A couple from Jarrow, South Tyneside have joined other couples from around the United Kingdom in a bid to lose weight on national television. The Biggest Loser takes place at Stanford House in Leicestershire, where seven couples compete against each other to lose weight for a prize of £25,000. Contestants Mark and Karen Layton have pledged to lose weight for the sake of their own health and for their kids. Mark Layton, who weighed in at 31st 6lbs, realises that if he doesn’t lose weight he is at real risk of dying before his ten year old children grow up.

The Biggest Loser series started on Monday 10th January, with Janet and Laura Searson being the first couple to be eliminated. Tough fitness trainers Richard Callender and Angie Dowds, put the contestants through their paces four times a day in the gym, as well as arranging tough challenges. Mark Layton knows that his weight puts him at serious risk of health complications and is now willing to take action to become healthy, along with his wife.

With an American version of The Biggest Loser and a game for Nintendo Wii, the game show looks as though it may be just the help and encouragement required to help people who are seriously overweight to shed the pounds. As the couples lose weight they are given health checks and advice regarding nutrition, and healthy but interesting meal ideas.

If the show can encourage people to lose weight and improve their health, it may benefit the children of the UK and America, who are becoming seriously overweight even before they reach adulthood. As the obesity epidemic reaches crisis point, there is hope that people will take up the challenge and join The Biggest Loser to drop the pounds.