Biggest Loser 5: Couples, Episode 6 – Food Fight!

Last time: The rainbow teams were merged into two teams. Trainer Bob got to cherry-pick his crew, so if he doesn’t win after all this manipulation, there REALLY is no hope! Sure enough, the new Blue Team won both the challenge and the weigh-in pretty handily. Voting seemed more emotional than strategic, as low-threat Jenn (formerly of the Purple Team) was sent home.

As a refresher, these are the surviving teams. For now, original relationships and team colors are still indicated.

This is trainer Bob’s Blue Team:

These is trainer Jillian’s Black Team:

Action begins the next day, but angst reigns over the previous night’s elimination ceremony. Maggie misses her teammate, while Brittany doesn’t feel the Black Team can win. Even Jillian seems down when she arrives!

As promised at the last weigh-in, Jillian reviews food journals with her team. As expected, they are under-eating. Jillian is very supportive as she explains that without taking in enough fuel, the metabolism slows down, and then weight loss doesn’t occur. She assures her charges that they need to meet their calorie targets.

Jillian adds that Bob’s Achilles heel is “hubris.” To save you looking it up, the American Heritage Dictionary definition is: “Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.”

Later on, the teams are brought into the gym. Paul smells chocolate! Sure enough, it’s temptation time. A long table is divided up into eleven places with big dividers so no one can see the desktop of the person beside them. On the table of each booth are a hundred chocolates, laid out in a ten-by-ten grid for easy counting. The first player to eat all their chocolates is the winner. Should no one finish in five minutes, whoever is has eaten the most wins.

The winner of this challenge will be given the power to switch any one player on their team (including themselves) for any one player on the other team. Dan considers eating, because he likes the opportunity to shape the game, but he knows trainer Bob would be disappointed if he changed the team. Both brother Mark and Brittany start eating right away, because they are determined to keep the teams as they are. A couple of the others also partake. We are told each chocolate is a mere 26 calories.

After the time runs out, Alison makes each person announce how many chocolates they ate. Most people proudly announce that they chose not to eat any. Bernie didn’t eat, but he stuck about a dozen on his face!

Brittany announces she ate 15, Paul confesses he had three, Roger says he ate one, and Mark… 43! Brittany says softly, “Okay, I’m going to throw up!”

Alison tells Mark he took on 1,118 calories, but it gives him the chance to swap one player on the teams. She gives him a new blue and black tee shirt to hand out. However, as he already told us, Mark is not going to make any changes, and the shirts go back to Alison.

Coincidently, there was a very similar challenge in the version of Biggest Loser: Australia that aired locally last week. There, they ate for immunity, but lost videos from home if they ate even one. Similar to this episode, one person ate like a demon while the majority stayed pure.

In the next scene, Mark is shown with his leg heavily taped, ankle to knee. He tells us he’s had shin pain, and he goes to see Dr. Huizenga so he can get some treatment before it gets worse. To their surprise, an MRI shows that Mark has a stress fracture. I’m actually surprised this doesn’t come up more often in this show, given how much these unfit contestants hammer those treadmills and other devices. Dr. Huizenga tells Mark that among other things, running and treadmill usage is now eliminated from his workout.

The scene shifts to a happy Dan, who once again was “the biggest loser of the week.” He’s happy because it’s time for him to claim his prize for that accomplishment. He climbs the usual hill to find that this time, all three envelopes say “Family.” Hearing a noise, he turns around to see his older brother, Joe!

Joe can tell Dan has lost weight (Dan is down 59 pounds so far). Joe has more surprises coming. As the boys walk down the hill together, Joe can’t believe that right now his mom is probably doing her daily ten kilometers. He’s further blown away to hear that she’s running, not walking. I’m thinking that when Jackie came to the ranch, even driving ten kilometers was somewhat of an event!

The boys come up behind Jackie at the gym, and when she sees Joe, it’s a major tear-up time for Jackie. Joe is amazed how his mom looks, too (she’s down 40 pounds herself).

Meanwhile, Mark meets up with Bob and tells him the bad news about his injury and how restrictive his exercise regime must become. About all he can do is use a stationary bike, do upper-body activity, and use the pool. Bob tells him not to be discouraged and he will give him the best workouts he can handle. Showing the difference in the teams, Mark insists he won’t need any therapy sessions with Bob to work this out for himself. Ha!

Back in the former Orange Team’s dorm, Dan tries on a pair of Joe’s size 36 jeans. He claims they fit and is very impressed with himself, because he used to wear size 42. Joe has his own solo interview next, and in it he expresses how proud he is that his family members are doing so well. Alas, it’s now time for Joe to go home. Either it’s the next day, or Joe really changes his shirt a lot.