Cheryl Forberg--

I hope you enjoyed the Biggest Loser Season 8 premiere as much as I did.  We have an incredible group of contestants again this season and I am sure you will really enjoy the upcoming weeks of the show.    I receive many emails each week and I will be answering some of your most pressing food and nutrition questions in my weekly blog.

One of the things I most enjoyed about this week's episode was the segment with Dr. Rob Huizenga the show's medical doctor.  A former NFL physician Doc H knows how the body works inside and out.  Before they receive clearance to participate in the show all contestants receive a very comprehensive medical exam from Dr. Huizenga. In that episode Dr. H collaborated with top researchers from around the country to perform a variety of different exams on the contestants including body composition and cardiac function.

One of the researchers was  Dr. Eric Ravussin chief division of health and performance enhancement at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge Louisiana. Dr Ravussin is an expert in obesity diabetes and metabolism.  Dr. Ravussin measured the metabolic rates of the contestants which helps us determine their calorie budgets. .

Dr Huizenga discussed the findings of the medical exams with the individual contestants.  Their results in hand he identified their "calculated biological age" vs. their real ages.  As an example he told Shay that her body is subjected to so many weigh-related stressors it has increased her calculated biological age to 45 (instead of her actual age of 29).

Though genetics plays a big part in determining the rate at which we age environmental factors play an even bigger role.  Environmental factors include whether or not we're exposed to toxins in the air or second hand smoke.  But environmental factors include