Michelle Bridges: “I’m done with The Biggest Loser legacy”

Former Biggest Loser trainer Michelle Bridges, who featured on the 10 reality wight loss show from 2007 – 2015, says she is done with wearing the show’s legacy but would be open to a new television project around healthy living.

Speaking to Stellar at the Sunday Telegraph she said of the show, “I learnt so much about fitness, wellbeing, the psychology behind so much of the issues around body image.

“Some of it was pretty heavy stuff, and I applaud the honesty and the transparency that a lot of our contestants showed us through those years.

“It was of its time. It was a totally different era. It’s easy to look back and pooh-pooh something. Rather than taking the negativity, what I think I get quite excited about is the possibility about what doors it opens.

“These conversations are what open up the doors for a whole new conversation, for a whole new potential television show, which I, by the way, would just love to be a part of. I think it’s necessary.

“I think health is a big topic of conversation. It’s not going away. So it’s how we steer the ship with sensitivity, with compassion, with empathy, but also with the view of better health for Australians. We know we can do better.”

Bridges did not return for the final season of the show The Biggest Loser: Transformed, which was bumped to an afternoon slot after three weeks.

She also addressed a discussion on The Project earlier this year, when body positive activist April Helene-Horton described the series as “one of the most traumatic things that ever happened to me.”

“I guess that’s part of the legacy of doing The Biggest Loser. I’ve had to kind of wear that, but I’m not going to wear it anymore. I’m done,” Bridges said.

“I think anybody who knows me knows what I’m here for and the reasons why I do what I do – and I think, also, that day when I left that panel and said goodbye to everybody, I think they weren’t expecting the person who turned up.

“They might have been expecting that girl from 15 years ago wearing the red trainer T-shirt to come in and tell everyone to do some squats and burpees. When I turned up and I wasn’t that girl, I think they got a bit of a shock.

“There’s a lot more to me. Especially now, at my age as well – I remember being in my 20s and hearing women in their 50s say you just get to a point where, pardon my French, but you just don’t give a f***.

“This is me, and I finally feel free to say that. Now that I am in my 50s, I get what they were saying because I kind of feel the same. I care, obviously, but I take on less of the negative.”

You can read more at the Sunday Telegraph.