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Former Biggest Loser contestant spills on TV secrets

2008 contestant says show's weigh-ins are never filmed a week apart.

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2014-02-08_0216Former Biggest Loser contestant Andrew ‘Cosi’ Costello has revealed production secrets from the weight loss show, but praised the show’s trainers.

He also estimates about 75 per cent of the contestants from his 2008 series are back to their starting weight.

“I sit in the middle somewhere. I lost 50 kgs, but have put 25 kgs back on since the show and my lifelong battle with weight continues,” he wrote on news.com.au

He says contestants only got to speak to partners three times during the whole series (including 5 minutes on Christmas Day). They trained up to 2.5 hours a day.

“The only thing that really disappoints me about the Biggest Loser is the length of time between the weigh-ins. Have you ever wondered how the contestants manage to lose a staggering 12 kilos in a single week? We don’t. In my series a weekly weigh-in was NEVER filmed after just one week of working out. In fact the longest gap from one weigh-in to the next was three and a half weeks. That’s 25 days between weigh-ins, not seven. That “week” I lost more than nine kilos. I had to stand on the scales and was asked to say the line, “wow, it’s a great result, I’ve worked really hard this week”. The producers made sure that we never gave this secret away, because if we did, it created a nightmare for them in the editing suite. The shortest gap from weigh-in to weigh-in during our series was 16 days. That’s a fact. The thing is, overweight people get inspired by watching the Biggest Loser. They get off the couch and they hit the gym. But after a week in the real world, some people might only lose 1kg so they feel like they’ve failed and they give up,” he wrote.

“That’s where the show is misleading. You need to remember it’s a TV show, it’s not all real. In fact, not even the scales we stood on were real.

“What was real was the passion and kindness shown by trainers Michelle Bridges and Shannan Ponton. These two regularly came in on weekends to take us for extra sessions and they legitimately cared about each of us. They are very good people.”

You can read more here.

11 Responses

  2. @backflip that’s true however there were also many eliminated contestant brought back. If I remember correctly JJ was brought back twice, along with 2 other contestants.

  4. @Mrs Mangle Its my understanding that there were seven “weeks” where there was a double elimination, a contestant quit, took money to leave, or was removed from the show.

  5. If the weigh in was at a minimum of 16 days and there was 18 contestants. 3 went through to the final weigh in which means there was 15 weigh ins before the finale. That would mean the show was shot for 34 weeks minimum, that’s over half a year. I can assure you that there is no way they shoot for over 8 months. Cosi needs to go back and check is numbers as it appears that his ability with maths is second only to ability to say no to a second helping of dessert.

  6. It’s nothing I haven’t already suspected. While I used to enjoy watching the show, it lacked coverage of things like diet, exercise regimes and other lifestyle factors which viewers could adopt at home. It was hard to believe that contestants would lose 10kg in one week and then only 1kg in the next, or even put weight on. And there’s no way that it can be healthy for contestants to lose weight so rapidly, so I’m not suprised if they just put the weight back on. Need to balance the drama with the focus of the show.

  7. Nothing mentioned in this is new news, It been said before they don’t weigh in once a week, I’ve seen contestants have put weight on again, maybe the limited contact with family is the only really new thing mentioned but that is more contact then on some other “reality” shows and I wouldn’t expect much contact with family if I were for some strange reason to go on this show.

  8. Of course the weigh-in weren’t live and that was obvious. The show is shot over months.

    Anyone losing 12 kg in week would be dead, or at least have destroyed their kidneys and liver. You would be breaking down more fat and muscle than they could possibly cope with. Anything over 2kg/week is dangerous. 0.5-1kg/week is usually recommended.

  9. Perhaps ‘unreality’ can apply to all ‘ so called reality shows ‘, but the reality is that Mr Costello’s version of his experiences, may have only occurred during his particular series, as producers tinkered with the format based on what worked or didn’t work previously.
    Because haven’t there been other contestants from other series tell us about how contestants (producers?) allegedly got up to all sorts of tricks, such as water loading before weigh-ins etc, and other contestant rivalries.

    So as viewers we should either watch intently and see the contradictions ‘that do’ emerge and then form our own opinions, or simply just go along for the ride and blindly enjoy the manipulations of the networks, while watching ratings/credibilities rise and fall, but always gaining the most info from David’s blog

  10. These trashy “reality” shows are less real than the WWE and TNA. No real surprises that there are plenty of tweaks in filming and editing to make the shows appear what they really aren’t.

    It says so much about this country that so many people get into this rubbish and the other “reality” shows and shows like A Current Affair.

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