Hollywood Ending - Celebrity Fit Club 4, Finale
It’s our final weigh-in and I think it’s pretty safe to say that although some celebs have had real struggles, we are on our way to a uniformly successful season, with everyone losing double-digits. But before we learn everyone’s final results, it’s a given that the extra thirty minutes tacked on to this episode will be devoted to a look back on the season.
We take a walk down memory lane first with Carnie Wilson. This season, she’s definitely struggled, rarely meeting her goals. This weigh-in, she doesn’t meet her 4 lbs. target either, losing only two to bring her to 166 lbs. She’s happy with it though, and I don’t blame her. She’s losing, slowly, but she’s still going in the right direction. “Progress, not perfection,” as she puts it. Dr. Papadopoulos shows her a sweet message of encouragement from her dad, Beach Boy Brian Wilson, which brings her to tears. Overall, she’s lost 22 lbs. and 4.2% of her body fat. Once again, Celebrity Fit Club does a morph from her original body to her new one, and while it’s not dramatic, the improvement is definitely there and something she can feel proud of.
Before our next weigh-ins, we see the celebs at their final Fit Camp. They will be doing all the same events they did at the very first Fit Camp, and the team with the greatest percentage of improvement will be the winner to receive a five lbs. credit on the scales. The first event is the push-up. Erika Eleniak is the most improved, doubling the number of push-ups completed. Ted Lange doesn’t make a very large improvement over his original number, but he is the only contestant to do the “knees-up” push-ups – which are more difficult – a fact with which he taunts his rival, Nick Turturro.
Next they jump rope, and Vinny makes a massive improvement for himself. The first time he did the event, he only managed one full jump. This time, he manages fifty, and his team, Hot Buttered Soul, feels pretty good about what this means for their lead.
Nick’s and Ted’s rivalry is in full effect at the long jump as well, with Ted jumping 13’4” to beat Nick’s 12’11”. However, Ted didn’t top the charts for improvement in this event; it’s his teammate, Tina Yothers, who made a full two feet improvement over her first jump.
The last event is a quarter-mile run. This time, Ted crosses the finish line before Nick (Nick beat Ted at the first Camp), but Erika is the most improved, shaving over a minute off of her time. Angie does almost as well, shaving 56 seconds off her time.
After the events, ANT announces the winning team. Fat Crushers have made a collective 22% improvement. But it’s not enough to beat Hot Buttered Soul, who have improved 26% overall. Each member of the team receives a “Harvey” award for their efforts, and the team receives that five lbs. credit for the final team weigh-in.
Before the Camp is over, Harvey has the celebs make the ceremonial run with the fat blobs. Each blob weighs five lbs, and Harvey fills a net backpack with blobs representing how much they’ve lost. To a one, they are all amazed that they used to carry that extra weight around. Angie, especially, seems to be profoundly affected by the exercise.
Back at the Castle of Reckoning, it’s Vinny’s turn to weigh in. We review his ups and downs over the course of the show, but when he steps on the scale for the final weigh-in, the more youthful and trim appearance of his face alone shows that overall, he’s been successful. His final weigh-in lands him at 245 lbs., with an impressive 29 lbs. lost overall. He says he’s always been a quitter, and has had trouble trusting people. His experience on the show – his own achievements and the support from his team and the panel – seems to have made what we hope will be a lasting improvement in his outlook. Overall for the show, he lost 6.6% of his total body fat.
Erika is the next to weigh-in. She’s in the running with Tina Yothers to be the celeb who’s lost the greatest percentage of body fat. Her weigh-in is fantastic and sets a high (or is it low when it comes to weight loss?) bar for Tina to meet. She loses eight lbs., bringing her total weight loss for the entire show to 31 lbs. She’s down to 121 lbs. and has lost 20.4% of her body weight! From a body fat percentage lost, she’s dropped 13.2%. She sees a message of “inspiration” from her husband (she’s touched, but I personally was slightly disturbed on at least two levels by his “See, guys don’t mind if your wife has a baby because she can get skinny again!” message) and again expresses her heartfelt thanks to the panel.
