Right On!

I believe right now that they are 1 and 2 in the percentage standings, with less than 1% separating them (Tara followed by Mike). Helen is not too far behind them, but I don't think she has that much more to lose and with the massive amounts that Mike has still to loss (in comparison to Helen and Tara). I think if he can keep it up at home, he is going to be tough to beat, but if anyone can do it, I would lay some money on Tara. That is one tough lady when she puts her mind to it. She falls down and gets whiney once in a while, but after a short butt kicking, she gets back on her feet.

I loved that Jillian said to embrace that everyone sees you as a threat. It really is something to embrace to realize that you not only seem that strong to other people, but really are that strong.

I would love to see either one of the win. I stand behind Bob and Jillian's mantra. To win this game, you just have to stay above the Yellow line. They have done the best at doing that.

Mike has been the highest percentage 4 times (only 1 time with his father, the other 3 on his own).
Tara has been the highest percentage 4 times (2 times with Laura and 2 times on her own)
Filipe has only made it 1 time and that was with Sione.
Ron has only made it 1 time with Mike (First Week)
Helen has been it 2 times.
Kristen NEVER was the highest percentage.

This has to tell you something. Your strongest 2 are your #1 and #2 on the percentage lost board and they are still there. Tara has never been below the yellow line (she had a couple close calls and a time or 2 that is helped to have immunity from elimination), and Mike was only below it once with his father in Week 4.

They are strong I think either one of them deserves to win.

Kristen and her hair...did anyone notice that she striped it up again after she got home? Not as bad as before her makeover but geez. I'm not trying to be petty about the hair thing but earlier in the season I was amazed that all the women in her family had the same striped hair.

Fast forward to that motivational meeting and as they panned around the room...almost all the women had striped hair or at least pretty funky styles. I guess I've never seen a town where striped hair was in.

p.s. I really thought that Kristen was going to win and that would explain the zillion commentaries by her. Now that that theories shot I'm thinking maybe Tara? Mike is a contender though and it will be interesting to see how Godfather Ron plays out the next couple weeks.

Oh yeah. In my little town, most of the women have very blond highlights and reverse bobs with very long french manicured nails and tons of eye-makeup. Sometimes, I feel like the fuddy duddy!

Jay Kruger from Season 5 posted pictures up on Facebook of him and Mark at the ranch with the 5 remaining contestants. Curtis and Mallory were in some shots with the brothers, too. I wonder if we'll get to see these guys on the show next week.

Anyway, the "vets" look great. And Mark is still hot.

I came across an interview with Kristin online where she acknowledges nobody's to blame for sending her home and she did fall below the yellow line. She also mentioned that it was her TOM.

If both Mike & Tara make it to the finale, I def think the contest will be between the two of them. They're so close in percentage lost. Mike can still lose a lot and Tara may lose it from sheer determination. I do give the edge to Mike, though. I think it'll be easier for him to lose more. I'd be happy if either one wins.

Helen is a little behind them but she has little left to lose so I don't think she'd be able to keep up. Felipe is further behind and I also think he can't reach their level in 2 months at home. Ditto Ron...although I think he can reach a high level of weight loss, it ain't going to happen in 2 months...and if he was in the finale with Mike, he would purposely slow it down even more so as not to surpass his son.

I just wonder how difficult will it be for Mike to continue at home? Will he be able to maintain his healthy habits?

I don't know if this has been mentioned or not but I'll give it a go..

Remember Dane? When after he got voted off, it showed him a couple months later running a half marathon? Well, I read a couple days ago in a magazine that he cheated on that.

Apparently, some runners saw him and his wife stop, and then the producers picked them up in a van and drove them a few miles and dropped them off to finish the race. I guess the wife spoke up and apologized... said something about that they stopped to take pictures and film so "lost time" so the producers drove them 3 miles to make up for it... I guess they apologized for "deceiving" their viewers? I'll see if I can find an online article....

Found one: http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2...ggest-los.html

Sweet, the show thread prior to this one is full of this story as it was happening. You can go back and read all the juicy details that we discussed as the story was unfolding. Welcome to the thread!! We are most active on Tuesday nites into Wednesday, so check back then!

So, obviously it's not a Tuesday or Wednesday, & I am new here ...

I really, really want Tara to win. Mostly because she's a powerhouse & I don't think anyone has worked as hard as she has. She's so determined. But also because she has made me realize what I want to do. When she cried that very first day at the ranch ... I cried with her. I know how she feels, or at least I feel like I relate to her the most.

It will be interesting to see how tomorrow plays out ...

I'd like Tara to win too. If not Tara then Mike.

I like the new 30 day twist.

Tara is a machine!

It's amazing they all lost as much as they did this week. I mean, those numbers were big for everybody.

I was nervous for Mike when I saw Filipe's 10 pounds. But then he started talking about how scared he was that he was going to fall below and I thought, okay, he's not falling. They tend to edit it so that the when the contestants say stuff like that they usually end up not falling, lol.

Anybody notice that Felipe's wife's name went from Levila (on previous shows) to Olivia (at the start of the update) and back to Levila near the end of the update?

Well, Bob's team self-destructed. Pretty much sealed their fate when they voted off Dane and followed the pattern by voting off Mandi. They prematurely voted off the better competitors (wonder if Kristin and Felipe would call that cowardly) and essentially set their team to lose one after another. I think Dane especially might have made some difference. Oh well, not really unhappy here, I've been hoping for Mike and Tara to come this far.

If Nicole has kept up at Tara's level she may be the at-home person to beat. I think Daniel will look amazing but I don't think he can have reached the percentage of somebody like Nicole in the same amount of time. I mean, he started bigger than Mike and Mike has had the benefit of the ranch for 4 months and Mike still has weight to lose. There's no way Daniel is going to come anywhere near that level in the same amount of time at home. I think Dane might be able to do it physically but I'm also thinking Dane may go for/stay with a football player physique. I'm thinking Dane is not going to get as small as, say, Filipe. I'm imagining him still kinda stocky on top. Course, he may totally surprise me! Carla may be another strong contender. She's the female Daniel...could she have lost enough in this amount of time?

I noticed that! LOL I was like, huh? I wonder what that was about.

My husband's first comment when he saw all the BIG losses this week is that they threw it, or just didn't try AS hard, last week. He thinks they knew the weigh-in for this week would be tougher with a smaller group, knew they'd need a big loss and most of them don't get those big losses every week this late in the game. Who knows...

It's crazy that Felipe lost 10 pounds and went home. Just insane.

It was probably another one of their 10 day weeks as well.

Yep, notice they kept saying 17 weeks which is just over 4 months whereas the show has been on air for only a little over 3 - 14 weeks or so? So yes, they've had some accelerated weeks in there. I know - this week's losses were crazy. I think they employed some tricks normaly saved for the finale thsi week - dehydration, massive calorie restriction the day before, I wouldn't even put purging/fasting beyond their desire to not get eliminated this week. It was probably a 2 week window, but yes, to still lose 5 lbs a week at this point (for a total of 10 at the weigh in) is highly unlikely. And what was up with them all being so shocked that they were all going home this week. It must feel like forever by week 17-18 - did they think they were staying 20 weeks maybe? It was odd.