Not sure where to post this, so if this isn't the right place, please move it.

In the weekend edition of the Anchorage Daily News, they had a terrific article on Kai, the gal who almost won "The Biggest Loser" two years ago.

http://www.adn.com/life/health/story/740127.html

It goes behind the scenes of the show, how UNhealthy it is, and how she's struggling now, to keep the weight off. Very interesting and informative.

Wow. Just WOW.

I feel sorry for her- that just sound so tough. It's funny all we see is the people working hard and losing weight. And I've said it myself a million times, the REST of the world can't lose weight like that because we can't quit our jobs and work out 12 hours a day. I consider it a good day when I get in half an hour of a workout and an AMAZING day when I get in 1 hour. But life gets in the way, kids, work, school, combinations of both, then when you get to work out, bam you get the flu, or something else happens. Normal people can't lose 20 lbs in a week- it's just insane. Even JM herself says BL is the Olympics of weight loss.

I hope she finds happiness.

That's enough to make someone hate Biggest Loser.

And, beerab, the other thing is, no one has to go to those extremes to lose weight. Sometimes on those shows someone loses "only" 3 pounds, 4 pounds, even 6 pounds in a week and are made to seem like failures. I succeeded with my weight loss averaging 4 pounds per MONTH.

I feel sorry for her, too. She was one of my favorite contestants.

By the way, here's the appearance of Erik Chopin on Oprah, after having gained 100 pounds back...

Jay

I certainly don't think I'll ever tune into BL again. I have so much sadness for her, what a tough road. I think they need to stop focusing on huge losses and look a little more at the psychological aspects of why these contestants are the way they are. My heart goes out to her.

I think that in the beginning of this show folks didn't really know what to expect. Producers (or whoever is in control of that stuff) will do anything to get ratings.

After a few seasons, viewers are getting to be more savvy.

The trainers made them spit out the milk?

I was never a fan of Kai when she was on the show but thanks for sharing the article.

Oh I agree- I didn't mean to imply someone did have to do that. I just have friends who are severly overweight who go "man so and so lost 15 lbs in one WEEK" and I have to remind them that normally most people DO NOT lose 15 lbs in a week because most people can't maintain that workout schedule. Course they are all the ones looking for that miracle pill that'll magically make them lose 200 lbs without having to diet lol

My average right now is like 3 lbs a month- I'm still happy lol.

FTA - "And now the house is a minefield of guilt and defeat. The brownies. The closet with the favorite pair of jeans that don't fit. The bathroom where the scale sits ready to measure her worth."

That's a heavy quote.

Wait - she made a pan of brownies to reward her husband for weight loss?

I've always wondered why the Biggest Loser is so weirdly focused on exercises, product placement foods and temptation foods. Very little focus is every placed on healthy eating, unless it's being served up by a celebrity chef (Rocco! Call me!).

I don't think they have any intention of setting ANY of those people up for long term success, the only goal is ratings for THAT season. That's it. It's the kind of short-sighted weight loss behavior that "dieted' me up to 200 lbs. It's sad, very sad.

This is sad. So basically, "The Biggest Loser" takes people who already have a not-so-healthy relationship with food, and instead of teaching them to make their lives a little better, it sends some of them like Kai home with full-blown eating disorders & new, unhealthy habits like purging & overexercising. With a big check, yes, but no support services afterward for what they've been through.

Media heavy that is ... I'm a regainer and I don't consider my house a minefield of anything.

I do sympathize with her very public battle. Fame ain't always what it's cracked up to be.

Thanks for sharing.
Wow, when you watch the show, you don't realize what the actual reality is .... like the contestants sitting in a van, waiting for the shooting of scenes, etc. but mainly the "private" (or not so private) part of it - where you become public property and anybody recognizes you.
But, IMHO, she was really overdoing it, I mean in the months after the ranch and before the final weigh in. Sure, if I had a vision of $250,000 so close within my reach, maybe I would do the same - I don't know. And I can imagine that the pressure from being recognize anywhere you go must be enormous.

I did not start watching TBL until season 5, but quite coincidentally, I saw a rerun of the episode mentioned in the article (the obstacles run on the bridge).

I often wonder how Ali Vincent is doing these days?

How many times (and how many ways) can you show steamed broccoli or steel-cut oats?

That's not what I want them to show. I want them to TEACH them how to plan, shop, cook healthy foods. How to find recipes, how to tweak recipes, how to store produce, how to make snacks. I want them to learn the skills that I find integral to losing weight and keeping it off - skills which are basically ignored by the show.

Show them you don't have to live on steamed broccoli for the rest of your life. There are plenty of healthy, tasty alternatives. Maybe if the losers learned some of these skills, they'd be able to maintain their weight loss a little bit better.

Exercise alone can't do it.

Even if they don't SHOW it (because I guess cooking, shopping isn't as exciting to the American public as hot, dominatrix Jillian yelling at a huge man or riding his back like a cowgirl), they still should have time to TEACH IT while they are there full time at the ranch.