Headed for Home on The Biggest Loser

The Biggest Loser contestants experienced a week at home during this week's episode. It's always interesting to see how their families and friends react to the changes in the contestants and how the contestants fare weight-wise after a week back in the real world. But what would The Biggest Loser be without a twist? After arriving home, each contestant learned a large wooden crate had been delivered ahead of them. And when they opened them, they found stationary bikes and a video from Alison telling them they would be riding the marathon again, this time in front of the same family and friends in front of whom they'd done their initial weigh in. And the prize was $10,000. To complicate matters, the contestants also had cupcakes they could eat in order to add time to their competitors finish times.

Poor Sam got the most cupcakes against him -- enough that even though he won the race, he ended up in 8th place. Lance was the contestant who ate the most cupcakes at 17. At 100 calories per cupcake, that's an extra 1,700 calories he had to work off. Koli came in second place, and since no one had eaten a cupcake against him, he won the prize.

A heart-warming moment was when the cameras following Daris showed him out on a date with a girl who'd previously been just been a friend. Considering his pre-ranch video in which he said he'd never been on a date and never kissed a girl, I was so happy to see this change in his life.

The weigh-in saw some significant and powerful moments. O'Neal went below 300 pounds. Daris went over 100 pounds in weight loss. Stephanie lost 9 pounds, huge compared to her recent loss numbers, and left the 200s behind by hitting 199 pounds. Michael lost 8 pounds despite having to go home another time when he got the call that his grandmother was possibly nearing the end of her life. He was proud of his weight loss because he feared the stress would cause him to not lose or even gain. His mom, Maria, told him that he had to focus on his health because his grandmother's weight was what had led to her severe health problems.

The night's biggest losses were Sam with 14 (this guy is a machine!), Ashley and Koli with 10, Stephanie with 9, and 8 each for Sunshine, Lance and Michael. The black team, led by Sam and Ashley, finally won a weigh-in by posting a combined loss of 3.86 percent, which bested the blue team's 2.58 percent. Thus, blue had to vote someone out, and it ended up being Lance to go home despite Daris having the lowest loss with 4 pounds lost this week.

What were your favorite moments from this week?