Biggest Loser finalist Richard Roach: 'I was happier when I was fat'

Biggest Loser contestants Richard and Amber (QLD) have fallen victim to online abuse and death threats. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

The Daily Telegraph reports

Biggest Loser light blue team member Richard Roach has revealed that, despite losing more than a third of his body weight, he was happier before participating in the reality TV show.

The resident "bad guy" says his new slim frame has come at a price, with he and 20-year-old daughter Amber becoming the victims of constant online abuse and death threats.

"I'm a tough bloke and I can take whatever is thrown at me, but the (online) abuse my daughter has received has brought me to my knees," the 45-year-old father tells Woman's Day magazine.

"She's too scared to go to work, because people are threatening to bash her. She now says this is the worst experience of her life."

With the series gearing up to the finale tomorrow night, the finalist tells the mag he has been unfairly vilified and "hung out to dry" for the sake of Channel 10's ratings and is nothing like the bully he is made out to be.

Roach says he originally agreed to go on The Biggest Loser to help his clinically depressed daughter, who weighed 112kg and was a social recluse when the show started.

Both father and daughter have achieved their weight goals. Richard has lost more than a third of his 139kg but says the negative reaction from Biggest Loser fans, both in public and online, has strained his relationship with his family.

Biggest Loser fat farm irks winner Adro Sarnelli

Adriano 'Adro' Sarnelli from The Biggest Loser / Pic: Channel Ten. Source: The Daily Telegraph

 

 

The Daily Telegraph reports

The winner of the inaugural first local The Biggest Loser, Australia, Adro Sarnelli, has hit out at the show's producers over plans to open "Australia's first-ever weight loss retreat", saying that he has been operating a same-minded obesity rehabilitation centre for the last five years.

Last week it was announced that the Golden Door Health Retreat on the Gold Coast will undergo a complete overhaul and be re-branded The Biggest Loser Retreat as part of a partnership with series producer Shine Australia. It will offer services seen on the weight-loss show and be promoted as the first of its kind.

However, Sarnelli, who won the TV competition in 2006 after losing 70kg, used his $200,000 prizemoney as a start-up for his own retreat, The New Me in Melbourne, which opened in 2008 and offers two 12-week courses for people who weigh more than 100kg.

"We set this up privately and we've had to work really hard to get this far,'' Sarnelli said yesterday.

"When you have a big corporate like The Biggest Loser come in and think they can start at the top is kind of like putting shit on the little guy.''

Sarnelli said he used the "voids'' of the show to build his business. "There was lots missing from The Biggest Loser, such as psychological support, long-term planning, teaching you how to cook and shop - the things that are prevalent to keeping the weight off,'' he said.

"A production company didn't teach me that and that's what made me want to teach and help others.

"I just hope this retreat is actually about helping people and not about making a TV program.''

There was no comment from a spokesman for Golden Door said its services differed from what Sarnelli was offering all Australians.

The new retreat will open in July.

Kevin Moore The Biggest Loser's heaviest contestant taken to hospital

Kevin "Big Kev" Moore, pictured with his mother Rosemary, has taken to hospital after suffering from an irregular heartbeat. Picture: Channel Ten

Holly Byrnes, The Daily Telegraph, reports

The world’s heaviest contestant in the history of The Biggest Loser has been rushed to a Sydney hospital with an irregular heartbeat after being filmed exercising for the Channel 10 program’s finale.

Kevin 'Big Kev' Moore was treated by ambulance paramedics at an oval in Coogee then taken to a nearby hospital as a "precautionary measure", a Channel 10 spokeswoman confirmed.

The 27-year-old, who weighed in at 254 kilograms at the start of this year’s The Biggest Loser: The Next Generation had been eliminated from the TV competition but was filming a catch-up package likely to be aired during the show’s finale scheduled to air next Tuesday night.

The health scare caps Moore’s controversial time on the program, which had sought to give the battler and his mother Rosemary Reynolds the tools to tackle his life-threatening obesity.

Mrs Reynolds, who also struggled with her weight at 100kgs, clashed with the show’s trainers Michelle Bridges, Shannan Ponton and The Commando, spraying them with f-bombs in an explosive tirade when they questioned Moore's diet.

The pair had been used to heavily promote this year’s family series but fell below the weekly `yellow line’ at weigh-ins just three weeks into the TV contest.

The mother-and-son team lost a combined 23.9kgs while on the show, but claim they have kept up a healthier routine, including working, out at home.

Michelle Bridges gives Who Magazine tell-all on Commando 'affair'

Are they on or not? Michelle Bridges and Steve 'The Commando' Willis. Picture: Getty Images

Amy Harris, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Just when you thought the Michelle Bridges/Commando soap opera couldn't get any more tedious.

Prepare for another round of non-admission/denials tomorrow from Michelle Bridges who Confidential hears sat down with Who Magazine this week for a 'tell-all' interview.

Only we hear it isn't so much of a 'tell-all' as a whole new series of ways to admit to something while not admitting anything (still with us?).

Confidential understands the line this time from the recently separated Biggest Loser trainer is that she is 'ready to return to dating' while not committing to a relationship with Steve 'The Commando' Willis - her social handbag and rumoured lover of the past few weeks.

It's understood Bridges, who is believed to have racked up a personal fortune of around $17 million on the back of her wildly successful online weight-loss 'challenge', will also undertake a round of radio interviews tomorrow morning to shill the for the mag.

Perhaps these may provide little to no insight on the "is-it-or-isn't-it fictional' romance.

While the two TV trainers from the The Biggest Loser seem to be happy to keep people guessing (while enjoying some new-found media attention), there is another rumoured magazine tell-all in the works which may have a little more meat on the bone.

Confidential hears Woman's Day is scrambling to get up a sit-down with Bridges' ex-husband ... though it's not the one you think.

Rather than extracting a tell-all from Bridge's estranged husband of nine years Bill Moore, with whom she is understood to be on very amicable terms, it's understood the mag is poised to publish an interview with a little-known first husband to whom she was married briefly during her early 20s.

Perhaps he might shed some light on the current brouhaha though we learned not to hold our collective breath.

The Biggest Loser TV show 'helpful', 'not humiliating', says Channel Ten boss

Michelle Bridges with Biggest Loser contestants. Picture: Channel Ten

Channel 10 bosses have defended The Biggest Loser against claims of bullying, saying the show does not subject contestants to humiliating challenges and helps viewers lead healthier lives.

An opinion article on The Biggest Loser published yesterday by adelaidenow columnist Petra Starke, which accused the show of bullying and exploiting overweight contestants for ratings, has provoked an angry denial from the network.

In a letter to the editor published in The Advertiser today, Ten's director of corporate and public communications Neil Shoebridge said Ms Starke's article was "incorrect and unfair", "misleading", "ridiculous" and "defamatory".

He denied the show deliberately embarrassed its contestants for entertainment value, saying it helped both them and viewers to become healthier.

"We do not subject our contestants to `humiliating challenges' as your article suggests. We are not in the business of humiliating contestants," he said.

"Contestants chose to take part in the program because they need help transforming their lifestyles and their bodies.

"In fact, The Biggest Loser has a long history of helping people - both contestants and viewers - address their weight issues and lead healthier lives."

This season, contestants have been secretly filmed to reveal their bad eating habits, been made to jump off a cliff into the ocean and have had buckets of water dumped on their heads for failing to hold their arm in the air.

Ms Starke's column yesterday attracted more than 75 comments from adelaidenow readers who overwhelmingly agreed with her criticism of the show.

"I agree totally - we are trying to stamp out bullying in the schoolyard and in the workplace and yet a program like Biggest Loser promotes bullying behaviour by belittling those participants involved," one read.

