BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK ONE

Well, we made it through Week One of Biggest Loser “15.” It was actually an outstanding first week. Of all the different groups we’ve had, I think this one might have lost the most weight. There were a couple other interesting dynamics happening too.


Of the 32 people who started, 30 made the weigh-in, and all but three lost weight. 27 people lost at least a pound or more, which is good. 18 people lost two pounds or more, which is great, and 10 people lost three pounds or more, which is awesome.

Instead of gradually adding things, and slowly ramping up, this time I’m hammering them from the get-go. That means they’re learning all the cool stuff right away.

It was great watching many of them get together during the week and doing high-intensity, high-level workouts with things they learned just last week. Some of the veteran Biggest Losers took charge, and pulled the new ones right in with them.

I can’t say for sure that accounted for all the great results, but I’ll bet it helped! I think it also contributed to their enthusiasm, and the group dynamic was really working for them.

For their second group workout, we jumped right in with more free weight exercises and a couple new things like pull-ups, and leg-raises. In some cases, we modified the movements to accommodate varying levels of strength. Everyone did two rounds of the following six exercises that hit their entire body:

1. Dumbbell (DB) Press on Ball

2. DB Front Squats (weights held on shoulders)

3. Leg/Knee Raises (Round 1), Pull-ups (Round 2)

4. DB Single Arm Rows

5. DB Straight Leg (slightly bent) Dead Lifts

6. Planks

Down the road, they’ll want to work up to 4-5 sets of everything. They’ll also work on using progressively heavier dumbbells as they get stronger. Next week, I’m going to introduce them to a bunch of different exercises on the stability ball, and also some new exercises with curl bars and straight bars!

For Week One, we had a three-way tie for 1st place, with Laken Pennington, Amy Church, and Jodi Theirl all losing 3.0% of their body weight, and 5.4 lbs, 4.0 lbs, and 4.2 lbs respectively!

Greg Stuck, Karen Brown, Brad Adams, Jennifer Bowers, Stacey Reed, Dale Rasmussen, Nicole Clodfelter, and Angie Adams all tied for 2nd place, losing 2.0% of their body weight! Greg lost 4.6 lbs, Karen lost 5.8 lbs, Brad lost 4.4 lbs, Jennifer lost 4.8 lbs, Stacey lost 4.2 lbs, Dale lost 3.8 lbs, Nicole lost 4.2 lbs, and Angie lost 2.2 lbs!

With such a dynamic group, we’re going to have to take the percentage of weight loss out to another digit next week. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !