In a new Netflix documentary, Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser, Yukich shared that she "died" due to a medical crisis induced by the show's strenuous workouts. The terrifying encounter occurred in the very first challenge of the show's eighth season, which saw contestants running a mile down the beach, a deceptively easy test that helped decide whether they would stay on the show.

The woman, a mother of four, felt confident in her own abilities, but her body was peaking. "In my head, I'm like, 'I can run, I've got four kids,'" Tracey said. "I'm running after them all the time. But it was the longest mile ever." What came next has been nothing short of horrifying. Yukich recalled passing out and hearing a helicopter, feeling she was floating, seeing dark and light visions, and she thought she had died. The actual health issue behind that near-death experience: rhabdomyolysis, an ailment in which muscle tissue rapidly breaks down, releasing dangerous proteins into the bloodstream that can lead to organ failure. "My organs were literally shutting down," Yukich said. "I didn't realize that I had rhabdomyolysis. And rhabdomyolysis is your body's way of saying, 'I'm going to shut down on you.' It started with my liver, then it was in my kidneys, and then it goes to your heart. "And that's where I almost died."

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Contestant Danny Cahill, who won the season, remembered that, after being kept in a hotel room for days, he'd observed that Tracey "didn't pace anything." The show's intensity, combined with the sheer physical demands, pushed Yukich to a breaking point that could have been fatal. Yukich's frank memoir reveals the ulcers that game-show contestants risk when they play a 'reality' like The Biggest Loser. However, while the show highlighted dramatic weight loss stories, hers reveals the need to consider the actual, physical risks associated with extreme fitness challenges. Tracey Yukich's story today offers a cautionary tale about the hidden dangers of televised weight-loss competitions and the resilience it takes to endure them.