Last night, NBC unveiled the newest season of The Biggest Loser.  People who wanted to change their lives came to the show for the chance to compete on a team with trainers Kim Lyons and Bob Harper.  Six contestants were not chosen and were sent home, or so they thought.  They will be secretly trained by a third trainer, Jillian Michaels, who returns to the show this season.  This year, the trainers are more involved with their teams and are allowed to attend weigh-ins each episode.  Kim met her team for the first time on last night's episode and got right to work with them.  Yesterday, Kim spoke with BuddyTV about the newest season of The Biggest Loser.

Below, you will find the complete transcript and mp3 of the interview

Hey everyone, this is Gina from Buddy TV, and I’m talking to one of the trainers from The Biggest Loser, Kim Lyons. Kim, how are you doing?

I’m doing great, how are you?


I’m great. It’s so great to talk to you. Now you weren’t on the show in the first season, so when the show first aired, did you watch The Biggest Loser? Were you familiar with it?

Oh absolutely and it's funny. I think there was a trainer, when I first heard about the show, and I remember saying The Biggest Loser. And I thought, “My gosh, how mean, they’re calling fat people losers?” And lthen, once I got done watching the show, it really isn’t. It’s amazing, it’s an inspiring show, and I’m so excited to be a part of it.


Now were you familiar with the other trainer on the show, Bob, beforehand? Is he someone that is well-known in your world?

No, actually I didn’t know Bob. I can't believe I didn't know him, it’s a pretty small world, so it was fun getting to know him over the show.


And what was it like to be back for that? Did they lose the weight, did they keep it off? That must have been really cool, to see the impact that you’ve had on the contestants.

You know it’s absolutely amazing, and I keep in touch of course with all of my past contestants and like to keep up on, see how they’re doing. And it is a sense of pride that I have to see their success, it’s just overwhelming, it’s just like having kids. You send them off to college, and then you see them just do so well through life. It is really rewarding, they’re just living such different lives than they were before they came to the show.


Is there any one contestant that sticks out in your mind that really ended up surprising you, and just has a special place in your heart?

All of them have their own little niche. I actually just got back from a weekend working with Best Buddies with Wylie, he works for that organization, you know a charity event, that raises money for disabled children. It was just awesome.

So it was easy to work with him, and through the course of working with him on the show, he was always talking about the Best Buddies organization. I was like, “OK, that’s great.” And now taking time to be a part of that is definitely something that’s been very special for me.


When these contestants leave the ranch and they go home, what do you think is the biggest challenge they face once they get back into their regular life?

The transitions are just difficult. Whether it’s a transition from high school to college, or a transition from getting married, or a transition having kids. The transition going home for them, it’s really no different this time. Some people put on some weight. It’s scary to try and adapt a new lifestyle into your old life, is very tricky.

They’re surrounded by friends who they used to go out and eat pizza and drink beer with, and now all of a sudden their lifestyle’s changed. You know that's okay in moderation, every once in a while, it’s definitely difficult for them.


How long have you been a personal trainer, and how do you take being a personal trainer to the next level and being seen on national TV?

I’ve been a personal trainer certified for 12 years. I’ve been an athlete and trained my entire life, but taking it to the next level, it’s passion for what you do. There’s a lot of trainers who tend to walk people from machine to machine to machine, and they don’t share their passion for what they’ve learned before they can test us. I think that’s what’s taken Bob and Jillian and I to the next level, is just that true genuine passion for training people and changing lives and not letting them quit when they want to, and not letting them get to that stage where they quit losing weight.

That constant drive for what can we do now, what can we do different, and finding ways of inspiring people beyond just vanity. It’s not just about looking good in bathing suits or tights and jeans, it’s about changing your health and more confidence and more power to come, and treating your body with respect.


And has life really changed for you since you appeared on The Biggest Loser last year?

You know, it hasn’t really. I’m still just seeing beach girls doing my training, and then, something weird will happen. Like somebody will recognize me, shriek and freak out, and they’ll be, “It’s the trainer!”  So it has changed for me in that way, all I know, I’m just a trainer out there changing lives.


Now this season there’s going to be three teams. Did you know that going into it, or was that a surprise to you as well?

It’s a small world amongst trainers, so we definitely knew that there was buzz going around about a third trainer.  But as to when they were coming back and how they were coming back, that was all a surprise. They do a really good job of keeping things from us, so yeah, I was definitely excited to see the shock on their faces.


I can imagine. Now tonight’s the season premiere, can you tell us anything that we can expect when we watch it?

You know it’s just, you’re gonna meet the whole new cast, Alison Sweeney is the new host. I jump out of an airplane for the first time ever within the first couple of seconds of the show, which is exciting. But they definitely do all kinds of things this season that missed out last year.

I was like, “There’s no way that they’re going to top the fifty state involvement,” and they definitely outdid themselves this year. We’ve gone to back-to-basics theme, it’s no longer a hundred million dollar ranch that we’re filming on. It’s kind of down and dirty, to say the least, so I think the new environment will shock America.


We’re definitely looking forward to it and, we’ll be watching tonight. I just want to thank you so much for your time Kim, and I wish you luck.

Thank you so much.


- Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of NBC)