Helping Biggest Loser contests keep of the weight.
Home Schooled
This season on The Biggest Loser, 24 Hour Fitness trainers followed contestants home after they were voted off the show in an effort to re-enforce good eating and workout habits for the contestants and their families. What was their approach, and will it help them keep off the weight? Mark Barriere, manager of fitness education for 24 Hour Fitness, has the answers.
When they are on the Biggest Loser campus, they have a great group of trainers there and medical doctors, but now they are back home. Do they know what to do? What did they learn from their experience? We have to get those answers before we can help them.
Before stepping foot inside a contestant’s home, what was your approach?
The first day is important because you have to build some kind of relationship with this person. A lot of these people were distraught because they were kicked off the show. Some of these people were feeling very discouraged. They’ve been working their butts off for months, and now they find themselves at home, and then we come 2 or 3 days later.
My team members have all been trainers at one time. We want to help put this in perspective for them. The first thing we had to do was put together a protocol that we thought would work. We knew we had a day and a half with each contestant. We have these obese people who probably haven’t spent a lot of their lives exercising prior to this experience. They may have had good eating habits in one time, but not for a long time. And we’re putting them in situation where they are going to the other extreme, working 4-6 hours a day. Our goal was to help them achieve their goals after they leave the ranch.
We had a protocol: First find out where these people are: Prior to this experience, why weren’t they motivated to exercise, and why are they motivated now? It was about doing a basic assessment to find out what made these people tick and were they motivated by the show to reach their goals. Our goal was to make it as fun as possible and at the same time make sure we would take advantage of the time we were there.
Can you describe some of your most memorable experiences with the contestants?
I went into one home with three boys and mom and dad. When I met the mom in South Carolina, her husband was still on the show. The mother was disappointed she was voted off. We talked openly about that. But she seemed very positive, very excited to know we were there to help. As far as working out and continuing to push, she was ready to go, although she was 60 or 70 pounds from her goal.
What did you do during the day and a half with the family?
When the camera wasn’t on them, we wanted to re-enforce what they’d learned and keep them motivated. When they are not working out 4-6 hours a day, they may be losing 4-5 pounds a week and then later maybe even just 2 pounds a week.
We would take them through a home workout. 24 Hour Fitness sent them a bunch of workout equipment—dumbbells, steps, TRX tools, etc., so if they didn’t belong to a gym or didn’t live in a climate that was a practical alternative, we’d take them through a home workout.
We would take them through a kitchen assessment and offer healthier solutions and reiterate what they learned on the Biggest Loser campus in their own kitchens. What changes could we make and what different choices could they make? With a lot of people who have these issues, they can’t moderate easily, so we had to see whether they’d be able to moderate now that they are home—just one or two cookies, not seven or eight.
What do you do to communicate the messages to the entire family?
I encouraged the mother to bring her kids, and we had an outdoor bootcamp, and we even had some relay races. The point was that it could be a huge lifestyle change for you and your kids. You can incorporate these things and get them involved.
My goal is to get the family involved in the process because we know when the family is involved it’s going to have a chance to be more successful. These kids are growing and learning, and the active lifestyle was not there prior to this experience for the most part. Now, seeing these kids get involved with their parents.
Doing what we did, these kids were so excited, and it was great to watch these families work together. They will be eating differently and making different food choices and being more active in their lifestyles. When you get kids exciting with something like this, it makes a huge difference in the family’s life as a whole.
When you left the homes, how much confidence did you have that these contestants will be able to keep off the weight?
I think they have overcome such a huge hurdle and such extreme training. I can’t guarantee that they will all achieve their goals, but I think they are on the right track to do it. They feel like, ‘I busted my butt and I have already lost 40-50 pounds, and I’m not turning back.’
I think these guys have so much momentum going forward that I believe they achieve their goals.
