Originally weighing 497 pounds, Shay Sorrells was the largest contestant on The Biggest Loser. She dropped 150 pounds while at the ranch and now back home she weighs 300 pounds and she still is on the fast track to losing weight. Her goal is to get under 200 pounds. This week she opened up to OK! magazine about how her troubled past contributed to her unhealthy weight and how life has changed since being on the ranch.

She explained that as a kid she and her mother were homeless; her mom’s addiction was heroin, and Shay’s addiction was food. Before she entered the show her doctor even suggested gastric bypass surgery because of her morbid obesity. But now she’s on the path to good health. When asked about her home workouts she responded,

“I’m working out with a trainer and doing a lot of exercising by the pool and on the beach – even basketball drills. My husband loves to play basketball and now I have skills so I play him one-on-one!”

She also mentioned that she hikes and rides bikes with her husband. Shay admits that she still slips up from time to time but she learned on the ranch that when you make a calorie mistake you have to correct it with exercise. So if you splurge and eat an extra 500 calories one day, you need to burn an extra 500 calories in your workout. Good luck, Shay.

Celebrity Diet Doctor…
The advice that Shay received from the Biggest Loser about correcting overeating with extra exercise is misguided and I don’t recommend this strategy. The key is not to increase your exercise, it is to cut down the amount of processed foods you eat. Remember you lose weight with eating the proper foods, you keep it off with exercise.

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NBC.com released a bonus scene from Week 9 of the latest season of The Biggest Loser, in which the contestants were taught how to grow their own organic garden. Fresh from visiting the one grown by one of the executive chefs in the White House, Sam Kass, the players were all inspired to work on their own garden. The remaining contestants wanted to create their own garden as something they could leave behind for the next season’s players.

A representative from Gro Organic met with the reality TV contestants, explaining that organic food facilitates the purging of toxins from your body, helping you to lose weight easier. Also, by growing your own organic garden you have complete control over what you cook at home and essentially what nutrients you allow to enter your body.

In the video above, the Gro Organic representative shows the contestants how to plant their bulbs, and as the contestants talk amongst themselves, they release that with a garden such as this they do truly have control over what they eat – as oppose to ordering a meal in a restaurant without being able to see how it is prepared.

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As the first Biggest Loser contestant to compete in back-to-back seasons Daniel Wright wasn’t too keen on his elimination this week. He thought he was going to be a finalist to the point where he could practically ‘taste it.’ The first time he was on the show in season seven he went from 454 pounds to 312 pounds and now after this second round he has dropped a grand total of 226 pounds and weighs a healthy 228 pounds. He did confess that he is still struggling with binge eating and it was even something he dealt with while on the show and being surrounded by only healthy foods. He explained,

“The Ranch doesn’t have candy bars or fast food sitting around but there are things you can munch on. If I [was] really stressed out, instead of talking to somebody, I would suppress it by going for handfuls of cashews or something.”

Daniel’s life changing experience is definitely for the better. He hopes to be below 200 pounds for the upcoming season finale and he plans on donating his big clothes to charity.

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Tara Costa, the winner of Biggest Loser season 7 is still in tip-top shape after completing the show seven months ago.  Once weighing 294 pounds she is down to a size 8 and she just ran the New York City marathon last week. In her interview with Ok! Magazine she revealed her inspiration for running the race and how she trained in order to finish with a time of 4:23:12. She said that after finishing Biggest Loser she needed a new challenge in order to keep herself motivated so she followed an online training program to get ready for the marathon. She said,

“It was definitely a transition to go from weight-loss mode to training mode.  Initially, I felt like I wasn’t working hard enough in comparison to the workout plan on the show……. I had two rest days a week when I would do yoga or go to a conditioning class at the gym.”

Tara’s new lease on life allows for her to enjoy physical activity instead of just looking forward to drinks at happy hour.  She now likes to get friends together for a fun 5K run on a Friday night and save the drinks for afterwards.  Now that she has run the marathon she hopes to make it a yearly tradition and she’s also thinking about getting into surfing and rock climbing. Way to go, Tara.

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It seems we may soon have a new fitness trend on our hands, the StreetStrider. Recently featured on The Biggest Loser, the exercise machine is a mix between a bicycle and an elliptical. It may see pretty complicated to ride, but it sure looks like fun once you’ve mastered it; part cycling, part skiing, part jogging.

The StreetStrider offers a pretty great cardio workout and high-calorie burn rate; The Biggest Loser contestants recorded between 700 and 1 000 calories burned per hour. But it’s not only great for getting your heart rate up, the muscles groups targeted to get  the machine moving include those in your arms, legs, back as well as your core.

Described as the mobile elliptical, the StreetStrider comes with a pretty big price tag: $1 999.

Celeb Diet Doc…
Looks like fun!