Another comment read: "You have hit the nail on the head Ms Starke - these people all have eating disorders. Shaming and humiliating them is not an acceptable `treatment' method."

Other commenters described the show as "offensive", "cruel" and "a horrific abuse of people who are desperately unwell".

Mr Shoebridge said Ten took its "duty of care" to contestants "very seriously".

"The well-being of our contestants is always our number one concern," he said.

"All contestants have, at all times, continuous support from Network Ten, the production company, the trainers and a highly qualified medical team."

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Ten's corporate and public communications director Neil Shoebridge's letter to the editor

Dear Editor,

Your opinion piece "Ratings race feeds cycle of bullying" (April 4) is disappointing and misleading.

It is incorrect and unfair to accuse Network Ten of pretending The Biggest Loser is "some sort of important community health service", and to describe The Biggest Loser as "a tragic freak show for ratings" and "one big schoolyard bullying session" is completely misleading. If your writer had contacted Network Ten, we would have been more than happy to discuss her extreme view of the program.

To insinuate that Network Ten has been involved in creating and perpetuating a cycle of bullying is a very serious and defamatory accusation with legal implications, which Ten strenuously denies. To suggest the program is "bad" for the contestant's health is completely false, while describing The Biggest Loser as "the modern equivalent of throwing the Christians to the lions" is ridiculous.

Network Ten is fully aware of the duty of care we have towards all contestants on The Biggest Loser, a duty of care which we take very seriously. The well-being of our contestants is always our number one concern. All contestants have, at all times, continuous support from Network Ten, the production company, the trainers and a highly qualified medical team.

We do not subject our contestants to "humiliating challenges" as your article suggests. We are not in the business of humiliating contestants.

Contestants chose to take part in the program because they need help transforming their lifestyles and their bodies. In fact, The Biggest Loser has a long history of helping people both contestants and viewers address their weight issues and lead healthier lives.

Regards,

Neil Shoebridge, Director of Corporate and Public Communications

Baby steps for biggest Loser trainer Shannan Ponton

Kylie and Shannan Ponton are expecting their first child in July. Source: Herald Sun

The Herald Sun reports

He may have lost all four members of the blue team, but Biggest Loser trainer Shannan Ponton is now preparing for his toughest challenge to date - fatherhood.

The muscle-bound star of the Ten reality show is expecting his first child in early July with wife of two years, Kylie.

Clucky Ponton said he couldn't wait to start training with the new addition, with the couple choosing not to find out the baby's sex until the birth.

"I want to get some of those little baby boxing gloves," Ponton laughed.

"They'll definitely be learning the ropes early."

Eliminated Ryan still has goals

Biggest Loser contestant Ryan Preuss was eliminated last night.

The Daily Mercury reports

Ryan Preuss holds record he is not proud of.

The 29-year-old from Brisbane was the heaviest Biggest Loser contestant in the history of the weight loss show.

With a starting weight of 240 kg he described hearing he held the record as "soul destroying".

But despite getting eliminated after yesterday's weigh in, Brisbane's Ryan Preuss is well on his way to reaching his goal weight.

On the show he lost 34kg and hopes to lose another 40 to 50kg before finale.

"I want to be 150-160kg, that would just be fantastic," he said with excitement.

"I think I will look pretty different.

"It's going to be hard work but I am on my way."

Before the show Preuss used to consume 6,000 calories a day, more than three times the recommended calorie intake for men.

In a week he devoured four cooked chickens, 12 chocolate bars, four family blocks of chocolate as well as pies, sausage rolls and litres of Coca-Cola.

These days what he eats is worlds apart.

Now is daily diet consists of two Weet-Bix for breakfast, 100kg of ham or chicken for a snacks, a ham salad for lunch and 200kg of chicken or pork with veggies for dinner.

"From the party food I was eating to eating this is a big change," he admitted.

"The funny thing is it is the food I was eating but without the junk food and in the correct quantities.

"I used to eat chicken and I still do, now I just eat the right amount.

"It's all about just replacing the junk."

It hasn't been an easy journey since leaving the house but he is not giving up.

"It's been a roller coaster, I'll be honest with you," he said.

"It's not as easy as I thought it would be but it builds character."

The hardest thing he has struggled with is the work/life/exercise balance.

"I thought it would be simple, I would go to the gym before work, work and then go to the gym after work but it's harder to do than I anticipated."

He works out everyday doing four sessions with his personal trainer and on the other days he sweats through 45 to an hour of cardio.

He said the biggest lesson he learnt during his time in the house was you can only control what you can control.

"You can't worry about everything else.

"Also I am a lot happier and more positive now which aids in weight loss."

Preuss entered the house looking for love and he said despite still being single he was on the right track to achieve that.

"It's about loving yourself first and I am learning to do that. I have more confidence."

Biggest Loser screens on Ten at 7pm Monday to Friday.

Through thick and thin

Tiffiny Hall is in charge of the white team in The Biggest Loser.

Frances Atkinson, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports

Even Tiffiny Hall has her bad days…

Just as overweight people might fear being judged on their appearance alone, Tiffiny Hall might find herself reduced to a cliche as the blonde, bubbly, reality TV fitness instructor. Assumptions on both counts would be wrong.

Sitting in one of Channel Ten's boardrooms, Hall has spent the day talking to media about her second season on The Biggest Loser. Last October, 16 single, obese contestants entered the TBL camp to begin their transformation as the dwindling contestants (men over 30, men under 30, women over 30, women under 30) will keep working, with the help of their team trainer, until April.

Hall is in charge of the White team, which is made up of four young women deeply unhappy about their weight and the negative impact it's had on their lives. Aside from the obvious, they all share a fear of never finding a significant other.

Some have been single for years, others have never been kissed - they are raw and vulnerable, especially 21-year-old Selena Brown from Darwin, who has battled with her weight since she was a child.

For Hall, who grew up with a dad who was an Olympic trainer in taekwondo, exercise was always part of the family routine. ''I have memories of waking up early and going for a run with dad,'' Hall says.

''We'd get home and the juicer was always buzzing. It was built into our lives, so it was odd to join The Biggest Loser and meet people who thought that wasn't normal.''

Hall says the key to working with her emotionally fragile group - knowing when to push them and how hard - comes down to asking questions. ''My training sessions are like interviews: 'Why are you here, what do you want to achieve, what are you feeling now?' They need to be honest. They need to admit that when they look in the mirror, they don't like what they see.''

It's difficult to imagine Hall could empathise with a situation so removed from her reality. ''I don't care what weight you are, I have days where I feel fat. I work on camera in white Lycra. I know I eat healthy but sometimes it's just irrational.

''I'm not a model. I don't look like a TV presenter - I've got muscles and a different sort of body type. We've all had the voice in your head that says, 'You're no good. You're going to fail.' Every woman knows what that feels like.''

The message she tells herself is the same one she shares with her team: they have to work on the voice in their head and make it constructive, nurturing and positive.

As seen in an early episode, training sessions can be physically and emotionally taxing and when a member of the White team (Rebekah) threw a steel rod over Hall's head, the exchange became heated.

''She was frustrated and that manifested in a outburst. It's very common. But it was dangerous and that's why I sent her out of the room.

''I work with people who don't know what an elevated heart rate feels like. They don't like feeling the discomfort that comes with training, like getting sore muscles.''

What Hall wants most is for her team to feel a sense of achievement; it's something the 28-year-old has found herself but not in the fitness business.

Last year, she wrote her first young-adult novel, an action-adventure story titled White Ninja, and she's recently signed a five-book deal with HarperCollins. ''If I could write fiction full time,'' she says, ''I'd happily hang up my Lycra.''

Excuses, excuses ...

