At the end of each episode, contestants are no longer dismissed by a group vote, as in the original, but are let go based on the percentage of their weight loss that week. When Harper’s not lording over the weigh-ins with wizened commentary, he gathers the contestants for heartfelt therapy sessions. Gone are the infamous temptations, demeaning stunts like digging through piles of doughnuts for a poker chip worth $5,000 or being forced to carry around a slice of cake for a day. In keeping with his newfound feelings of empathy, the revamped show is what he calls a “kinder and gentler” version of the original. His close call, Harper later told me, increased his empathy for The Biggest Loser contestants-after his heart attack, he says, he “couldn’t walk around the block without getting winded.” He went into cardiac arrest, but a doctor happened to be at hand and initiated CPR, saving his life. In 2017, Harper had a heart attack midworkout at a gym in Manhattan. At 54, he looks like a pillar of health, especially for a guy who almost died a couple of years ago. The show’s new host, former trainer Bob Harper, stands nearby, ready to announce the results. In the second episode, “A Big Loss,” the two teams talk to one another while host Bob Harper watches. As the contestants race toward the finish line, the show’s two new trainers-Steve Cook, 33, a former bodybuilder from Utah, and Erica Lugo, 33, a single mom who runs EricaFitLove, an online personal-training business-pace them, shouting encouragement. Piñon- and juniper-studded hills laced with hiking trails rise in all directions under a cloudless sky. Nearby is a large man-made lake surrounded by clusters of outbuildings. The run ends on a grassy campus at the center of the facility. The episodes were being filmed just a few miles from my home in Santa Fe, on a 2,400-acre recreation complex called Glorieta Adventure Camps. Or so its proprietors would have you believe. That could just be marketing boilerplate, but it’s in sync with a fast-changing fitness industry that has recently been retooling itself to be more inclusive, less abusive, and more focused on whole health than looks and performance. I’ve come to check out the new Biggest Loser, which purports to have been “re-imagined for today’s audiences” by taking “a holistic, 360-degree look at wellness,” according to a press statement circulated a few months before its premiere. DeBattista may have lost the race, but he wins the day. When he hears the results, he gives a little fist pump. His time has improved the most among all the players since their last mile run two months earlier, from 20 minutes to around 13, which has helped move him a little closer to the show’s $100,000 grand prize. The mile run is one of many fitness challenges contestants tackle, and DeBattista is dead last. DeBattista, a youth football coach from Philadelphia, is a contestant on The Biggest Loser, the infamous weight-loss game show that rebooted on January 28 after being abruptly canceled in 2016. On a chilly morning last October, Jim DeBattista, 47, came trundling across the finish line of a one-mile run looking gassed.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |