The Biggest Loser: Overcoming Overeating

One of the biggest celebrities on The Biggest Loser is personal trainer Jillian Michaels. Maybe it’s because she has such a loud voice for a little body. Or the way she perches herself on top of a treadmill to maintain eye contact with the contestants running themselves ragged.

I think it’s because she forces her clients to figure out what drove them mentally to eat bite after bite after bite.

If you missed this week’s episode, you didn’t get to see Rulon, a former Olympic wrestler, carry Jillian on his back while walking backwards in the sand and pulling another teammate.

My muscles hurt just watching him strain with every step.

But the real work for Rulon began on Jillian’s back patio overlooking the Pacific ocean. She wanted to know why Rulon let himself go. How does an Olympic gold medalist end up weighing 474 pounds and suffering from high blood pressure and sleep apnea?

Like other personal trainers, Jillian knows that it’s not enough to learn how to eat right and exercise regularly. If you’re trying to maintain a healthy weight, you have understand why you overate to begin with, or you’ll end up putting those pounds back on.

A personal trainer can help you figure that out.

For Rulon, the trick is to feel worthy. He ate because he didn’t believe he deserved true love.

“You have to deal with this,” Jillian told him.

Whether he will is uncertain. The real test for contestants is when the cameras get turned off and everyone heads home to their families. That’s weeks away.

But Rulon’s attitude sounds promising. He said he recognizes that “today is the rest of your life. Today is the day you’re making the change, to change the rest of your life.”

Alice Warchol is a fitness instructor and freelance health writer.

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