The youngest contestant on The Biggest Loser Asia, and the only woman to make it to the final four, twenty-year-old Martha Lai couldn’t wait to begin her very public transformation. Since the cameras stopped rolling, Martha has continued with her get-healthy plans and she’s even contemplating a new career to go with her glamorous new look.
As a small child, Martha remembers people describing her size as being cute and her chubbiness was put down to puppy fat. Martha remembers this changed virtually overnight once she left her all girls’ primary school for a mixed senior school, an experience she described as “horrifying.”
“People called me names because of my size and the hurt and embarrassment I felt changed me,” Martha said. “I started to make fun of myself, too. I cracked jokes to lighten the atmosphere and to divert attention away from my size and towards my personality.”
Turbulent home life
Martha describes her home life as “turbulent”. The daughter of a Chinese mum and a Brazilian father, Martha found not living with both parents difficult and on occasion, she felt trapped between two cultures.
In her home town of Hong Kong, Martha stood out for being overweight too. It was not uncommon for strangers to stop, stare and make comments about her size. Over time, Martha began to get used to peoples’ behaviour and this also began to worry her. Having reached her heaviest ever weight, Martha was frightened that if she didn’t do something about her size soon, perhaps she wouldn’t do anything about it at all.
Already a fan of The Biggest Loser Australia (she found Adro, Alison and Sammy particularly inspiring), Martha was excited when she heard the show was coming to Asia. She eagerly told her mum about the show and introduced the Aussie version to her via the internet. Her mum was excited too and so encouraging that she even paid for Martha’s ticket to the auditions, which were held in Singapore.
Click to enlarge photos
Martha at 127kg
Martha working out
Martha lost 44kg
Martha at 83kg
Heartfelt hopes
Once at the interview, Martha made an impassioned plea for help. “I decided to just be myself. I told the panel that I wanted a boyfriend which made me stand out a bit.
“But more than that, I knew that I needed to get across that I was desperate to change. Strangely enough, I felt that it was meant to be and that I would be offered a place on the show.
“Later when I got the phone call telling me that I had a place on Loser, I cried with relief but it was my mum who actually cried first.”
So it was an excited Martha who entered the house and months of a strict exercise and a diet regime began. She got used to cutting her meal sizes and eating healthy snacks instead of full size meals that had previously consisted of her favourite fast foods or noodles with beef. With guidance, the self-confessed boredom eater found she had little time to be bored, once she got involved in Dave Nuku’s extensive fitness routine.
Reality TV
On some occasions on the show, Martha was pictured as the slightly spoiled youngster, a character which isn’t a totally fair, she said. “Perhaps this image of me was done because it made for a good show,” Martha said.
“Well, there was a time when we had just done a five-hour workout with Dave and then David asked if we could add some boxing onto the end of it. I admit it, I flipped. I started crying because I felt emotionally and physically exhausted. But talking with Marilyn, David and Dave helped me to get over it really quickly. I was the youngest one there and the others weren’t complaining so I knew I shouldn’t do it either. And I didn’t.
“There was the odd occasion where I just didn’t feel like getting up at 5am to go for a two-hour walk,” Martha said. “It was all a bit exhausting, but I am only human.”
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Looking back, Martha wouldn’t change a thing about her journey. She loved meeting so many wonderful people and it felt great to be among people who had actually experienced what she had – they probably knew more about how she really felt than friends and family back home ever did.
Looking back at her once-in-a-lifetime journey, Martha said the contestants were “one big happy family”. “On film, it looked as though there was an ongoing dispute between Carlo and David but it wasn’t big at all - they actually got on pretty well. It was just a bit of healthy competition – it was a competition after all. Also, I just wanted to say that I didn’t slack off quite as much as was suggested on TV either!”
Focus and finale
Martha started her Biggest Loser Club journey at 127kg and, at finale, she weighed-in at 83kg. “I plan to be fully swimsuit ready and at my goal weight range of 60-65kg when I jet off for a holiday to Brazil in July,” she said.
Now a regular gym-goer, Martha keeps herself busy by playing basketball and is due to participate in a new local women’s rugby team soon. She eats healthily and avoids the oily sauces and fast foods that were part of her daily life pre-Loser and she will continue to use The Biggest Loser Club Asia for ongoing guidance.
Martha remains firm friends with her pals from The Biggest Loser and is in daily contact with them. She also has a legion of friends and followers via the Facebook face of The Biggest Loser Club.
Because she is fully committed to reaching her goals, Martha has resigned from her job at the pet shop to focus on fully on where she wants to be and ponder a new career. “Perhaps I will return to education – maybe I will study for a career in PR,” she said. “Certainly, I would love something that involves seeing the world and meeting people – that would be great,” she said.
What is absolutely sure, is that this determined young woman has quite a future ahead of her if she maintains her enthusiasm for life and the desire to succeed that she has right now.