The Biggest Loser, No Excuses

Posted by Trish Milburn Jan 4 2012, 12:01 am in ,

No Excuses. That’s the theme of the new season of The Biggest Loser, which started last night. And I think it’s a great one for all of us to adopt for this new year. Stop making excuses why you can’t work out. Stop making excuses why you can’t eat healthily. Stop making excuses why you don’t have time to write.

This is the episode where you’re just getting to know people, so here’s a bulleted rundown of the high points.

* One of the show elements I hate the most was back. One couple who thought they were going to be on the ranch was the victim of the equivalent of a cruel joke, in my opinion. Alison told the new crop of contestants that they were having a 3-phase challenge to determine which pair would go home without ever stepping foot inside the ranch gates. First up was a 40-yard dash where one contestant popped his hamstring. Next up was a puzzle then dash. After each of these rounds, the top four teams in each made it onto the ranch. In the battle between the final two teams, they had to stand on the balls of their feet on a battle top, holding on to each other. Whoever lasted the longest got on the ranch. After it was all over, the aqua team was sent home but not before Alison told them that if they could lose 50 pounds combined in month, they’d earn their way onto the ranch.

* The teams had a couple of hours to work out with Dolvett and Bob (Anna is not back this season) and get to know them a bit better before they had to choose their trainers. What they didn’t know was that they wouldn’t end up training with their brothers, sisters, parents, etc. There would be two teams, and none of the previous partners would be on the same team together. As you might guess, this was not met with screams of joy.

* We learned a little more about some of the contestants. The two gals who were the original pink team, and the only team to be strangers in the beginning, are both former athletes. Emily is a former Olympic weightlifter, and Kim was a professional wrestler until her back was broken in a match. Both of them seem to have a lot of fire in them to get back to athlete shape, and I like them both so far.

* Overall, the contestants are smaller this season. Only one person, Buddy, weighed more than 400 pounds at 403. He was also, no surprise, the unhealthiest person on the ranch. Dr. Huizenga showed him the plague in one of his main arteries to the heart, and that added a new level of determination in Buddy to get healthy. Buddy’s story is also sad because he started gaining weight after his daughter died of spina bifida at 5 1/2 months old. It’s a common theme, how we turn to food as comfort in sorrowful situations and end up damaging our health.

* How does Santa lose all that weight from the Christmas night cookies and milk? Well, he goes on The Biggest Loser, of course. Okay, so Santa isn’t really on the show, but Roy could pass for his twin brother.

* Perhaps because the contestants are not so incredibly big this season, the numbers for the first weigh-in were not as astronomical. Still, when you add it all up, the group lost 206 pounds. The biggest losses were put up by Buddy on the red (Dolvett’s) team with 22; Joe and Ben on the black (Bob’s) team, each with 15; Cassandra (black) and Roy (red), both with 14. Nancy on the red team, the mother of 13 and grandmother of 54(!), had the lowest loss with 5 pounds. Dolvett says he wasn’t surprised since she’s never worked out before and didn’t seem to have the same fire as the other contestants. Interestingly, it was her granddaughter Cassandra who had the biggest percentage of weight loss on the other team and of the women overall. I think it’s actually a good thing that we don’t have anyone who is so huge this season because it puts everyone on more of a level playing field, and the contestants are more like a larger percentage of viewers. There are lots of women in the 200-225 range and lots of guys in the 300-400 range, so they’ll be more able to see themselves in the contestants.

* The red team won the weigh-in, making Dolvett positively giddy to beat Bob, which was actually pretty funny.

* Ben, who was actually one of the bigger losers on the black team this week, asked to be sent home. And it didn’t seem like it had anything to do with being lazy or not wanting to do the work. He really missed his wife, who is pregnant, and his nine kids. In his transformation moment, it really did seem that he made a significant change in attitude and dedication to a lifestyle change in the one week he was on the ranch. He’s lost 50 pounds and is involving his entire family in exercise and eating healthily.

What did you think of this first episode? Did anyone stand out to you? Who do you want to know more about?

6 Comments

Comments

6 Responses to “The Biggest Loser, No Excuses”

  1. Michelle Butler says:
    January 4, 2012 at 10:02 am

    Did they ever explain why the contestants were “smaller” in general this year? I missed the beginning and was very curious about that. I did get there in time to see that one team humiliated and have their dream crushed. Like you, I hate that “cruel joke”.

    Dolvett’s glee was fun. I liked him last season and was happy to see him return.

    It was cute seeing the players figure out which trainer they would work out with. I laughed at loud at the guy who said he didn’t like either of them – he’s the one who asked to be sent home, right?

    I haven’t quite figured out if I like returning ex-athletes as competitors. On the other hand, some of the older women who had never exercised looked like they were on a Sunday stroll during the Last Chance Workout.

    Reply
  2. Diane Gaston says:
    January 4, 2012 at 9:45 pm

    I’m in agreement about the cruel joke to send a couple home before they even get started. Mean.

    I liked Cassandra. And the poor girl from Bob’s team who thought she would be sent home.

    Santa annoys me. Just shave off the beard already!!!!!

    I like Dolvett, but Bob annoys me more and more. He’s just too silly.

    I was thinking about The Biggest Loser when I was at my WW meeting today. I lost 2 tenths of a pound and I was ecstatic. I hadn’t tracked points for several days over the holidays and I was eating desserts and peanuts and stuff. Compared to those big losses of 14 lbs in a week, mine seemed minor.
    Except to me!

    Reply

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