37-year-old Tracey Yukich is the latest person to be booted off the current season of Biggest Loser. Back home in Texas she has spoken with reporters about her weight loss journey since leaving the show and why she’s keeping her total number of pounds lost, a secret. She’s definitely a trooper because she’s getting up at 4am to go to the gym so that she’s home by 7am in order to take care of her four kids and get them off to school. Now that’s dedication. She said,

“We have a very busy life and I really had to make sure I wrote a schedule out that worked for me and worked for my family…I have a two-year-old daughter that I stay home with because I’m a stay-at-home mom, but I knew that I had to find a gym that had a kids club.”

Tracey is hard at work losing the weight and since the finale is only five weeks she’s keeping her weight-loss hush-hush. She knows she still could be a finalist for the at-home prize which is also worth a lot. She said,

“This is the first time in my life that I actually started something and trust me, I’m going to finish exactly what I’ve started and if that means I get to take home that prize, then I’m gunning for it.”

Even though Tracy is one of the more controversial contestants on the show this season it seems she’s got her head on straight and she wants that prize.

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Previous The Biggest Loser trainer, Kim Lyons, has released a new fitness DVD – one aimed specifically targeted to diabetes patients, called Start Fitness Now: Beating Type 2 Diabetes.

The 3-set DVD series, produced by Watch It Now Entertainment and created with Dr Sheila Singh, MD, Diplomat of the American Association of Family Physicians, is a workout designed by a celebrity trainer but endorsed by a registered physician.

“As a physician, I recommend patients engage in 150 minutes physical activity per week; the DVDs are structured to give you this with 20 minutes per day – a realistic goal yielding realistic results,” says Dr. Singh. “The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey cites 63% of Americans battle with weight loss management and obesity – this series can help them as well.”

The DVDs, “Sit Down & Shape Up For Beginners”, “Sit Down & Shape Up Intermediate” and “Stand Up & Slim Down”, are specifically designed with beginners in mind. The routines start off easy and progress to tougher exercises that strengthen and challenge your body and its core, boosts your heart rate, increases blood circulation, all the while mobilizing your different muscle groups.

You can find out more information on how to manage type 2 diabetes with exercise and a healthy diet on the official StartFitnessNow.com website.

While on The Biggest Loser season eight, Abigail Rike faced many challenges apart from the weight loss.  She had to endure a stress fracture of the knee and still managed an average weight loss of four pounds a week and now she’s down to an impressive 165 pounds. In addition, she had to emotionally heal from the wounds of her tragic past. In her exclusive interview with Life & Style Magazine Abby opened up about the loss of her husband and two children in a car accident in 2006 and how she has since re-emerged as a new person.  She said,

“Losing weight is kind of like shedding the sadness and hurt and emerging stronger. My life will matter again.”

The 35-year-old explained that after losing her family she lost her roles, she was no longer a wife, no longer a mother and didn’t know how to define herself.  Although her life was shattered she choose to respond in a positive way and pick up the pieces of her life and start again.

“My journey was more about finding out where I fit into the world,” explains Abby. “For me it was truly about healing from the inside out.”

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Last week it was Julio Gomez who was kicked off the Biggest Loser Ranch and after another week of blood, sweat and tears the latest to be booted is Dina Mercado from California.  She started the show weighing in at 253 pounds and 75 pounds later she now weighs an impressive 178 pounds. Dina told People magazine that the first thing she did when she got back home was to hire a personal trainer to ensure she keeps up with the weight loss.  She also made a point to do exercise and activities with her nine-year-old son.  She explained,

“When we came back home, we went and bought several different things so that way we can do lots of things together. We went and bought rollerblades and we rollerblade together. I go to the beach quite a bit and do beach workouts sometimes with my trainer, and he also comes along. We just do a lot of outdoor activities.”

When asked what’s the best thing she can do now that she has lost weight she responded that it’s the ability to do active things with her son.  He is a sports enthusiast and now that she’s thinner she too can participate and no longer sit in the bleachers and simply cheer him on.

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Julio Gomez may have suffered a heart-breaking elmination last week on The Biggest Loser, but the 40-year-old mortgage loan officer has nothing to complain about. While on the show he went from 407 pounds to 279 pounds, that’s a whopping 128 pound weight loss. After the elimination episode he spoke with reporters about how he kicked the fast food habit, learned to cook at home and his work with fitness trainer Jillian Michaels.

Firstly, it was Jillian who helped him realize that he wasn’t just the happy go lucky fat guy but had some deep issues to deal with in order to begin the weight loss process. He said,

“She [Jillian] really got me past that hump and I have to thank her heartfully for even getting to that point for me. It’s helped me tremendously.”

When it comes to eating, Julio said his worst habit was going through the drive-thru at fast food places and he has now eliminated that from his life. Now that he has learned to cook healthy meals at home his entire diet has changed. He explains that he doesn’t follow strict recipes but instead opens the refrigerator to see what’s available and he basically wings it. And having daughters in the house, they too are eating healthy just like dad. He said,

“My daughters always ask me the same question, ‘What are we having for dinner?’ And I’ll just simply say we’re having fish and vegetables, and I’ll leave it there. And then I’ll just make something up and go, ‘Hey, this is pretty good!’”

Good for Julio and all his hard work!

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