Biggest Loser 6 (NBC) Fall 2008

[toque]

I felt the exact same way... They said too that they weren't in it for the money and then stated that Heba was staying because she was motivated to finish this. If you aren't concerned about the money, shouldn't the motivated one be the one to go home, because they can motivate themselves to continue on their own? No, it seemed to me that they kept Heba there because they felt she was the one who could compete to win it. They as much said so.

I like Jillian's teams better as well, even if they don't do their homework.

I'm cheering for Colleen, or either of the purple team, especially.

[Brendan]

Originally Posted by Dennis

Then, right after they announced Ed would leave and Alison told him he still had a shot at the 100K, Heba said, "Put his name on the check". But they weren't concerned or motivated by the money, right?

I laughed at that comment because Ed and Heba proved to be good at some of the challenges but they fell below the yellow line TWICE in three weeks. I still remember the first week, how confident/cocky the Green and Orange teams were about being "threats" and then they fell below the yellow line. It was one of the biggest wake up calls in Biggest Loser history, and only two weeks later Orange was right back to thinking they were the superstars.

Has anyone else noticed how fast the men are dropping this season? Five out of the first six people sent home have been men - and they started with less men as well. Not that I mind, I really like all of Jillian's ladies.

[Erika]

[Erika]

Ed Brantley dishes on his ouster from 'The Biggest Loser: Families'

By John Bracchitta, 10/13/2008

When Ed Brantley, a 31-year-old chef from Raleigh, NC, was eliminated from The Biggest Loser: Families after not losing any weight at the show's fourth weigh-in, his wife Heba Salama, a 30-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative, briefly debated keeping him on the show because she felt he was due for a big weight loss the following week. She was right.

"That next week that I got back [home] I dropped ten pounds," Brantley told Reality TV World during a media conference call last Thursday. "I weighed myself seven days after the day I got home -- the day I got off the plane -- seven days after that. I had lost ten pounds."

Despite the drop, Brantley added did not regret the decision to leave the ranch so his wife could remain.

According to Brantley, his lack in Week 4 weight loss had not been a reflection of a lack of effort on his part.

"The body does betray you sometimes," he told reporters. "I may have lost a lot of fat weight that week, but I probably also gained a lot of muscle weight that probably just canceled out my weight loss for the week."

One regret Brantley did acknowledge was his team's decision to not follow through with his initial statement that his team wouldn't vote for the elimination of Tom Desrochers Sr. and L.T. Desrochers, the Gray Team members that were sent home after the show's second weigh-in.

"Everybody else in the house had voted for them anyway, even the people on their own team. So instead of ostracizing ourselves from the entire rest of the group based on those grounds, we just went with the rest of the group as to, you know, kind of save face with the rest of them," he told Reality TV World. "Don't get me wrong, I love LT and Big Tom to death. They are some of my favorite people and also it wouldn't really have mattered anyway."

"I really wanted to vote for them," Brantley explained. "In retrospect I wish I just, you know, would've gone with my heart and voted to keep them there even if it was our only vote and it would've been the only vote for them."

Brantley said he now weighs 245 lbs. -- down 90 lbs. from his original 335 lbs. weigh-in weight -- and has a 34-inch waist. Both are in striking distance of his final goals of weighing 180 lbs. with a 32-inch waist.

While he told reporters that he had felt a definitive change in his energy levels since going on The Biggest Loser, he said that he had not truly noticed how different he looked he watched the post-show update that aired at the conclusion of Wednesday night's broadcast.

"Honestly it really wasn't until last night when I saw [the update], you know, the transformation like stuff on film. And I was like 'Wow. I was like really fat and now I'm like not so fat anymore,'" he told reporters.

Brantley attributed his ongoing weight-loss success to maintaining the workout techniques and discipline he had learned while on The Biggest Loser ranch.

"Out there [on The Biggest Loser ranch] you were forced into a situation of complete discipline. There's always a camera on you, so there's no sneaking food... you can sneak the food but somebody is going to show you being a dummy on TV, and you don't want to do that," he told reporters. "So basically I just - I wasn't like pretending there was like cameras in the corner or anything like that. But I just - I took that home with me."

Brantley said he'd also changed the way he goes about working as a chef. In addition to now limiting his taste-testing to specialized orders, he now also spits out the food instead of eating it.

"I'll put it in my mouth but then I'll spit it into a napkin and throw it away, wash my hands, whatever," he told reporters. Then everything else like, you know, my classics as it were, it's all recipes. It's all like written down... I know I don't have to taste it."

Brantley added that, as a food addict, he has also worked out a loose schedule that still lets him have the occasional indulgence -- so long as he makes up for it in the gym the following day.

"I'll just really try to save it up until like, you know, 10 or 13 days and then just have a day -- not where I'll really like blow it out or do anything crazy like eat a dozen donuts or anything like that -- But I might have a hot dog at the fairgrounds kind of thing or just something to just tame the demons, you know," he told reporters.

In addition to his diet struggles, Brantley also had to deal with his separation from his still-competing wife, who he wasn't able to communicate with.

"I think the only update I got was like every week that I didn't see her I was just like yes, she's still there. Awesome," he told reporters.

Brantley said he couldn't provide specifics about his reunion with Heba but insisted it would be memorable.

"Our reunion is - when you get to see it you're just probably not even going to believe it," he told reporters. "You're going to be doing back flips. You're going to be like up in a chair, like screaming. That's just all I can say about it."

Source: Realitytvworld.com

[Erika]

Shellay Cremen talks about her elimination from 'The Biggest Loser'

By John Bracchitta, 10/16/2008

Shellay Cremen, a 51-year-old stay-at-home mom from Royal Oak, MI who was eliminated from The Biggest Loser: Families on this week's broadcast, wasn't upset about the twist that left her on a different team than her daughter Amy Cremen, a 26-year-old purchasing department representative from Auburn Hills, MI.

In fact, she was pleased with it.

"I was happy because I actually got to stay with my same team members, we just gained [Phillip Parham] and lost Amy," Cremen told Reality TV World during a media conference call on Wednesday.

Cremen said that Amy's success throughout the competition -- which undoubtedly made her appealing to the other team -- as well as their sharing of a room and the addition of a male contestant to her previously all-female group had eased the transition.

"I was sad for the fact that she was not going to be around there, just with her good weight loss numbers," she told Reality TV World. [But] we still shared a room together and we were still there together, so it wasn't as bad as if she had to leave."

"[Amy] has amazed me because she is so much stronger and more athletic than I ever could have imagined," she added to reporters later. I really think that she, in my opinion, has a very good chance at winning."

Another contestant that Cremen became extremely close with during her time at The Biggest Loser ranch was Black team teammate Coleen Skeabeck, a 23-year-old receptionist from Cleveland, OH who regretfully cast the deciding vote that eliminated Cremen from the competition. Cremen was reduced to tears when reliving her elimination and said that she still gets emotional when thinking of Skeabeck and how hard the elimination was on her.

"Coleen and I became very close. Actually, Amy said to me one day 'Why don't you just go move in with Coleen," Cremen said wryly in between sobs to reporters. "Just being there with her dad, there wasn't a lot of talk about her mother and we just hit it off. She has a great personality."

Cremen also said that she was not surprised by her elimination and "had a feeling" in the days before the weigh-in that she may be booted. She added that her plan going into the weigh-in had been to partner with Parham and eliminate Renee Wilson, a 46-year-old event manager from Ft. Worth, TX. Cremen thought that the additional pressure placed on Wilson's daughter Michelle Aguilar, a 26-year-old assistant director from Ft. Worth, TX, following the elimination would drive her from the competition as well.

However, Cremen added that she had understood the rationale behind her departure as well.

"I weighed the least of anybody from the first day. In getting Philip onto our team, Phillip was heavier and he would lose more weight than I would," she told reporters.

One of Cremen's biggest regrets during her time on the show was a continued indifference towards Heba Salama, a 30-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative from Raleigh, NC, as she took control of several of the show's events and challenges and manipulated them to her advantage.

"I would say Heba did have control issues," Cremen told reporters. "My regret over everything I did was to not eat the [peanut butter cups in the second Temptation Challenge]. I should have just gone for it because what better control to have than to make the teams. [But] we all just kind of fell, once again, into Heba's thinking and let her have the control."

Cremen did have complimentary things to say about her trainer Jillian Michaels, whom she thought was tough and confrontational but also effective.

"She just told me that she felt kinda like I just didn't give myself enough credit for things," Cremen told Reality TV World of Michaels' discussion with her during their 24 hours together. "[She told me] that I was just always pushing down my abilities and just never really acknowledging the fact of who I was, who I could be, and that I really was this great person and my potential was endless."

"She was just trying to help me get through all of that and help me to accept the fact that there are things that I can do and not to always say 'No I can't do it," [and instead say] 'You can do it. Try it and see,'" she added to Reality TV World.

Cremen -- who is now wearing a size 8 and weighs "150-something" -- seems to have taken Michaels' words to heart and built up the confidence to look for a full-time job for the first time in her life.

"I just feel so confident, just better in every aspect of my life. I've done a lot of things, but never a paying job. As far as volunteering I've run auctions and different things like that, and I probably would want to do something in that area," she told reporters. "Either party planning or anything like that. I have a lot of potential but, I guess, I never had the confidence. [Now] I'm feeling much more confidence that I would be able to do it."

Source: Realitytvworld.com

[Erika]

Interview: Shellay Cremen of 'The Biggest Loser'

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Last night’s episode of The Biggest Loser provided one of the most shocking twists in the show’s history. A temptation challenge was presented to the contestants, in which the lights were turned off in a room full of sweets. Whoever ate consumed the most calories in 10 minutes would win the power to split the families up into two teams, blue and black with Bob and Jillian. Heba ate the most and kept most of the contestants with their initial trainers, with two exceptions. She split up husband and wife team Amy and Phil as well as mother/daughter duo Amy and Shellay. When the black team fell below the yellow line, Shellay was voted out and today, she spoke to BuddyTV in an exclusive interview.

Shellay told BuddyTV that trying out for The Biggest Loser was actually all her idea “Actually, Amy was not at the casting call with me, she was at school,” Shellay said. “They saw Amy in a family picture I had brought, and said, ‘We want you, but we want your daughter with you’.”

When the temptation challenge arose, Shellay was determined to keep her daughter with her. "I wanted to eat the peanut butter cups, but wasn't sure I could spare the calories," she admitted. "I didn't want to have Heba controlling my destiny. But I just wasn't gutsy enough to do it." While it was obvious that Heba took Phil off of her team because of personal differences, it was less clear why she chose to bring Amy onto the blue team but Shellay sheds a little light on the subject. "I think Heba wanted Amy because of her good weight loss, and she could manipulate her," she said.

The mother and daughter did say a quick goodbye at the end of the weigh in, which means that Shellay must have caught wind that she would have been the one to go should her team lose. The experience of being on the show has only strengthened the relationship between the two. "We have always been close, but The Biggest Loser has given us a special bond that only the two of us will ever understand."

Since leaving the show, Shellay has gone from a size 18 dress to a size 10. Her goal for the finale is to get all the way down to a 6. "My life is focused on health and fitness," Shellay told BuddyTV. "I wear my work out clothes all the time. For the first time in my life, I am on the same page as my husband in regards to exercise. I live and breathe a healthy lifestyle and am loving it!!"

Source: Buddytv.com

[actr]

i was sad to see her go and was suprised colleen voted this way

[actr]

why is jerry not grayed out?

[Erika]

Biggest Loser: Families
NBC, Tue, Oct 21 8:00 PM

[bbgamer]

I really hate Hebba Brady and Tracy!!

I bet Brady lost only 3 pounds on purpose

The preview said next week one person's weight loss beats a whole team's I bet it is him

And what is up with them not telling how much the last two people have lost since leaving the ranch?

[toque]

Vicki is awful. Deadly awful.

She didn't want to compete because video convos are "trivial?" "I've talked to my kids before..." WTH? What an idiot. And all her smiling. The way she was smiling when Brady posted that three... that seemed like he had thrown it. Ugh. And Heba and Brady aren't much better, really... Heba getting all upset because Amy's husband put in a last ditch effort to save his wife, and then denying that they would have just voted her out anyway. AND Heba and Brady denying their alliance when Amy called them on it... and during all that, Vicki is smiling her stupid smile. She's just hideous.

UGH! I adore Bob, but I want to see his blue team go down... in FLAMES.

I really hope that Colleen, mother or daughter, or Amy C wins this thing.

[actr]

i hate heba hate heba hate heba hate heba

[actr]

did i mention i hate heba...oh and tracy not much better

[Dennis]

Vicky is a troll. Can't stand her.

I really think they need to get rid of Brady or he could end up winning this whole game. I totally agree with bbgamer that he will be the one that beats the entire other team.

I just want the teams to disappear and Amy C. to get back together with the black team and vote out Heba, Vicky, and Brady. Phil can stay a bit longer, but once those three are gone I would be cool seeing him leave as well.

I don't want Vicky and Brady to win any money. I hated how Vicky said, "Other teams just came to lose weight....which is noble too." Noble too? So she considers her style of gaming noble? I'm fine with them competing for the money, but in a weight loss show where people win their lives back, I am not so into the people who think of that as a secondary benefit. Earlier in the show she said that she is the kind of person who makes goals and acheives them. I can't see how that is possible. What could she have possibly done in her previous condition? You don't get to where she was by setting and reaching goals. I'm happy for her now, and hopefully she can maintain the healthy lifestyle, but she seems clueless.

[bbgamer]

Oh is her name Vicki not tracy? (brady's wife?) Either way I dont like her LOL