I watched biggest loser for three years, never thinking that is was fixed. However, last night it occured to me that nbc might fiddle with the scale, or the contestants themselves manipulate their weights using water. Please, someone explain the numbers the last four contestants recieved last night. They were all over 6%. How is that possible? And Ali losing 11 pounds is plain impossible, and roger hitting the all time record sounds like a ratings grab. I have come to think that the contestants probably lose 3-5 pounds a week on a consistant basis, but that does not lend itself well for ratings. So when their big early season numbers fall to a more consistant basis(3-5lbs) later in the season the producers make the numbers inflated or defalted to seem more exciting. Let me know what you all think.

Let me ask the original poster this... Can you tell me how long it was from the last time they weighed in? It is no secret that a week between shows does not necissarily represent a week on the ranch. The producers might have purposely had 10-12 days since the last weigh in to finish off the season with a bang. That is not fixing the scale, that is manipulating the editing.

From what I understand about the massive amounts of weight the final 4 lost is this: Last week when they were in Australia all of them lost little amounts or none at all. the body then will boost it self again thus causing the contestants to lose more weight the next time around. If for instance they never went anywhere but stayed on the ranch they all would have at least lost 1/2 of what they lost last night night. This means that the body was just catching up to itself. At least I think anyway.

As the execs have shown us this season, consistency is boring, so why not make them go on a trip to Australia during the penultimate week to throw things off balance? JMO.

I think they lost less in Australia because they were upside down....

§ 509. Prohibited practices in contests of knowledge, skill, or chance
(a) Influencing, prearranging, or predetermining outcome
It shall be unlawful for any person, with intent to deceive the listening or viewing public—
(1) To supply to any contestant in a purportedly bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge or intellectual skill any special and secret assistance whereby the outcome of such contest will be in whole or in part prearranged or predetermined.
(2) By means of persuasion, bribery, intimidation, or otherwise, to induce or cause any contestant in a purportedly bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge or intellectual skill to refrain in any manner from using or displaying his knowledge or skill in such contest, whereby the outcome thereof will be in whole or in part prearranged or predetermined.
(3) To engage in any artifice or scheme for the purpose of prearranging or predetermining in whole or in part the outcome of a purportedly bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge, intellectual skill, or chance.
(4) To produce or participate in the production for broadcasting of, to broadcast or participate in the broadcasting of, to offer to a licensee for broadcasting, or to sponsor, any radio program, knowing or having reasonable ground for believing that, in connection with a purportedly bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge, intellectual skill, or chance constituting any part of such program, any person has done or is going to do any act or thing referred to in paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of this subsection.
(5) To conspire with any other person or persons to do any act or thing prohibited by paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (4) of this subsection, if one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of such conspiracy.
( “Contest” and “the listening or viewing public” defined
For the purposes of this section—
(1) The term “contest” means any contest broadcast by a radio station in connection with which any money or any other thing of value is offered as a prize or prizes to be paid or presented by the program sponsor or by any other person or persons, as announced in the course of the broadcast.
(2) The term “the listening or viewing public” means those members of the public who, with the aid of radio receiving sets, listen to or view programs broadcast by radio stations.
© Penalties
Whoever violates subsection (a) of this section shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

I watched biggest loser for three years, never thinking that is was fixed. However, last night it occured to me that nbc might fiddle with the scale, or the contestants themselves manipulate their weights using water. Please, someone explain the numbers the last four contestants recieved last night. They were all over 6%. How is that possible? And Ali losing 11 pounds is plain impossible, and roger hitting the all time record sounds like a ratings grab. I have come to think that the contestants probably lose 3-5 pounds a week on a consistant basis, but that does not lend itself well for ratings. So when their big early season numbers fall to a more consistant basis(3-5lbs) later in the season the producers make the numbers inflated or defalted to seem more exciting. Let me know what you all think.

However, last night it occured to me that nbc might fiddle with the scale, or the contestants themselves manipulate their weights using water. Please, someone explain the numbers the last four contestants recieved last night.

I don't know about the weights being rigged, but it's become very obvious that NBC does NOT want a woman to win this competition. I cannot believe they threw in that "twist" (i.e., FIX) to let America vote on the third contestant. What an obvious stunt to deny the girls a chance to win. All season I've noticed that the vast majority of the competitions were biased against the women and they still prevailed in the end--until that final "twist." What a crock. The Biggest Loser is a game with rules and changing those rules and calling it a "twist" is BS. Shame on you NBC.

From the Cornell University Law School

It is not rigged, fixed, or in any other expression or unfair competition. The producers would go directly to jail, no pass Go, and not collect their $200.

These numbers do make the trainers look bad I must admit. Why have trainers at all if you can pull out 12 pound weight-loss weeks?

