The Thinnest Winner

Well, it all came to a head tonight. After months of watching countless episodes on Network Ten, The Biggest Loser season two has finally finished.

And I must say, I was fairly disappointed by the outcome. I was rooting for Marty, the only pleasant person left in the running. Chris was okaaaay, and Pati had spent too much time gossipping and backstabbing the other, more wholesome contestants along the way for me to warm to her at all - abusive background or no.

As much as it was a 'good thing' for the show that an 'Outsider' was able to win - thereby putting to bed all those criticisms about no one possibly being able to lose that much weight in their normal, everyday lives (even though Chris really started to lose the big amounts of weight once he joined the others in The White House), as viewers I think we all felt ripped off when someone who'd come into the show partway through stepped up and won the prize.

We hadn't invested as much in Chris and Kimberlie as we had in all the others, and I certainly would have felt happier if Pati had won, over Chris. In fact, I would have preferred any of the the originals to win - including P'eta and Laura - than either of the Outsiders. Simply because I didn't care about them as much as everyone else. I didn't know them, and I think Chris' unapologetic competitiveness did more to turn viewers against him than anything.

But still - he lost an incredible amount of weight (in fact he looked sickly-thin, IMHO), and did well in the penultimate episode to vote out Munnalita ... because Munnalita actually lost more body weight (in percentage points) than the runner-up, Marty. She could very well have had Chris' head on a platter if she'd still been in the game.


The winner of season two, Chris Garling

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I really detested Munnalita, Courtney and Pati througout this series. However, full props to Munnalita for looking so AMAZING in the finale! What a transformation. And I hope she's right when she says she's happy all the time now - because she truly was a bitter, nasty woman before.

Courtney, too, grew on me massively towards the end. It’s true what he says about him growing up on the show – I think he learnt a lot about being a better person. Not through his friendships with Munnalita and Pati, but more through the leadership of Shannon & Michelle … as well as being inspired by people like Damien.

When Courtney fell on the sword for Munnalita because he recognised that her reason for being in the House was greater than his own, that signified in me a huge change. When he returned for the Super Challenge and stuffed up the first question, then told Damien what he should pick as he passed him on his way back down the hill, his change for the better was cemented for me. This guy went from a b!tchy, selfish slob to the kind of person he can be proud of - who puts others before himself. I’m happy to say that I now like Courtney.

Marty was a champ from the beginning. It doesn’t matter that he introduced himself as being ‘38 years young’, because that’s the kind of thing that was eventually unmasked as being part of his ‘front’ – his attempts to cover his misery with humour. (Hey, at least he didn’t do what Munnalita and Courtney did and cover their misery with being a gossipy b!tch!) Marty and Greg were the only people on the Red Team I ever liked (and possibly Alex, but he wasn’t around long enough to be a threat – wasn’t he cute when he tried to offer Greg his spot in the Super Challenge, though?) … so it was a shame that the Red Team kept winning and eliminating the most commendable contestants amongst them.

It was great to see how much weight everyone had lost at the finale tonight. Despite Chris looking so thin that he looked ill, he has undoubtedly come a long way and will hopefully be able to maintain a healthy weight now that the need for competing is over. Pati was finally able to lose most of that huge arse that was following her around everywhere she went (I personally didn’t think she’d be able to lose it, so I was impressed to see that she had). Munnalita will now be ‘free’ to start IVF treatments to have a baby, and people like Sam and Jules are an inspiration to us all.


The Old Chris vs The New Chris

It was annoying that they didn’t have Shannon & Michelle out on stage from the beginning, so we could all see their reactions to each contestant’s ‘big reveal’, but I guess they’d all seen them backstage before filming began anyway. It was even more annoying that they only cut to Bob & Jillian via satellite in LA after the eliminated contestants had all appeared on stage – I know many of us wanted to see their surprise and how impressed they were, first-hand!

Even though Michael and Greg each did such a fantastic job of losing so much weight (Michael ending up losing the most by percentage and winning the $50,000 second-place prize), the most impressive person on the night (and throughout the entire series, for my money) was Damien.


Damien Wicks lost over 74 kilograms.
Even though he now weighs as much as
some of the other contestants did
when they started on the show, he’s
always going to be the winner for me.

Damien started the show as the biggest contestant on the show, anywhere in the world, ever. The fact that he came third out of the eliminated contestants (after Michael and Munnalita) shows exactly how far he came. But the reason I love him so much had nothing whatsoever to do with his weight loss.

He was a true gentleman from start to finish. Humble, honest, courteous, thoughtful, considerate, sincere, pleasant, funny, inspiring and gentle. He was a champ.

I hope he does well with his band, Dr Elephant, and that he continues to lose weight from here on. It’ll be amazing to check in on his progress during season three, for example, to see just how far he’s come.

If you want to apply to be in season three of the Australian version of The Biggest Loser, be sure to apply online before they close the doors on the application process.

Chris may have been crowned the winner tonight, but he'll always be a loser to me.


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