Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, Episode 1, Rachel

Rachel, Episode 1, Photo Courtesy of ABC

Season 1 | Episode 1 | Aired 05/30/2011

Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition introduces us to a new morbidly obese person every week that is selected to endure a 365 day challenge to lose half their weight.

Meet Rachel
In the premiere episode we meet Rachel, a 21 year old Elementary School PE Teacher. Rachel has struggled with her weight her whole life, and is the only overweight person in her family. She’s surprised by Chris (Personal Trainer on the show) when she was chosen, and eager to begin her weight loss. Weighing in at 369 lbs, she is ready to go.

She’s given a 3 Month Goal to loose 80 lbs. If she reaches the goal Chris is sending her to Greece! She can really use that motivation because her family is not giving her the full support she needs.

At Rachel’s 90 day weigh in she reaches her goal! 80 pounds in 90 days. Before her next goal Chris sits down with the family about adopting a healthy lifestyle and then continues to raid their kitchen, throwing everything away.

Her Phase 2 goal was to lose 55 more pounds, she doesn’t make it by 5 pounds, but stays positive. Chris takes Rachel for a hike and just a little bungee jumping. She jumps right into Phase 3.

At 9 months Rachel weighs in at 239 pounds. Rachel decides to get surgery to get rid of some excess skin gained during the weight loss. She continues hard on her diet and when her one year weigh in came around people were shocked when they saw her. Her final weigh in was at 208 with a 161 pound weight loss. She thanks Chris for changing her life and giving her a while new outlook.

In My Opinion
Rachel was great and I thought she made excellent progress. I think that if her family would have supported her more she would have been able to meet her total weight loss goal. She got that surgery and that really improved her overall body image. I thought it was a great way to start off, but they didn’t show her right after surgery. She just went from flabby skin to happy flat stomach, they don’t mention all the pain and agony that surgery actually involves! But good for her. I look forward to watching the next episode.

What did you think of Rachel’s episode?

To watch Rachel’s episode visit ABC: http://abc.go.com/watch/extreme-makeover-weight-loss-edition/SH55124938/VD55128922/rachel