Thursday, May 1, 2008

The Biggest Loser - Australia 2008


My good friend Rayfield (preparations4birth.blogspot.com - check it out, it's funny), in attempting to justify watching a reality television programme after having slagged me off for a year because I became addicted to them, told me that he likes The Biggest Loser because it actually seems to be achieving something useful, and fair dues to him, I can see where he was coming from. Never is this more obvious than in the finale, although to be fair this year was a bizarre year of Biggest Loser as the producers seemed determined to get these people to put weight like it was going out of fashion. Nonetheless, after three months of watching the red team bitch themselves into oblivion, and the blue team sticking together to make Shannon's dreams come true (and let's face it, if that's not worth watching then what is? "This was the best outcome for the blue team..") the show has finally come to an end and we get to look back over the contestents and see where they have come to.


First up, let's draw attention to the fact that although some extremely overweight people lose a tonne of weight on this programme, one thing that is completely unbelievable about the Biggest Loser situation is that a group of people are spending three months with personal trainers, working out for six hours a day with a controlled diet. Never happens in real life, unfortunately, and to turn around and claim that the other eleven contestents on the outside proved it could be done is a little laughable when in the next sentence they inform us that they provided the contestents with gym membership. OK, so why couldn't they have had a gym membership normally? Couldn't afford it? Then, sod off, because it's complete crap. If those eleven had just done it on their own the show would have a lot more credability.
The fact is, the best thing about this show is that some seriously overweight people have been saved from an early death because they got an opportunity they wouldn't normally have. Some of them will hopefully keep up this new lifestyle and keep the weight off, but the sad fact is that some will put it back on again, so let's not dwell on that - let's dwell on the upside.


Firstly how impressive was the weight loss of the previous contestents? I was a bit surprised that Cosi actually had put on a bit of weight since leaving the show (although one might argue that came from getting a lot more muscle), but his percentage had dropped a little since leaving. The standouts, of course, were Garry, Sheridan, Michelle, Bryce and, of course, Sean. The amount of weight those guys had dropped, particularly Garry, Sheridan and Sean after leaving the house was quite amazing. Michelle looked gorgeous. Sean looked as though he had dropped about 20 years as well as the 70 odd kilos. An amazing effort.


As for the winner - well a bit of a dead cert from the outset but the real surprise was Alison. I couldn't believe that she had dropped almost half her body weight. She was absolutely stunning and when she took the scales and percentage came up, I couldn't believe that she was rivalling Sean and at that point I was almost convinced she might be able to take the prize from Sam. However, on seeing Sam my thoughts came back on track, and certainly that guy is amazing. He and Alison should be so proud of themselves and I was happy to see Kirsten drop to third - narky bitch deserved a slap in the face.


Overall, it's hard to be negative about a show that has done such a great job for some people who were seriously worried about their health, so a great series, all up.


"A"

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