Previously on The Biggest Loser Transformed we learned a little about some of the new contestants, the challenges they’re facing and what the show plans to do about it all. We got introduced to new trainer Libby Babet and welcomed back Blue Team trainer Shannan Ponton and host Fiona Falkiner.

Tonight! The journey continues. Benchmark training to see where everyone’s at will apparently reveal some surprisingly fit folk amongst the group. A cooking challenge of some kind will give the winning team an advantage at the elimination… tomorrow! That’s quick!

Lynton’s doing it rough the next day after all the kayaking. Some of his roommates are having to bring him water because he can’t lift his arms. They’re all having a good laugh about it.

Apparently Jake was taken to hospital last night and nobody’s sure if he’s back yet. Nikki says he started slurring his speech and so they took him to hospital. Everyone’s very worried. It’s the first day and they might already lose someone?

Meanwhile Anna and Amy are the first ones up and head into the kitchen to get some food before an early morning training session. But before they can do anything they notice a note. Amy asks who gets to go on a date today, to much laughter from the rest of the group. Is that a Bachelor reference? I’m not familiar.

Before they can read what’s actually in the envelope or see what’s under the cloches… Jake’s back!

He was diagnosed with diabetes on his 23rd birthday, so he’s been dealing with it for fifteen years now. Type 1. Has to manage his glucose levels carefully to avoid going into a coma and dying. He wants to get healthier for his family, including his newborn son Saxon. He doesn’t want to die young. He was fitted with an insulin pump at some point but he doesn’t talk about that, though they show him working on it.

Now, have a seat and let Amy read the letter! Healthy eating is very important. Blah blah blah. Transform your diet, blah blah blah. They have a choice among a variety of diets under the cloches. The teams will each have to pick a diet and stick to it for the rest of the week to elimination.

The diet choices are, No Sugar, Paleo, Mediterranean, Vegetarian, Low Carb. The teams split up to try and pick a diet amongst themselves.

Blue Team’s Jenny says there’s no bad choices but Paleo would probably suit them and they think Shannan would be happy with that. Don’t know about that, Shannan’s not a massive fucking plonker. Guess we’ll find out!

Stated benefits of Paleo are that it has no grains, good proteins, no processed foods so it’ll suit them.

Orange Team’s having a more interesting discussion! Jake really wants a diet that will work okay for him. Sophia thinks Mediterranean and Low Carb would be the best ones, while No Sugar would be “too hard”. Okayyy.

Jake’s worried that the team is leaning to Low Carb, which is less than ideal for him. Says that without carbs he’ll be straight back in hospital or die. He says that to us, not to his team who should have been taking that into account!

Anyway, enough of that nonsense, Paleo for Blue and Low Carb for Orange and off to training with you all!

Libby calls her team her little athletes, which Nikki says makes them feel like being there.

Libby says it’s an important day, it’s time for their benchmark training. Nobody’s heard of it. Shannan asks how everyone in his team is going, Matt’s got some war wounds (bruises) and Lynton says he woke up “paralysed” but it’s just sore muscles, Shannan says. If you don’t use them, they get weak! Welcome to the world of training!

Benchmark training is counting max pushups, squats, burpees, crunches and a wall sit. This gives the trainers something to judge the contestant’s current fitness levels and, eventually, their progress.

Libby tells Josh they’ve picked two of the tests specifically for him because they’re on the police force fitness test. Josh is also reading a pamphlet that says you’ve got to be under 27.5 BMI. Which he probably isn’t right now, hey?

Jake’s been cleared to do the benchmark training. Jake says he’s probably about 80-90% after all the kayaking yesterday but he’s ready to go. Scared, but ready!

Shannan left off one of the tests! The dreaded Beep Tes. Run 20m before the beep sounds. Run 20m back before the beep. The beeps get faster as the test goes on and the longer you keep going, the fitter you are.

Josh is halfway to his beep test goal, Libby says. Steph’s disappointed to be the first out.

Meanwhile Team Blue’s Lynton is one of the last guys in the race but he gives up. Brett’s powering through, he’s the last one going. Off in Orangetown Jake’s one of the final three, despite just getting out of hospital that morning. And he just keeps going, despite looking rougher and rougher. He gets a 5.9 and everyone’s very impressed, including Libby. She tells him he’s an inspiration to his team, coming back from a small health scare.

Josh got a 3.4, which is about half what he needs to get into the police force. He needs a 7.1, which is more than Jake managed. Josh says it would mean a lot to him to get to that mark, those’re the numbers that matter to him. The only way is up for him, he tells us.

Benchmarking not done! Squats! Jenny doesn’t think she’ll score too high but she’s very impressed by how well Brett powers through the tests.

Jenny spends most of her time wandering the farm in jodhpurs, but she also likes to dress up and look pretty. She’s the eldest at 60, but she wants to look and feel well, so she knows she’s got to get fit.

Jenny’s not done a situp in 30 years, but she’s giving it everything she’s got Brett says of his benchmark partner.

Lynton didn’t think he could do even one pushup but he’s managed 16, which Shannan remarks is not bad considering how bad he felt in the morning.

Next challenge, wall sit. Sit against a wall for as long as you can. Just a straight endurance test, hands and back against the wall. Quite a few of Team Blue go out early but Jenny and Brett are both hanging in there… until Brett gets beaten by the nana!

Anna’s the second last one out, with Jenny last of all. She probably could have gone a bit longer I think. She says she just imagined she was hanging onto her horse as he ran like crazy.

Team Orange is pushing through their situps. Jake’s still pushing hard, but Sophia is absolutely smashing the squats. Simon’s also pushing hard, because he doesn’t want to lose another challenge to Jake.

Simon’s son was born a bit early and that’s when he started putting on weight, because they were on a two hour feeding cycle early on to get him up to speed. He’s put around 25kg on and can only see disappointment in the mirror. He’s got to lose the weight for himself. His goal is to do the Kokoda Trail, but he knows he’s not physically ready for it yet.

Burpees! Pushup, jump in the air, do it again! Sophia’s smashing these as well, despite being clearly overweight there’s obviously a good degree of fitness under that.

Jake’s encouraging Simon to keep pushing harder, which Simon is obviously appreciating. Though once the count is done Simon’s the first chuck of the season!

Libby checks on him once he’s about done barfing. Well done, man!

So, who’re the people to beat?

Best Beep Test for Team Blue was 5.7 from Brett. 5.9 for Jake on the Orange Team, as we heard earlier.

Slide crunches? Sophia for Orange. Jenny for the wall sit on Blue. Brett on Blue and Nikki on Orange for the burpees. Steph on Orange for pushups. And Bench Squats was, of course, won by Sophia with a whopping 73!

Time to get cleaned up and head off for their next challenge, back at Camp Biggest Loser.

Food! Food everywhere! Actual, healthy food though. Not the usual donuts and cakes. It’s the brand new Biggest Loser Transformed kitchen, Fiona announces.

Nutrition plays a significant role in changing their lives. To cook healthy they need to learn from a healthy chef. Tobie Puttock’s an ambassador for Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food and has written four best selling cookbooks. He’s barely recognisable without his mop of hair. He’s got shaved stubble. It’s so wrong!

Tobie had been cooking for years in Australia before heading to England to get some more chef and life experience. There he scored a job at London’s River Cafe, which cooks Italian food. And he was lucky enough to work alongside a much younger Jamie Oliver, leading to them becoming good friends.

Fee asks if he’s a “Pasta Master”. “Oooh, that rhymes,” says Tobie. Silly goofs. All the contestants like pasta, as does Tobie and Fiona puts her hand up for liking it too. Hah!

Tobie’s wife loves pasta as well, but chefs are used to making things taste good, which means oil and butter and so on. He had a chat with his wife’s nutritionist and got an idea of the sorts of things people should be eating and decided to write a new cookbook based on that. During the writing of the book his wife lost 10kg from the healthier eating. Nice!

Lisa-Faye (not a real name!) tells us Tobie’s story resonated with her because that’s what had happened to her as well. She says her full name is Lisa-Faye Tudehope-Wickham, I think? Bloody hell!

Lisa-Faye’s husband is the executive chef of the catering company they work for. He doesn’t skimp when cooking and she knows it’s bad for her, but it’s delicious.

Tobie knows it’s hard to change eating habits, but little tweaks can help in a big way. Using a spiraliser lets you incorporate all sorts of different vegetables into other meals.

Tobie calls Sophia, who works in a pasta shop back home, up to the bench to ribbonise a zucchini. Tobie says you can toss a spiralised zucchini string through a regular pasta sauce for a healthier option.

Cauliflower! Tobie’s going to teach us how to make bread out of it? Or a type of bread. Chuck a cauliflower in the blender then whisk an egg throw it in a bowl. Shape the resulting mash into golf ball size blobs. Put them in the oven at 230 degrees for 35-40 minutes. The result has less starchy carbs and calories. And here’s some he prepared earlier!

Tobie puts some tomato, basil and prosciutto on top of one of the discs. Tobie picks Jenny, a celiac who can’t really have gluten anymore, to try one. And Fiona wanders over to try one too. Fee says they’re delicious and she’s going to go home and make some for herself.

