'Biggest Loser' recap: Red team's gym work fails them on scale

‘Biggest Loser’ recap: Red team’s gym work fails them on scale

By Rene Lynch

Jan. 15, 2013 12 AM PT

“The Biggest Loser’s” Cate Laughlan said the red team put in the work in the gym. It just didn’t show up on the scale.

“It was not a reflection about the work we did,” she said of the team’s abysmal weight-loss numbers. The only person more unhappy than Cate, who was sent home, was Dolvett Quince, who was flying high after winning the first two weigh-ins.

While she was disappointed to be sent home so early in the game, Cate said was completely transformed by her time at the ranch, brief as it was. To date, she has lost about 50 pounds (including 10 pounds more than was shown in the “Where are they now” segment) and is up to a seven-mile run in her quest to finish her first marathon.

“When I look in the mirror, I see the Cate I was always supposed to be,” she said during a media conference call Tuesday morning. And she credits her trainer. “Dolvett brought out in me that I was worth it. I never realized how little I felt about myself until I got to the ranch and started working with him.”

She started at the ranch at 237, a weight she attributes to the stresses of college combined with poor eating habits, including eating out all the time. She said the ranch was a wake-up call, especially in regards to her “Fat Tuesday” habit. That’s how she referred to the day of the week when she’d work out with a trainer and then make a junk-food run when done.

“I never realized how badly I was sabotaging myself.” She said she does not regret her method for picking which teammate to eliminate this week. (She covered her eyes and tapped randomly at the faces on the elimination screen.) “I couldn’t pick one,” she said, adding that she figured, “I’ll let fate do its job.”

Speaking of the elimination screen, what do you think about that change in the game? I’m not sure it adds all that much. I miss the dramatic unveiling of the silver cloche.

What did you think about this week’s episode and those jaw-dropping stats about childhood obesity? And Biingo playing video games up to nine hours a day? (And his mother quickly noting that that’s “just” on weekends. Oh. That makes it OK then.)

It was fascinating how sluggish the players were after spending hours upon hours locked in video game hell. Yet one more incentive to limit screen time (or, um, at least limit it until the workout is done).

Random thoughts:

--Was anyone else nervously waiting (hoping!?) for Dolvett to walk in when Jillian was working with Francelina? Throw-down! Actually, they’ve bent over backward to say all the trainers are available to all the players. But still. Throw-down!

--Lindsay and her family seemed shocked by the news that the 13-year-old is pre-diabetic. Hopefully that news will resonate beyond her household. Here’s hoping that her family can and will turn it around.

--Never looking at bubble gum the same way again. The only thing that could make that more disgusting was if Jackson did indeed upchuck in there. Gross!

Favorite quote: “Being healthy is not a chore,” Cate said. “It’s … it’s a gift.”

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