Trainer finds fame on 'Loser'

Kim Lyons never set out to become famous.

An aerobics instructor-turned-personal-trainer, she didn't expect much when she auditioned two years ago for a spot as a trainer on NBC's "The Biggest Loser."

But today — sitting inside her newly purchased three-story Hermosa Beach home, wearing workout clothes while waiting for an evening interview with Larry King — fame is what she's got.

"How many people go from regular trainer to prime-time NBC? It's so weird," said Lyons, who returns for her second year as a trainer on the fourth sea-son of NBC's weight-loss reality show, "The Biggest Loser."

"I'm just this dumb trainer on the red carpet," she said. "All these other girls, this is their life, and I'm like, 'OK, I'm just the trainer.' "

She may be "just the trainer," but she's a big piece of "The Biggest Loser." After all, this year's crop of "Losers" — 18 overweight men and women hoping to slim down for a $250,000 payoff (and, of course, their health) — won't be losing all by themselves.

"The training is brutal," said Lyons, a former competitive weightlifter whose first book, "Your Body, Your Life," will be published in early 2008. "Who wants to have a trainer with them 24 hours a day?"

She should know. There was a time when Lyons herself was about 30 pounds heavier than her current weight of 115.

"I was chunky," she said. "I was just round. I had no muscle. ... I began teaching aerobics, and a trainer was like, 'Hey, do you want to train?' From there, I just got addicted to the whole process."

Lyons' off-camera demeanor is a far cry from the tough-girl persona she'll exhibit on this season's show. At home, the blond, brown-eyed 34-year-old exudes a cheeriness most evident when she scoops up her barking pug-poodle mix, Harley, and kisses him on the forehead.

Lyons is the season 4 coach of the Red Team; "Loser" veteran Bob Harper coaches the Blue Team; and Jillian Michaels, who took season 3 off to promote her online weight-loss program, www.jillianmichaels.com, coaches the new Black Team.

The competitors began training in April. Team members were eliminated one by one, based on their weight loss and their performance in various physical challenges, until four remained.

Those four were sent home in August to continue the program on their own — off camera — until Dec. 18, when they will return for the finale and one person will be crowned "The Biggest Loser."

"It's kind of a test of whether or not they really learn the lifestyle," Lyons said. "You can't just do everything for them and then have a winner and say, 'OK, you're done, you win.' I have to teach them everything so that when they do go home, they can apply these things in the real world."

Past "Loser" contestants have lost as many as 20 pounds per week. Last year's winner, 36-year-old deli owner Erik Chopin of West Islip, N.Y., lost 214 pounds, a whopping 52.58 percent of his original starting weight of 407 pounds.

And despite the inevitable critique of those watching at home and the crew of cameras catching every forced drop of fat-free salad dressing or snuck-in ice cream cone, losing weight, even when it's on TV, is no easy feat.

"I think the biggest misconception people have is that, 'Of course they succeed because they have somebody making their food, they have somebody training them all the time, they have no outside stresses,' " Lyons said. "But in reality, they have to make their own food. We teach them, but we don't do it for them."

More than 100,000 people auditioned for a part in season 4. Those chosen include a Hurricane Katrina survivor, a pair of male twins and the show's oldest-ever contestant, a 62-year-old man from Peoria, Ill.

"They all have high blood pressure and high cholesterol," Lyons said. "The only thing we do test for is that we do a stress test of the heart so that we know they're not going to keel over and have a heart attack there on the set."

Whatever the formula is for finding the right people for the job, it's working. Not only have the "Losers" dropped a grand total of more than 6,500 pounds in three seasons, the show has won over audiences worldwide. Rights have been sold to Australia, Israel, the Netherlands, Brazil, India and the United Kingdom.

In the U.S., last year's season finale drew about 11.7 million viewers.

It's not surprising. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 60 percent of the American public is overweight, with an estimated 400,000 deaths per year due to poor diet and low physical activity.

Further, the Institute of Medicine reported that the rate of childhood obesity has more than doubled for preschool children and adolescents and tripled for children ages 6 to 11.

It's a statistic for which Lyons said there is no good excuse.

"I've heard every excuse in the book," she said. "People are like, 'Oh, I can't work out because of this, this and this,' and I say, 'Whatever. You should see what these 400-pound people do. Don't tell me you can't do it.' "