How does professional wrestling get around this or a show like Rock Star?

I really doubt they would have lost anything if it had not been from what their trainers taught them....and by the looks of the lbs lost, the trainers did a great job.

That was mostly a joke comment. I just find it funny on the week that they had no trainers they pull their biggest % numbers of the season.

That was mostly a joke comment. I just find it funny on the week that they had no trainers they pull their biggest % numbers of the season.

Ummm... "Professional" Wrestling is a show, it's not a real competitive sport. They have writers that write scripts and everything is planned out - it's not a competitive show with people actually competing against each other for some prize.

No idea what Rock Star is, though. But if it's like Idol, then it's not fixed.

But was it a week or was it a "week". Like I said earlier. The real time span of that an episode covers is not always seven days. I don't think the producers fixed the numbers. Although, I would not put it past them to be monitoring everyones weight and chose a day for the weigh in when the numbers looked most like the outcome they wanted to see.

Oh yeah that was the other comment I forgot to make. Was I the only one to hear Mark say that they were gone for 5 months in his limo ride home? I guess that is something for the TiVo people. Not the 15 weeks we thought I guess.

AND AND AND!!!! Their bodies are the visual proof they are losing weight! Can anyone besides me see that?

I guess no one is paying any attention to previous weeks. The weightloss IS NOT JUST FROM ONE WEEK. This week is making up for the water they unintentionally retained from traveling to Australia, THUS THE BIGGER NUMBER. The contestants worked out as they had been taught, got some pointers from Rocco for reducing calories in their meals. WHY IS THIS SUCH A SURPRISE????
By the way Gooch, a week on the ranch is not a typical 7 day week at home. It's more like 10 days in TV-land which also allows for more time to lose more weight and have dramatic numbers on the scale. Which actually makes for the shock we see when people really do have low numbers. So there is your relative 5 months Mark is talking about give or take a few days.

I watched biggest loser for three years, never thinking that is was fixed. However, last night it occured to me that nbc might fiddle with the scale, or the contestants themselves manipulate their weights using water. Please, someone explain the numbers the last four contestants recieved last night. They were all over 6%. How is that possible? And Ali losing 11 pounds is plain impossible, and roger hitting the all time record sounds like a ratings grab. I have come to think that the contestants probably lose 3-5 pounds a week on a consistant basis, but that does not lend itself well for ratings. So when their big early season numbers fall to a more consistant basis(3-5lbs) later in the season the producers make the numbers inflated or defalted to seem more exciting. Let me know what you all think.

I completely agree that the show is fixed to some extent. My theory is that the show's producers already know at the beginning of the season, who they want to win the game and that at the beginning of the season, for ratings purposes, they inflate the numbers for the contestants to get motivated (didn't someone lose like 30 pounds in one week- i may be thinking of another season, but come'on really? really?- it's not possible) and then throughout the season, they up or down the weights depending on who they want to see go or stay.

I also wish that they would make it pure weight loss competition. That is, get rid of "eliminations" and gameplay, and just throw out the very bottom person each week. The current voting system gets rid of a lot of deserving contestants and lets a lot of lackluster ones stay. This was very evident last season, when the black team systematically got rid of every strong player (B, Neil, Kae.)

They need to change the whole way the show works.

They only need one person below the yellow line, the person whos below automatically goes. No voting and gameplay involved. LEt this show really be about weight loss, not whos more popular or the biggest threat

Ok, this is how i'm looking at it. First off nobody did good after the trip to Australia. When you fly it makes you retain water. So I to begin with i am guessing EVERYONE lost more weight then actually showed last week. So after getting back to the ranch and settleing in the water came off and the few pounds from the week before now became this weeks loss.

ALSO, I am guessing this week was one of the "long" weeks they have probably about 10 days.

The last factor I can think of is they had nothing to loose but weight. Normally they wouldn't want to dehydrate themselves because it would hurt the next weeks weigh in. Thier bodies wouldn't be able to loose the weight as easily that next week without the water. This week they didn't have to worry about next week as much. They just had to worry about 4 weeks down the line at the finale. If it was me I would have stopped all liqueds early the night before and every time I needed to swallow my spit I would have spit it out! lol The spit alone is a fast 2 pounds believe it or not. (It's a wrestling thing... I don' t know...)

Just my opinion. I don't think anyone was messing with the scales though. To much of a risk of being sued by one of the other contestants or something....

I agree the scales are fixed. There is no way any of the final four could lose that much weight in just one week. There must be a hidden agenda somewhere. I wonder what a doctor would say about this large weight loss. There is noway a woman could lose that much weight in one week.Roger should be the biggest winner.

From the Cornell University Law School

It is not rigged, fixed, or in any other expression or unfair competition. The producers would go directly to jail, no pass Go, and not collect their $200.