Trainer
Bob Harper has been with NBC's
The Biggest Loser since the beginning. Trainers and hosts have come and gone but Harper has been there every season, helping his blue team every step of the way. His philosophy is to transform his clients and contestants from the inside out. Harper got noticed after making a name for himself is Los Angeles and took his training on a national level. He hasn't looked back since. He has taken part in
The Biggest Loser DVD workout series as well as
The Biggest Loser cookbooks. Next year, he'll release a book of his own called
Are You Ready. Today, Bob Harper sat down with BuddyTV to talk about the work he does on television's hottest weight loss show.
Below, you will find the complete transcript and mp3 of the interview.
Hey, this is Gina from BuddyTV, and I'm talking to one of the trainers from NBC's The Biggest Loser, Bob Harper.
Hi Gina.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
No worries.
I'm wondering if fitness is always something you've been interested in and personal training.
Oh, I've been in the fitness business now for about 17 years so it's definitely become a part of my long-term life.
How did you become approached by NBC to join The Biggest Loser?
Well, I think that living in Los Angeles, working with the clients that I was working with kind of got my foot in the door. But when I realized what the shows was about, for me, I needed, these people that were in need of help and needed to be guided back on track, I was the perfect person for this. Because, I mean, everybody's got their own approach but mine is much more of a personal approach and I think that that's what people need. I mean, yes, tough love works for a lot of people. For me, it's that compassion that I feel like I bring.
And how does someone take being a personal trainer to the next level and end up on a national level?
Well, I think that it's discipline and it's focus. I mean, I think, you look at anybody that really excels at whatever they do, I think their mind is just, they're driven more than the average person. There are certain people that are being comfortable in being where they are, and then there are the ones that really want to excel as much as they can possibly excel. And I think that that requires a lot of discipline.
You really focus on helping people from the inside out. How important is it for them to change what's going on on the inside?
Well, I think it's everything. I mean, the main thing that I teach people from the beginning is that it can't be about "Let's get the six-pack in six weeks." If that's your primary objective, then where do you go from there? I think that you've got to approach the problem and I think it becomes a problem for a lot of people, especially overweight people. It's like, what is your relationship with food? What does it do for you and how does it work against you? And so, when you're working on that level, that's when you can really have lasting changes.
There's a blogger online who's saying that the reason for the huge weight drops are because the contestants are not drinking enough water. Can you dispute that and tell me that they're actually hydrated?
When you're working out as much as we're working out, people always think that they're starving their bodies, they're dropping water weight. I mean, so you've got to keep the body running like a fine-tuned machine in the house to get the results that we're getting. So when the competition really comes in, people are always trying to think of ways to drop the water, but I guess I don't recommend that people do that because it becomes chasing that water weight and chasing, it becomes more of a game play that way.
Were you surprised when Jillian was part of the show again this season, or had you heard something about it?
Oh no when those doors opened and I saw Jillian, I thought, "Oh look at the twist, look at the drama going on," so it was definitely a surprise for all of us.
What can we expect this season? Will the competition really heat up now that there are three teams competing?
I think that people do start getting really competitive, more so than ever, and I think that one thing that I've really always tried to do is never lost my objective. And it's never been about the game for me. I've never really cared about having the quote, unquote "Biggest Loser." All I've tried to do is try to get people to get control of their lives again. Because for me, it's so much more about the big picture. And that's what I try to teach people all the time. Because the show is gonna, this season will be over and people will move on and it's what you can learn because everyone has a chance of winning in the show.
When these contestants transition out from the show and back into their real life, what's the hardest thing about it for them?
I think the hardest thing for people is, they go back home thinking that they're going to be who they used to be and they're not. And they try to back and get that circle into a square peg, they can really set themselves up for failure. They need to realize, what I teach them is that when they go home, they need to embrace the fact that they're different. They need to show their friends and family that what they were doing in their lives wasn't working for them, and they need tools now to come home to.
And what's in the works for you? Do you have anything in the future that you're looking forward to?
Oh yeah, I just wrote a book that's gonna be coming out in April, and the book is called Are You Ready? because that's the main thing that I ask people all the time. It's like, I can tell you everything that you need to do, eat, learn, but until you're ready, then it's just words on a piece of paper. So, I'm really excited about that. I'm also working on this website with The Biggest Loser, called The Biggest Loser Online Club, which is, it's like being on the show without being on the show.
Well, a new episode of The Biggest Loser airs tonight. We'll definitely be watching. Bob, thanks for your time.
Thank you.
- Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of NBC)