Now that the show is over, I'll finally admit it: I've been a closet fan of this season of The Biggest Loser, at least since the early stages. I seem to take pleasure in the irony of watching it with my fiancee while we eat ice cream (low fat ice cream, but ice cream nevertheless). Anyway, the show is at once exploitative and inspiring, showing people losing cartloads of weight in order to give them back the fulfilling lives they lost as they packed on the fat. It also gives viewers a chance to decide which of the trainers -- Jillian or Bob -- is most manly.

(By the way, my money's on Jillian there. She's attractive, but she scares the living crap outta me.)

But what seems to happen between the last challenge and the live finale is that the finalists tend to go from healthily thin to scarily emaciated, all in the name of winning the grand prize. And, after taking a look at this year's winner, I have to ask: Is this healthy? And will it cause problems down the road?

I was watching Less Than Perfect last night (yes, it's back on ABC... yes, I thought it was cancelled, too), and the first thing I noticed was that Sara Rue had lost weight. A LOT of weight. Not that this is the first time I've seen the skinny Sara (I think I saw her skinny self on an episode of Ellen or something), but I had forgotten just how much she had slimmed down since her sitcom started four years ago.

But here's the thing: I don't understand why she had to lose the weight to begin with.