Success story Ted Lange steps to the scale next. He’s shaved his gray beard but grown back his mustache and now – other than a little loss in the hairline – looks nearly indistinguishable from the Isaac Washington we all grew to love all those years ago on “The Love Boat.’ He loses the three lbs. he pledged to help his team. Dr. Smith congratulates him on being the only celebrity to meet or exceed every target set for him. He delivers a cute little rap about the show, earning him a standing ovation from his fellow celebs. His body morph is impressive, his belly nearly completely gone. His final weight is 161 lbs., he lost 28 lbs. and 8% of his body fat overall. All right, Isaac!!
It’s Nick’s turn to weigh-in and we see a quick montage of his competitive streak demonstrated in the season’s Fit Camps. He seems to be successfully channeling his rage into boxing, and per the original challenge from Harvey, he is now able to go three rounds in the ring. Like Vinny and Ted, the change in Nick’s face is dramatic; not only is the weight loss evident, he looks a lot younger. He has a great final weigh-in, losing five lbs. He’s lost 22 lbs. overall to bring him down to 153 lbs. with 8.1% body fat lost overall.
Of course, once it’s Angie Stone’s turn to weigh-in, we have to see the Drama Montage of her meltdown this season. This story seems to be on its way to a happy ending, though, since she seems to have had a complete attitude adjustment. She weighs in at 208 lbs., losing one lb. for this weigh-in and eighteen lbs. overall. Dr. Smith confirms with her that she will be continuing on the path to better health. Dr. P asks her to sing a little bit of her song “Happy Being Me.” The panel, the other celebs, and I are all hoping she is able to stay on the right track to lose even more weight. She’s lost 2.3% of her body fat overall.
Record-setter BoneCrusher is up to the scale next. He’s already broken the record for overall weight loss prior to this weigh-in. He strengthens that position by losing another four lbs. to bring him down to 373 lbs., losing 51 lbs. for the entire show. He’s basically lost a pound every other day. He seems to be dedicated to the process, both for himself and his family. He says he’s learned better eating habits and doesn’t think his stomach could even handle the junk again. Harvey challenges him to another one-on-one game once he gets below 300 lbs. He’s lost 8% and even though he’s still a big giant man, his body morph demonstrates he’s really on his way to being a smaller giant man.
Tina Yothers has been not only consistently successful with the weigh-ins, she’s also one brave lass, as she makes good on her promise from the first show and appears on camera in a bikini. She’s looking good in it! She steps up to the scale to learn both her weight, and whether or not she’s lost enough to beat Erika in the race to biggest overall percentage lost. Her goal was four lbs., but she would have to lose eight lbs. to beat Erika. After some gratuitous dragging-out by Dr. Smith, we learn that she did it! She lost ten lbs. bringing her down to 151 lbs. She’s lost 21.8% of her total body weight! Wow! I so completely thought it would be well-nigh physically impossible for her to do it at this stage of the game, I actually already typed out “She didn’t quite make it” while waiting for Dr. Smith to spit it out. Okay, world, please learn the lesson I seem to learn every week with this show: don’t underestimate Tina Yothers! She runs outside the Castle to check out her hybrid car prize. Her body morph is as impressive as her accomplishments in hard numbers, with her rounded belly disappearing. She’s lost a total of 42 lbs. and 13.3% of her body fat.
The celebs, the panel and ANT all head out to the giant scales to find out which team has lost the most. After they clamber up onto the scales, ANT lists the prizes, which include some fancy watches, resort vacations, luggage and $20,000.
The Fat Crushers are the overall winners… um… losers, with a combined total loss of 129 lbs. Hot Buttered Soul has lost a completely respectable 119 lbs., but even with their Fit Camp five lbs. credit, it’s not enough.
So this season is over and I have to say – at the risk of sounding like a complete soft touch – that I felt really inspired and motivated by all the celebrities and the show as a whole. Sure, it has all the requisite hokey challenges and other questionable reality television elements. But despite that, the fact is that the battle to lose weight – really the fight to control yourself – which seems to be something that should be so simple and straightforward, can sometimes be harder than any external challenge you could face. So color me sappy, but much like last season, I now have a little soft spot for all the celebs and truly hope they are all able to maintain their losses and continue to lose if need be.
Thanks for reading!
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