1. I'm too busy/tired

It's tough but make an appointment with yourself to train. Ten minutes is better than nothing. Train every second day. Start with three one-hour sessions over seven days.

2. It's too late. I have too much weight to lose

Get a trainer and, if you can't afford it, get one trainer and split it among a few people. Up your water intake and eat three balanced meals and three healthy snacks a day.

3. I have injuries

Be sensible. Work in the boundaries of your injuries.

Excess Baggage is ... the biggest loser

Go ... the latest move for Channel Nine's Excess Baggage. Photo: Channel Nine

Michael Idato, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports

The ratings year has not even officially begun and it has claimed its first scalp.

The Nine Network's heavily promoted Excess Baggage has lived up to its title. The network will shed the show from its schedule, relegating it to the digital channel Go from next Monday.

"We have decided to move Excess Baggage," Nine's head of programming and production Andrew Backwell said. "The show has performed below expectations, so it is a move we believe will provide the best possible audience for the show."

Nine launched the show with huge fanfare, and a production and marketing price tag of over $20 million, confident it would topple Ten's The Biggest Loser and cement Nine's control of the 7pm timeslot.

Nine has been agitating to control the slot following two big hits there last year, the property renovation series The Block and the local version of the US reality format The Celebrity Apprentice.

What Nine did not bank on was reality/weight loss genre fatigue and splitting the audience by putting two similar shows up against each other.

It also failed to accurately measure the popularity of Home & Away, which also airs in the slot, and whose audience loyalty, after 24 years, is flexible but ultimately unbreakable. That show is winning the slot with over one million viewers and, on most nights, a commanding margin.

Excess Baggage, which follows a group of celebrities and non-celebrities, on a weight-loss boot camp, made a softer-than-expected debut with only 880,000 viewers.

Ten had rushed its own show, The Biggest Loser, into the slot a week earlier in the hope that capturing an audience early would give it an edge. That move, costly in the first week with weaker-than-expected numbers, has proved to be a winning one.

Ten, with a lower audience base and lower audience volume expectations for the show, is far more easily able to weather weak numbers in the slot than Nine which would, off the back of The Block and Celebrity Apprentice, charged advertisers a premium for access to the show.

The Biggest Loser is now drawing around 800,000 viewers a night, while Excess Baggage languishes around the 600,000 mark. When Excess Baggage departs the slot, Ten could realistically build The Biggest Loser to the million-viewer threshhold.

Speculation has dogged Excess Baggage since its launch that Nine would pull it. Of the three commercial networks, Nine has overtaken Seven in recent years as the fastest to hit the eject button on underperforming new shows.

Last year's Ben Elton's Live from Planet Earth was pulled after only three broadcasts. Another show, The Joy of Sets, was pushed out of its prime-time slot after four weeks. Clever (2006) and Our Place (2005) were pulled after five weeks.

Nine also holds the record for fastest cancellation in history - 1992's Doug Mulray's Naughtiest Home Videos was axed while it was still on air, only 35 minutes into its hour, and on the command of the network's then-owner Kerry Packer.

Seven's record was almost equally impressive: Let Loose Live (2005; two weeks), The Comedy Sale (1993; three weeks), The Hamish & Andy Show (2004; six weeks) and The Big News (1999; seven weeks).

Although Excess Baggage has delivered low numbers for Nine, they will not hurt the network's overall performance until the 2012 ratings year officially begins this Sunday.

The short-term replacement will be repeats of The Big Bang Theory, but Nine has leaned very heavily on that show in the past to plug gaps in its schedule.

Since January 1 this year Nine has screened 77 episodes of the show. Three more will screen tonight, two on Nine and one on Go.

Experts warn against quick blitz on kilos

The Biggest Loser versus Excess Baggage. Source: Supplied

Marianne Betts, The Herald Sun, reports

WHILE popular television weight-loss shows inspire viewers to shed excess kilos, experts are cautioning against sudden, extreme regimens.

