A day at the Biggest Loser camp

MANILA, Philippines - Pinoy audiences will soon witness the airing of the first-ever Philippine edition of the reality show, The Biggest Loser, to air weeknights on TV starting May 30.

It is ABS-CBN’s newest project franchising the Biggest Loser that first became famous in the US. The show centers on overweight contestants in their big journey to self-change. Every week they will undergo rigorous training as well as physical and emotional challenges in order to lose weight. The contestants’ sole objective is to lose the highest percentage of weight to become the Biggest Loser.

Last May 15, ABS-CBN finally revealed the 12 Biggest Loser participants and their life-changing stories in Bigating Pinoy: The Biggest Loser Primer.

Yet, before its debut on May 30, the Kapamilya network recently gave this writer and other select press people a taste of what it’s like living inside the Biggest Loser camp even for just a day last May 18. Below is a personal account of our one-day camp experience.

Biggest Loser Pinoy Edition trainers Jim Saret and Chinggay Andrada

7 a.m. ­– Together with ABS-CBN’s Corp. Affairs and PR director Kane Errol Choa and his staff, invited members of the press gathered at ABS-CBN ELJ Bldg. for the call-time. After a few minutes, we were off to the Biggest Loser camp in Eagle Ridge Golf and Country Club located in Gen. Trias, Cavite. It took us more than two hours of travel before reaching the location. Upon entering the camp, I couldn’t help but feel at awe with the country club’s enormity and captivating scenery. No doubt that this is the perfect place for the Biggest Loser participants to stay motivated while performing the challenges.

10 a.m. – The Biggest Loser staff ushered us inside the camp while we captured from our cameras the facade as well as the interiors inside the camp. As the doors opened, there’s a large rounded imprint of the Biggest Loser Pinoy Edition logo on the floor welcoming every one who arrives in the camp. We proceeded to the living-cum-dining room with a life-size LCD Sony TV at the center of it. The show’s production manager, Reily Santiago briefed us, the press-participants, on our activity and entertained every question that we wanted to ask about the show. Few minutes past, our healthy snack was served – wheat bread sandwich with Fit ‘n Right drink.

Resident nutritionist Nadine Tengco

Meanwhile, nutritionist Dr. Nadine Tengco shared her knowledge on proper nutrition, tackling what’s good and what’s not for losing weight. She is also the official nutritionist of the Biggest Loser participants to make sure that they are properly nourished with a well-balanced diet. Dr. Nadine gave some trivia that amazed every participant in the room. Take for example, the general impression that “bahaw” or malamig na kanin can make you gain weight. She disagreed, “Cool your rice for weight loss.” The explanation? Cooking rice triggers starch to absorb water and swell. As it slowly cools, portions of the starch crystallize into a form that resists digestion. Resistant starch is a dietary fiber in many carbohydrate foods including brown rice, potatoes, grains and beans, particularly when it is cooled, it “resists” digestion that never enters bloodstream. So the advice is to keep the rice cool; don’t reheat because crystals will break up and levels plummet; and Butyrate burn fat. The lecture was one engaging moment for me and the other participants.

11:30 a.m. – This time, we toured the rooms inside the two-storey building that serves as the camp wherein the 12 contestants will stay for four months. The rooms at the ground floor are the clinic (St. Luke’s is the official medical partner), living-cum-dining room, kitchen (the contestants are allowed to cook their own food and can even bring their own baon while hurdling challenges), the satellite gym (Fitness First is the official gym partner), separate locker rooms for male and female contestants and comfort rooms. We also had a look at the bedrooms for the Red and Blue teams plus the entertainment room. Unfortunately, we did not meet the Biggest Loser participants because we were not allowed to. At that time, they were doing a challenge somewhere outside the camp.

12 noon – Even though it was lunchtime already, we still proceeded to our next activity with noted kick-boxer and gym owner Chinggay Andrada, who topped the list of recommended fitness trainers for the Biggest Loser Pinoy Edition. She is the trainer of Biggest Loser Red Team. We got totally excited when she was introduced to us. Her energetic presence was captivating. I couldn’t help but admire her athletic body.

Reily Santiago, production manager

Under Chinggay’s instructions, we performed warm-ups like the stationary exercise routine, a combination of jumping jacks, run-in-place and knee lifts; sit-ups and push-ups; and the lunges. The exercise went on for about 20 minutes and we would stop, grab the towel and drink water once in a while because of too much exhaustion, perspiration and thirst. I’ve observed that most of us gave up easily especially when we did the floor exercises like the push-ups. The only person who successfully reached the 10-count push-ups was tabloid columnist Rey Pumaloy. No wonder also because he said that he was regularly working out. I could say that even if I was like a mess after the activity, it was worth it, considering that my last proper exercise was when I was still in elementary for my P.E. classes. While we were resting, Chinggay shared, “You don’t have to be in the gym to be able to work out your body because you can also do it alone without using equipment. It’s not the workout itself, but more on the person’s attitude.”

12:45 p.m. – Lunch was served, finally. And happily we ate rice with grilled tuna and fresh corn kernels while fruit salad for dessert – another healthful diet experience. As we were finishing our lunch, our next fitness instructor, Jim Saret, was being introduced. Jim is a Sports Medicine specialist and an Olympic Athletic trainer. He leads the Biggest Loser Blue Team’s physical fitness. Coach Jim, as every one calls him, shared his own pieces of wisdom. He echoed what Chinggay told us earlier on how to keep motivated and maintain the discipline in keeping the body fit. Coach Jim added, “I believe that with The Biggest Loser around, we can inspire the people in general, teach them to become active on being fit and possibly, we can make a stronger nation and can confidently compete abroad.”

The press participants call it a day

2:30 p.m. – Our tension and resistance exercises with coach Jim were held outdoors, in front of the gym. He distributed among us exercise cables called Pilates Resistance Tubing with Handle and taught us its different usages. Some of the exercises he demonstrated were triceps extension, biceps curls, lateral rows, lat pulls, overhead press and squats using the resistance band. He also introduced the revolutionary fitness program that he created, which combines different types of trainings and fitness parameters to come up with a four-minute workout (doing 10 repetitions of the basic jumping jacks, another 10 repetitions of body weight squats – with the arms raised throughout, 10 push-ups, lunges with 10 repetitions for each leg, and repeating the first four sets and keep doing it within the span of four minutes).

4 p.m. – After the activity with coach Jim, the exhausted yet happy press-participants posed for a photo opportunity with coach Jim and Chinggay. After we took our snack of tuna pasta with toasted garlic bread, Coach Jim, Chinggay and Reily bid us goodbye and thanked us for attending the once-in-a-lifetime Biggest Loser activity experience. Then, we took some last-minute pictures around the camp as we were leaving. Even if tiredness was reflected all over our faces, we did enjoy our one-day stay at the camp.