Month: January 2013

Jillian’s team continued to fall apart in The Biggest Loser Season 14 Episode 2 with the elimination of Nate.

Alison greets them in a room full of food and games. The team that comes in last in this trivia challenge will be locked in the room for 4.5 hours a day all week, the amount of time kids spend watching TV.

What percentage of Americans aged 2-19 years are obese?
17%. All teams are wrong.

What percentage of overweight children ages 5-10 have at least one high risk factor for heart disease?
60%. Everybody is wrong again.

What is the biggest single source of added sugar in children’s diets?
Sugar-sweetened drinks. All teams are correct.

Over the past three decades the childhood obesity rate in America has…
Tripled. All teams are correct.

What percentage of parents of obese children think their child is normal or even underweight?
75%. Red team is correct to win the challenge.

What percentage of daily calories for children aged 2-18 is wasted on empty calories from sugars and solid fats?
40%. Being the least over the correct answer, white team wins the tie breaker, as blue team will get the punishment.

Or so that’s how they view it. There’s no reason this needs to be a bad thing. All they have to do is just not eat too much junk, and they should be fine. Even if they were to spend that 4 hours on the couch, which they won’t do, it’s not like they won’t be utilizing the other 20 hours effectively. The worst thing is perhaps the mental torture from the temptation.

Bob’s not so lucky that his team has chosen a way to keep active while in this room. Rather, they’re all laying around and doing nothing but staring at the ceiling.

Jillian’s training her remaining two girls, and Francelina joins in. She learns that Francelina’s overeating started with her father’s alcoholism. She’s not surprised that a parent with a destructive addictive personality now has a child with an equally bad problem.

The kids all get a visit from a pediatric nutritionist. Biingo is told he needs to cut down on video games. Sunny receives a suggestion to switch to healthier carbs. Lindsey receives the worst news, that she’s developing diabetes and will probably have it within 2 years if she does not change.

At the carnival, they will crawl with 10 pound gumballs through a bubble gum pit. Reward is a year’s worth of groceries. David and Pam have not been medically cleared to compete, so Danni will compete on the blue team. They are in for a sticky mess. The lead is going back and forth, but the red team ends up winning by 1 point.

The first part of Jillian’s workout is a nice change of pace. No whining. That doesn’t last. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming of Pam crying and Jillian yelling.

At the end of the week, Bob’s team still has not made an effort at burning calories in the kids’ room. He will use this as a learning opportunity to show them they had what they needed all along, and they will have their last chance workout there using nothing more than what they had available to them throughout the week. With a deck of cards and four basic exercises (burpees, pushups, thrusters, and squats), they get as good a workout as they could have gotten with all the fancy equipment in the gym.

This week, there will be no red line, and the losing team will have to vote for the first time this season.

Jeff: 348 pounds (-11, 3.06%)
Alex: 221 pounds (-4, 1.78%)
David: 272 pounds (-6, 2.16%)
Michael: 396 pounds (-13, 3.18%)
Gina: 215 pounds (-8. 3.59%)
Blue Total: 1452 pounds (-42, 2.81%)

Francelina: 237 pounds (-5, 2.07%)
Joe: 317 pounds (-9, 2.76%)
Jackson: 300 pounds (-2, 0.66%)
Cate: 223 pounds (-2, 0.89%)
Lisa: 223 pounds (-2, 0.89%)
Red Total: 1300 pounds (-20, 1.52%)

Danni: 228 pounds (-6, 2.56%)
Pam: 210 pounds (-9, 4.11%)
White Total: 438 pounds (-15, 3.31%)

After two weeks at the top, the red team has lost the weigh in. As The Biggest Loser on the losing team, Joe is safe.

Jackson and Cate both fear they are the weakest link on their team.

Votes
Cate: Jackson
Jackson: Lisa
Francelina: Cate
Joe: Cate
Lisa: Cate

With 3 votes, Cate is not The Biggest Loser. From her starting weight of 237 pounds, Cate is down to 196 pounds today. She plans to run her first marathon next year.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 14 Episode 4, which airs Monday at 8/7c on NBC.

First Nikki quit in The Biggest Loser Season 14 Episode 1, then the white team’s woes continued when TC fell below the red line.

Not saving the surprise this time, it’s revealed at the top of the show that this week will feature another red line.

Bob has brought with him some half dressed people who he works out with to workout with his team. Dolvett has created a a workout complete with tires and sand. Jillian tells them they don’t need much equipment because the best tool they can use is their own body weight.

Having lost two people already, Jillian is worried. The girls who remain on her team are falling apart, sitting on the ground crying during the workout. At least Nate seems to be doing fine this week. For all the yelling, the drama of this week does not seem like it will last as long as last, though.

Dr. H’s first visit brings the usual bad news. Jackson stopped breathing for 41 seconds during his sleep. Pam’s blood has so much fat in it that it can’t be seen through. Gina has out of control diabetes with minimal chance of being cured by medication. Michael’s arteries are that of a man in his late 70s.

Antonio Gates from the San Diego Chargers and Bingo, Sunny, and Lindsay join them at the challenge. The timed event will judge their speed, agility, and strength. Reward for the teen on the winning team will be a Play 60 NFL visit for their school, which will receive $5,000. Pam has not been cleared to compete, bringing the white team down to two.

The first quarter is a shuttle race. Danni gives the white team the lead by 2 seconds over the second place red team. The second quarter is an obstacle course they must jump/weave through. Danni wins again, extending her lead over the red team to 7 seconds. The third quarter is the gauntlet. Jeff wins for the blue team, putting them 4 seconds behind white team, with the red team pretty much out of it. The final quarter combines all of the previous skills. Nate places second again, this time behind Joe, which is enough to win the challenge for the white team.

The kids will not be weighing in during the season, but what they can do is take a fitness test both now and toward the end. It goes without saying that their initial results are going to be far below the average for their ages.

Hoping to show her team that she’s not being overly hard on them, Jillian joins Bob’s team in the last chance workout. He pushes them just as much as she does. He probably yells less, though.

David: 278 pounds (-9, 3.14%)
Gina: 223 pounds (-7, 3.04%)
Alex: 225 pounds (-6, 2.60%)
Michael: 409 pounds (-14, 3.31%)
Jeff: 359 pounds (no change)
Blue Team Total: 1494 pounds (-36, 2.35%)

Cate: 220 pounds (-5, 2.22%)
Francelina: 242 pounds (-6, 2.42%)
Jackson: 302 pounds (-4, 1.31%)
Joe: 326 pounds (-12, 3.55%)
Lisa: 225 pounds (-5, 2.17%)
Red Team Total: 1315 pounds (-32, 2.38%)

Pam: 219 pounds (-8, 3.52%)
Danni: 234 pounds (-5, 2.09%)
Nathan: 334 pounds (-5, 1.47%)
White Team Total: 787 pounds (-18, 2.24%)

I thought for sure Jeff was a goner. Pushing his team below the red line by just 1 pound, Nathan has been eliminated. Yet again, without a twist, there’s no way he would have been voted out. Jillian’s got her work cut out for her now.

From his starting weight of 359 pounds, Nate is down to 299 pounds today. He concludes the night with a marriage proposal.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 14 Episode 3, which airs Monday at 8/7c on NBC.

The Biggest Loser on Sunday night? This one caught me off guard. Once we’re done with this special night and time, the show moves to its new regularly scheduled time slot, Mondays at 8, for a quick 12 episode run ending in March. At least they didn’t shrink it to an hour or put it on Fridays, but NBC has made an effort to significantly deemphasize this once high flyer and opted to squeeze it wherever they can fit it.

On a more positive note, after having quit (again), Jillian Michaels will be returning this season to train alongside Bob Harper and Dolvett Quince. At least we also don’t have to deal with the group of whiners who so willingly and deliberately spoiled much of last season.

