Editorial: Ex-host has me at a loss

I was extremely disheartened to read the former host of the Australia version of The Biggest Loser Ajay Rochester has gained a staggering 48kg.

Rochester hosted the popular weight loss show for three years before leaving in 2009. Her addiction to "crap food" has made her almost unrecognisable from her slender TV days. She says she fears she is eating herself to death.

It really puzzles me how someone could put that much weight on after being involved in such a programme. I'm a huge fan of the television series. I've watched pretty much every series of the Australian version since it started.

It has inspired me, made me cry, made me laugh and made me look at my own weight loss journey and the importance of trying to get to a healthy weight range. Many of the contestants, once losing the weight, say they never want to go back to how they were and many of them haven't.

While I can understand how Rochester could have put on a few kilos since her days on The Biggest Loser I can't understand how someone who has been immersed in a weight loss television programme of that calibre for several years could go on to gain 48kg.

Since August last year I've been focused on getting down to my goal weight.

It's not been easy and there have been a few lapses into old eating habits.

I took the last week off and ate a lot more rubbish food and didn't exercise.

I felt yuck and the scales at the end of the week showed I'd gained 1.5kg. That was a shock when for each week for almost the past year I've generally either lost weight, stayed the same or only put on a few hundred grams.

I'm not paranoid about my weight but gaining 1.5kg is enough for me to realise that a week of "being bad" is quite enough.

Fortunately Rochester has realised that she has to do something and has joined a new television programme called Excess Baggage, a counterpart of The Biggest Loser, as a contestant. Let's hope that after being a contestant on that show she doesn't put the weight back on again.