Kai also admits that she had a hard time keeping it real with her weight loss and reportedly at times even substituted coffee with sugar as a meal.

It wasn’t until she started losing her hair and had a family intervention that she stopped her extreme dieting practices as learned from the show.

At the season 3 finale, Kai Hibbard lost an impressive 118 pounds.  To date, she has gained back 70 of those pounds.

I would like to think that most of us who watch the show realize that it is “reality” television and so the show’s version of reality (through the editing geniuses) may not be and many times is not in fact, reality. Kai said that a fan came up to her and said she was frustrated because she could not lose 12 pounds in one week as Kai had on the show.

In my own weight loss journey, I have never expected to pull big numbers week after week. I think the most amount of weight I lost in a week was 4 pounds. But I *knew* that some of that weight was water-weight loss — easy to get off and easy to gain back. What about you guys? What is the most you have lost in 1-week’s time?

Dieting is a very tricky science that not only deals with calories in and calories out but also with your emotions, stress levels, hormones and the amount of sodium and water intake. There is a lot that can happen in a week.

What do you think about Kai’s claims about The Biggest Loser? Is she preaching to the choir? Or do you think that more people take the show at face-value than we realize?

Here is a recent interview with Kai on CBS’s Early Show:

I love the Biggest Loser!  Not because it shows a real look at weight loss (working out 8-10 hours a day isn’t exactly feasible for most of us regular folk)… but because it shows a real look at the human condition.  We can do what we put our minds to.  If a 526-pound person can WIN the Biggest Loser and weigh half of what he started at… then dang it… we can too.

I don’t knock anyone from having weight loss surgery but let’s be honest…. when you are 300+ pounds it almost seems as if surgery is one of the only alternatives.  There are so many negative nellys out there telling people that the bigger they are… the harder it will be for the weight to come off and also to maintain a healthy weight.  BUT… I feel like the Biggest Loser has changed that.

Anyway… back to the finale.

MICHAEL –WOW!

Ashley looks beautiful and Daris looks handsome!  They all look so great!

I came into the season being a big fan of the gray team.  However, Koli’s attitude started to bug toward the end.  Is it just me or does it seem that he was less-than-gracious winning the at-home prize (not to mention super jumpy)?  Why did Melissa seem so… abrasive when she got up on the scale?

I love this show!  It is definitely an endless well of inspiration!

What are your thoughts on the finale?

I found a great link today for FREE workout music!  I thought I would share it with you guys.  If you are anything like me… then you are always looking for new and great workout tunes!

This is the Biggest Loser Volume 2 workout mix.

Click THIS.

I read every single blog on my sidebar, every single day for inspiration.  Because I know that these people are going through what I am going through OR they have already gone through what I am going through and now their blogs sort of act as mentors (of sorts).

Not so long ago there was this stigma that if you weighed over 300 pounds you were well on your way to having to resort to gastric bypass surgery or some other form of weight loss surgery in order to lose weight.  It’s a scary thing.  As a woman who has had 3 c-sections, I can only say that I imagine these surgeries to be 10 times worse (and c-section recovery is no picnic.  Especially after the first few days when you are afraid to cough or poop).  A friend of mine who weighed over 600 pounds had gastric bypass surgery.  It was a Godsend and saved his life.  But even he admitted that a year long recovery and a drastic change to his diet was really extreme and hard.

So i’m on a mission to find other people who have lost half of themselves without surgery.  It’s an obsession really.  For the first time in a long time, I am seeing things with eyes wide open.  I have a picture of *the new me* in my mind (one without dark circles under her eyes. hydrolyze anyone?).  This picture is clear as day, I tell ya.  And I have come to the point where I don’t care if it takes me 1 year or 10 years to get down to 150, I will do it y’all.  I will.

And also… I would like to throw out there that I don’t think there is anything wrong with having weight loss surgery.  Everyone makes a choice as to what will work best for them.  It’s all related to weight loss and it’s all a journey no matter how you choose to get there. And it is definitely NOT the easy way out.  When they take out half of your stomach and re-route your intestines…. it is FAR from the easy way out.

4 weeks of my own journey has brought me to so many wonderful people.  Really.  I am so lucky to have found so many that I relate to in different ways.  And I love that we’re all rooting for each other!

I found a few memoirs that I want to read:

1. Half-Assed
2. The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl
3. My Other Body: A Memoir of Love, Life, Fat and Death

Has anyone read these?  If so… what did you think?

Lastly, i’m thinking of getting a BodyBugg.  You know, those black things that you attach to your arms as seen on The Biggest Loser?  Right.  That.  I’m not sure though.  There is a sale on them right now for $199.  But from what I have read, the cost doesn’t stop there.  You also have to pay a monthly fee to enter in your stats and upload your caloric burn for the day.  So it seems kind of expensive.

What do you guys think?  Is it worth it?  Is it like a magical piece of equipment or is it just a glorified pedometer?  Is there a better/cheaper alternative?  Basically, I want to track how many calories I burn in one day.

Nothing gets me more motivated than watching 16 people grunt it out at the “last chance workout”.

Last night, I made a pact with myself to watch the complete season 8 of the Biggest Loser.  This show can be hard to watch sometimes.  It seems I cry from start to finish.  It’s so moving to see these people and hear their stories.  I can relate to them to the core of my being.

This season marks one of the heaviest so far.  Bob and Jillian looked at their trainees with astonishment as each one went up to the scale.  They realized very quickly that they had their work cut out for them.

A few contestants stood out for me:

Rebecca Meyer,age 25: I could immediately relate to her as she cried during her story about how she was always known as “the fat girl with a pretty face”  and said that she is more than just a pretty face.  She stood up on the scale with last season’s contestant Amanda, and looked at Bob and Jillian with sad eyes and said “Help me… please”.  Jillian said… “You have to help yourself”.  Truer words have never been spoken.

Abby Rike, Age 35: This woman is a fighter.  She lost her husband and small children (ages 5-1/2 and 2-1/2 week old son) in a fatal car accident in 2006.  As she was telling her story, I cried long and hard.   Then, she went up on the scale and said that “THIS”  — losing the weight and continuing to live life… was the hardest thing she had ever done.  Waking up in the morning was the hardest thing.  Talk about inspiration!  Because quite frankly, if that had happened to me, I think I would be done with life.

Sean Algaier, age 29: Youth Pastor Sean, is a devoted father and husband and has come to the realization that if he doesn’t lose the weight, then he will die.  In the first episode of the season Sean had figured he was completely healthy.  Not so.  He was diagnosed with Type II diabetes.  I can relate to Sean as he seems to have this “glow” about him.  Perhaps because he seems to be an idealist in a cynical world?

Coach Mo, age 55: Coach Mo reminds me of Biggest Loser contestant Pete.  Except there is a worldly and compassionate look about Coach Mo.  He comes across as humble and determined.  He is one of my faves so far!

I haven’t seen this week’s episode of The Biggest Loser but I recorded it!  I will surely watch today!  This show inspires me so!