The verdict appears to be that Excess Baggage may have the edge over The Biggest Loser in showcasing a more rounded approach.

The AMA warns engaging in extreme physical activity unsupervised may increase the risk of heart attacks and falls.

AMA president Dr Steve Hambleton said the shows did inspire people to lose weight, showing it was possible via changes to diet and exercise.

However, people should make slow, steady and sustainable changes, aiming to lose up to 2-3kg a month, Dr Hambleton said.

"The unusual way these programs go about weight loss is not suitable for the general public, not without risks," he said.

"The average overweight person ... may have diabetes, coronary artery disease or osteoarthritis and may not be suitable for an intense program."

Nutrition and fitness expert Donna Aston said Excess Baggage had a bigger focus on both nutrition and the psychology of weight loss.

"It's hard to sustain weight loss without changing our mindset," she said.

Excess Baggage contestants also had their body composition measured to indicate whether muscle, water or fat had been lost, rather than just total weight loss, Ms Aston said.

Those to lose weight quickly often shed muscle, which slowed the metabolism and made it more difficult to keep the kilos off long-term, she claimed.

Dietitian Jemma O'Hanlon said Excess Baggage took a more realistic approach to weight loss by not counting kilojoules or dictating diets.

"It's a much more educational process, teaching them to make lifestyle changes," Ms O'Hanlon said.

Obesity Policy Coalition senior adviser Jane Martin said shows tended to remove people from a real-life environment.

"It's like weight-loss rehab, but people are then coming out into an obesogenic environment, which is going to undermine them," Ms Martin said.

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THE TRUTH

DO
* Take heart that there is a potential solution to being overweight
* Make changes by exercising more
* Improve your dietary habits


DON'T
* Embark on a really intense exercise program without first having a medical check-up
* Expect rapid results - slow steady weight loss is more sustainable, aim for up to two to three kilos a month
* Adopt a fad diet, instead eat a healthy balanced one

Channels look to weight loss war to beef up ratings

Colin Vickery, The Herald Sun, reports

EXCESS Baggage contestants are more likely to achieve long-term weight loss than those on The Biggest Loser.

Channel Nine's Baggage is to go gut-to-gut with Ten's The Biggest Loser in a 7pm TV weight loss war, starting this month.

Loser, hosted by Hayley Lewis, returns on Monday while Baggage, presented by Kate Ceberano, will start in the same time slot on January 29.

The shows have different formats. Loser's 16 contestants are split into teams of four led through gruelling challenges by their trainers Michelle Bridges, Shannon Ponton, Tiffiny Hall, and Steve Willis.

Baggage pairs eight ordinary Aussies with eight celebrities, including football legend Robert "Dipper" DiPierdomenico, Beaconsfield miner Brant Webb, and the former host of Loser, Ajay Rochester.

Baggage concentrates on the contestants' emotional as well as physical baggage, with a health team that includes a psychologist, Dr Tim Sharp.

Contestants are guaranteed to lose weight on both shows. Keeping it off is the biggest challenge.

That is where Baggage might have the edge, say the experts.

"A psychologist can clear (emotional) blocks from the past (so) it is much more likely that the weight they lose will stay off," psychologist Dr Janet Hall said.

VicHealth nutrition manager Julie Woods agreed.

"It is a really good step to deal with those underlying issues," she said. "Scientific studies have shown that if you take a multi-pronged approach - diet, exercise and psychology - it results in greater weight loss."

Baggage contestant Lana Pilakis, who is teamed with DiPierdomenico, is a Loser fan but decided to compete on Nine's show because "the solutions would be more long term".

Pilakis has admitted that, at 31, she has never been kissed and "I don't want to end up alone".

She praises Dipper for giving her the confidence to turn her life around.

Loser contestant Michelle Cortesao admits she was bullied in high school because of her weight and has never had a boyfriend.

"I don't feel like I love myself yet," Cortesao said.