Me too! If it’s not pouring with rain tomorrow!

Anyway, time for a cooking challenge. Oh no!

Lynton doesn’t usually cook, just has a pie or something after work. Simmo usually just grabs a pizza, so he’s hoping he doesn’t have to cook.

The winning team in this challenge will have an advantage going into the elimination tomorrow. Tomorrow! Much murmuring at that.

Two cooks from each team will have to prepare their version of fried chicken, chips and coleslaw. But it’s got to be healthy and delicious and nobody knows how that could be possible. Tobie’s still there, I bet Tobie has some ideas!

Team Blue thinks Orange has an advantage in Lisa-Faye, but Lisa-Faye says it’s actually her husband that’s the chef. She can eat food, not cook it! But it’s her and Nikki who’ll be doing the cooking.

Matt and Anna have stepped up for Team Blue as Anna’s a butcher and Matt’s… I’m not sure. Good at cookery maybe?

They have an hour to make their meals.

Tobie says when you’re adjusting a recipe you’ve got to think about things you can substitute or remove from a recipe to make it better for you.

Nikki’s going to slice up some sweet potato and parsnips for the chips. Little bit of oil, some mixed herbs over the top and then oven baked. Lisa-Faye’s going to fry the chicken with a little bit of oil in the pan then finish it off in the oven.

Matt’s very excited about carrots and peeling them. Ooookay? Jenny’s offering advice from the sidelines but Matt tells her they’ve got it under control. Jenny says, “Okay, just keep cooking girls!” But Matt’s a boy!

Lisa-Faye’s put a bit of gluten free “powder” and egg white on the chicken. Tobie’s impressed because getting rid of the yolk will make it healthier.

Tobie and Fiona visit with the Blue Team and check on their plans. The sweet potato’s not in the oven yet, which worries Tobie and Fiona a bit. The coleslaw is also a worry as Anna wants to use the lower fat mayo dressing, but Tobie tells them that in Italy they make something with similar vegetables but no mayo. So they’re going with a vinegar… ette? Vinagrette? Someone that knows chef things, in the comments below!

Tobie tells us you’ve got to be really mindful of fats when cooking. One tablespoon of olive oil has 120 calories. Bloody hell! He suggests using it sparingly.

Nikki’s gone with a greek yoghurt instead of the mayo for the coleslaw, but the end result tastes pretty manky. The greek yoghurt’s given it a sour taste and nothing seems like it can save the flavour.

Fifteen minutes to go!

Anna’s worried the chicken won’t be cooked properly, but she’s adding some lime to the pan for some extra flavour.

Lisa-Faye’s finally put Orange’s chicken in the oven, but it doesn’t look brown enough from the pan and so it might be a bit iffy inside…

They’ve also altered their coleslaw to only have a tiny bit of dressing in it, tossed through, so it still tastes right but is much healthier. Meanwhile Blue’s disagreeing over how much of their coleslaw to put on the plate. They started out with a massive mountain, along with perhaps too much chicken? Hmm.

The results from both teams look pretty good and everyone’s really excited by the smells. Jenny’s getting a bit hungry though I guess, as she’s complaining they get to taste some first.

Orange Team get tasted first. It’s a Mexican inspired dish and they’ve used their dietary plan for the week, low carbs, in their cooking too.

After the oven the chicken does look a bit browner and Fiona and Tobie both tuck in, so it must have reached a safe temperature. Or they’re very brave!

And Tobie really likes it! He says that greek yoghurt may seem a bit strange as a dressing but hit it with a bit of acidity and it’s great. Fiona says she likes the creaminess and that it feels a bit “naughty”.

Blue Team’s turn. Lime and chicken’s good, Tobie says. So both teams managed to cook their chicken properly? Take that, Masterchef!

Tobie says his philosophy is that you can’t really eat enough vegetables, so long as they’re not doused with a fattening dressing. Lots of flavour in the chicken, too. Fiona can’t stop eating so it’s obviously quite good!

Tobie’s very impressed by both team’s creativity in their dishes. The brief was to make a delicious, healthy meal. Team Orange used a little bit too much oil in their pan and because of that, Blue wins. Well done!

Tomorrow night’s challenge sounds like it might be a straight up elimination challenge? So the advantage Team Blue won will doubtless stand them in good stead.

Speaking of tomorrow night, breakdowns and breakthroughs. Training and chatting to a shrink, then the first elimination challenge for the year.

At the end of the challenge… someone will be going home. DUN DUN DUNNNNN!

Or DUN DUN DUNNNNN for everyone but Nikki, because she has Immunity!