In addition to the 15 contestants, three teenagers will participate (one with each trainer). Two of these kids (Noah “Bingo” Gray) and Lindsay Bravo) are 13 years old, and one of them (Sanjana “Sunny” Chandrasekar) is 16. They will remain on the show all season and will spend most of their time at home, though they will be at the ranch for some time with their trainers challenge participation. Their function is to serve as ambassadors for childhood obesity.

The 15 contestants are:

Alexandra “Alex” Reid, 24: 240 pounds
Cate Laughlan, 27: 237 pounds
Danielle “Danni” Allen, 26: 258 pounds
David Jones, 51: 307 pounds
Francelina Morillo, 25: 267 pounds
Gina McDonald, 47: 245 pounds
Jackson Carter, 21: 328 pounds
Jeff Nichols, 24: 388 pounds
Joe Ostaszewski, 43: 364 pounds
Lisa Rambo, 37: 246 pounds pounds
Michael Dorsey, 34: 444 pounds
Nate Montgomery, 25: 359 pounds
Nichole “Nikki” Davis, 26: 280 pounds
Pamela Geil, 43: 237 pounds
Thomas “TC” Pool, 31: 376 pounds

Upon arrival at the ranch, they are provided team assignments right away.

Blue Team (Bob): Alex, David, Gina, Jeff, Michael, Bingo
White Team (Jillian): Danni, Nate, Nikki, Pam, TC, Sunny
Red Team (Dolvett): Cate, Francelina, Jackson, Joe, Lisa, Lindsay

Once inside the gym, people are throwing up and fainting within 5 minutes. Jackson goes down and stays down.

Nate keeps getting up, but he falls right back down. TC follows suit. After Nikki says her knee hurts, Jillian throws her out, too, leaving her with two people to train. She warns them this is just the start, and she’ll ask them to leave the ranch for good if they can’t get their act together by the end of the week.

Suspended in mid air, the kids will tell the adults where to find a set of letters in the ball pit. Reward is a 5 pound advantage at the weigh in. White and blue teams are exchanging the lead as the challenge goes on. White team ends up winning, which perhaps will save them from the wrath of Jillian.

After a week on the ranch, the kids will now take what they’ve learned back home, but they will be back from time to time.

At the last chance workout, both Nate and TC give the effort Jillian expects. Nikki, who’s been moping around all week, is another story. She realizes she’s not ready to change. Given the choice between walking out the door and doing the workout, she chooses to quit. We’ve seen people quit before, some quicker than others, but this has to be a record.

There is no yellow line. The person with the lowest percentage of weight loss on the losing team will automatically be eliminated. Harsh way to start the season.

TC: 361 pounds (-15, 3.99%)
Pam: 227 pounds (-10, 4.22%)
Nathan: 339 pounds (-20, 5.57%)
Danni: 239 pounds (-19, 7.36%)
White Team Total: 1166 pounds (-64, -5, 5.61%)

Lisa: 230 pounds (-16, 6.50%)
Jackson: 306 pounds (-22, 6.71%)
Francelina: 248 pounds (-19, 7.12%)
Cate: 225 pounds (-12, 5.06%)
Joe: 338 pounds (-26, 7.14%)
Red Team Total: 1347 pounds (-95, 6.59%)

Jeff: 359 pounds (-29, 7.47%)
Michael: 423 pounds (-21, 4.73%)
David: 287 pounds (-20, 6.51%)
Alex: 231 pounds (-9, 3.75%)
Gina: 230 pounds (-15, 6.12%)
Blue Team Total: 1530 pounds (-94, 5.79%)

The white team has lost the weigh in, and as the person with the lowest percentage of weight loss on that team, TC has fallen below the red line and been eliminated. Had there been a vote, I don’t imagine that would have been the outcome. They might have been better off just letting Nikki stick around for a little while longer.

From his starting weight of 376 pounds, TC has lost 56 pounds to weigh 320 today. He plans to honor his promise to his son to lose the weight.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 14 Episode 2, which airs Monday at 8/7c on NBC.