Together, we’ve helped Australia lose 100,000kg!

Congratulations to the thousands of Biggest Loser Club members who have now collectively lost a whopping 100,000 kilograms! It’s an amazing achievement and something we’re really proud of here at The Club.

It’s hard to visualise just how much 100,000kg really is, but picture this – it’s the equivalent of:

• 400,000 blocks of butter
• 500,000 blocks of chocolate
• 100,000 tubs of ice-cream
• 1.67 million donuts
• 58 family sedans
• 27 large female elephants!

Since The Biggest Loser Club launched in April 2007, more than 50,000 people have used our world-class weight-loss tools and helped us become Australia’s number one diet site. We’re very excited about the role we’re playing in Australia’s battle against obesity;  we’re enabling people to shed unwanted kilos, get fit and healthy, and change their lives for the better.

Many of our members have shared their inspiring stories with us, revealing how losing weight has dramatically improved their lives, helped them overcome debilitating health problems, and enabled them to achieve their lifelong goals and dreams, whether it be having a baby or starting a new business.

Scott Penn, Chairman and CEO of SP Health Co, the company that developed The Biggest Loser Online Club in Australia, is extremely proud of the website’s success: “Congratulations to all our members who have together reached this amazing milestone, it’s absolutely awesome. When we were developing the program, our goal was to help people not only lose weight but get the education they need to keep the weight off.

“Preliminary results from University of Newcastle research about the effectiveness of our website are very encouraging – The Biggest Loser Club appears to be one of the world’s most successful commercial weight-loss programs!  Members who weigh-in at 12 weeks lose an average of 6.1kg which is very significant from a health and wellbeing perspective.”

Associate Professor Clare Collins, nutritionist to The Biggest Loser TV show and The Biggest Loser Club website, says, "While overweight and obesity costs the country millions of dollars in healthcare, there is an unrecognised personal financial cost that is even greater. People may want to lose weight to look better and feel better; the good news is that it will help them also to save money on their health costs. This is especially so for those who have existing risk factors for heart disease and diabetes such as high blood cholesterol, high blood sugars and high blood pressure. More good news is that even small weight losses of as little as 5 percent, kept off for one to two years can significantly reduce your health risks, while helping you gain that sense of wellbeing." 

So, who are our Club members? 

A recent study of members of The Biggest Loser Club conducted by the University of Newcastle, reveals that while most members of the Club are women, the website attracts a higher proportion of males and younger people than traditional weight-loss programs.  People join for a variety of reasons but almost 55 percent say that health-related issues are the primary motivation for wanting to lose weight.  Wanting “to look good” and for their “love life” were some of the non health-related reasons given for joining The Club.

When asked about their triggers for eating, 60 percent of members admit to using food to ease emotional upsets, 47 percent say they eat to reduce stress and an astonishing 84 percent say that boredom is the cause of their overeating.

As used by The Biggest Loser contestants

Since 2008, all the contestants on The Biggest Loser TV series have used The Biggest Loser Club website to track their food and exercise while they're at Camp Biggest Loser and when they go home.

Series 4 runner-up Tiffany Herdsman credits The Biggest Loser Club for educating her about food and keeping her inspired, "It's an awesome website. I was amazed how quickly The Club taught me to eat the right foods and the right portion sizes for me, which is something I really had to get to grips with."  Tiffany continues, “I always read the weekly features and the 'Did you knows' which have very interesting health facts."

Weight-loss success in the real world

While many Club members will be familiar with the stars of The Biggest Loser TV show, we have shared many amazing stories of success from the thousands of people who have followed The Club’s weight-loss program. Each person has faced their own demons and triumphed, often after many years of feeling miserable and overwhelmed with their size.

Kim White was spurred into action after looking at her holiday happy snaps made her feel anything but happy. She was verging on a size 22. With the help of The Club Kim lost 23.8kg and has never looked back, “After years of yo-yo dieting, I have finally found a way to get rid of the excess weight and keep it off, I fully recommend The Biggest Loser Club to anyone and know they will find the success and happiness that I have. Thank you BLC!”

Angie Bamford lost 32.6kg, or more than 31 percent of her bodyweight. She’d struggled with her weight since she was a teenager and was determined to shed those unwanted kilos as she approached her 30th birthday, “Joining the site was a major step for me. The Biggest Loser Club has taught me so much about calories and nutrition, which made making the right choices so much easier.”

Damien Oprel lost 16kg with The Club and still uses what he learnt about food, exercise, nutrition and the energy equation to stay in control. He found The Club’s online tools critical to his success, “[With the Club website] you can see your results – plain and simple; they’re staring at you from the computer screen. I found it really interesting to see how well I did each day after I had logged my entries in my diary. And, I was accountable to myself. I didn’t want to disappoint myself at the end of the week on weigh-in day!”

Teresa Strom weighed 112.4kg when she joined The Club. She dropped 26.4kg and singles out the diary as being her number one motivational and educational tool. The weight loss has also improved her health dramatically, “I don’t have high blood pressure anymore and my asthma is almost gone. The way I feel now is great and helps keep me motivated.”

Online community

In addition to the fantastic interactive resources that help people manage and track their weight-loss journey, The Biggest Loser Club provides an extremely valuable community of support for members. ‘Clubbies’ don’t just share tips, triumphs and challenges on the forums, they also use it as a great way to form friendships and get together offline. This year, Clubbies have met to train, have fun and compete in runs in Brisbane, and to run and work out together in Melbourne. The biggest get-togethers have been in Western Australia where a large group of ‘Perth-ite’s have established strong bonds.

Insider tips

So what does it take to be a successful Club member? From what we've learned by losing 100,000kg we know that:

• You need to be committed to your weight-loss program, especially in the first three weeks.
• You need to keep a diary and record everything you eat and drink as well as any exercise you do, at least four days a week – ideally two weekdays and on the weekend.
• You need to weigh in each week.
• You need to visit the website regularly, ideally every day, to use the great tools on offer include food search, the menu plans and the community forums.

And as successful Club member Amanda Russelhuber points out you have to be in the right frame of mind to succeed, “I'm lucky I found The Club, otherwise I might still have been hoping to wake up thin! My willpower and determination to succeed just got stronger as the kilos kept falling off. More than ever, I wanted to succeed to win my own personal Biggest Loser award."

So don't just think about it! Join The Biggest Loser Club today.