January 26, 2011

The Biggest Loser Recap: A Buffet of Temptation

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On the menu: ribs, macaroni and cheese, pizza, monkey bread, eggrolls, pies, chocolate cake, fried chicken and bacon cheeseburgers. But not everyone can resist …

If you haven’t been watching the Biggest Loser, here are some important things to help catch you up:

There are two new and unknown trainers this season, or more precisely, they remained unknown during the first two episodes. And then last week, they were then revealed world-class boxer Cara Castronuova and fitness trainer Brett Hoebel, who used to be overweight himself. 

The first day at the Ranch, the contestants performed a challenge, allowing them to choose their trainers without knowing their identity.  However, those who chose the “unknowns” got immunity for four weeks.  Even Bob and Jillian agreed that any smart team would choose four weeks of immunity rather than them, but some teams would not give up the opportunity to train with the famous Bob and Jillian. 

So, half the teams live and work on the Ranch, and the unknown trainers work at a “secret location,” later revealed to be in Malibu, California.

Week four starts with Ali, telling the Ranch teams about the challenge of the day – the challenge will result in a team joining the Unknowns.

Challenge One: Each of the teams spend three minutes in a room filled with their favorite, high-calorie foods, as well as, the favorite foods of everyone else.  On the menu: ribs, macaroni and cheese, pizza, monkey bread, eggrolls, pies, chocolate cake, fried chicken and bacon cheeseburgers.  Yum, yum. 

If all the teams resist the temptation to devour any food, then one team will randomly be sent to the unknowns.  Whoever decides to eat something gets to vote who is sent to the unknown trainers.  Every team resists, using various measures. “Does any of this food look as good as a hot guy?” “No!”

Everyone resists, except for a member of the blue team.  Arthur, the heaviest man to ever compete on the Biggest Loser in terms of body mass index (BMI), says that he doesn’t want anyone else determining his fate, and then, he devours a fried chicken leg. 

At least, he resisted the pizza.  Before the Biggest Loser, Arthur had a local pizza chain deliver food to his house every night at 8:30 for a year … no call needed. That’s how he got to be over 600 pounds – his heaviest weight.  But, one piece of fried chicken (150 calories) allows Arthur to send the strong Green Team, made up of father and daughter Jay and Jennifer, to the Unknowns.

As they pack up and move to the Unknowns’ location, at a fitness resort, things get emotional on the ranch.  Bob and Jillian freak out on the Black Team member and twin Don, accusing him of intentionally throwing last week’s weigh-in, where he had gained nine pounds.  Don denies it, but it’s pretty hard to believe that he managed to gain nine pounds – he was working out every day and eating properly.  His twin brother Dan, who was sent home last week after also gaining nine pounds, was probably the instigator of the plan, as he was desperately homesick and wanted a way out. 

In response to the accusations, Don brings out the profanity, verbally attacking Jillian.  But, this only makes Jillian happy because she wanted Don to show his emotions, for once.

Next, Jillian decides to evoke some emotion from Courtney, a member of the Aqua Team, and they talk about Courtney’s relationship with her mom. Courtney says that she feels like a disappointment to her mother.  She later has a heart-to-heart talk with her mother, and it ends with a nice hug.

The Green Team is shown adapting to their new living arrangements and getting to know the Unknowns before Ali introduces challenge number two. 

Challenge Two: The team’s favorite foods are on the table.  Each team must guess the total number of calories in all the food, combined.  It’s the Green Team against all the Ranch teams, with the Green Team playing on behalf of the other Unknown teams.  The winning team gets letters from home.  This all sounds fairly simple, and it’s definitely not physically straining … until they introduce the method of guessing.  There are large panels numbered, one to nine, that must be placed on a board and raised in the air by means of a pulley system.  Each board may be raised, one at a time, until the team gets it correct.  Since, the challenge puts five teams against one, the Green Team’s pulley system uses less weight.  Before they begin, Ali gives the hint that the answer is four digits long. The result?

Fried chicken plus a couple slices of pizza plus a slice of cheesecake plus a bacon cheeseburger plus monkey bread plus a piece of chocolate cake plus ribs plus macaroni and cheese plus an egg roll and fried rice … 8,754 calories

That’s not so much … just the equivalent of eight days of a prescribed healthy diet.

The Ranch teams guess the answer first, and letters from home dramatically drop from the sky.  The teams are happy and emotional with contact from their loved ones.

Since this week’s episode was only an hour long, it ends with the Ranch team members reading their letters. TO BE CONTINUED…

Next Week: The Ranch and the Unknowns are all in danger of being eliminated at the next weigh-in!

Original Author: Andrea Sielicki