by David McAlpine

Biggest Loser fans and weight loss junkies alike, it's time to fill your summer viewing gap with ABC's newest reality show, Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition. Similar to the house we see on the similarly named series, "transformation specialist" Chris Powell spends a year with a different contestant each episode to help them change their lives forever.

For the first episode, we meet 21 year-old elementary school PE teacher Rachel, who weighs 369 pounds, 221 pounds over what she should weigh. To make things harder on her, Rachel is the only overweight member of her family, and she never felt like she fit in. Rachel says she never felt like she could make her parents proud, and losing all this weight is the chance to do that.

Chris takes Rachel to the California Health Longevity Institute, where he tries to confront the emotional side first. He has her family walk a mile in her shoes by walking around a track carrying sandbags equal to the amount of excess weight Rachel carries on her body. Though you would think that would open up their eyes, the response was limited, which meant this change was all up to Rachel, but she wants it, and she's going for it.

Chris moves in with Rachel for three months and changes her entire living space. He makes her den an exercise room and gets rid of all the sugars and carbs in her refrigerator. Rachel's mom is not happy about the makeover, and actually leaves the house when Chris is throwing all the food out.

In the first three months alone, Rachel loses 80 pounds, and was down 89 pounds by day 90. Chris was incredibly pleased with her progress and sent her to Greece for her birthday as motivation.

After Chris moves out, though, the weight loss becomes more of a struggle for Rachel. She misses her six month goal by 5 pounds, but still is down enough to where she can go bungee jumping. However, with all the weight coming off comes excess skin, which Rachel had trouble comprehending, as Chris began talking about sin removal surgery.

With those prospects in mind, Rachel hits a wall during the next three months, losing just three pounds more at the nine-month mark. Chris is disappointed and Rachel is upset, but she still was approved for the surgery. Chris wasn't happy, because he didn't want Rachel to think her job was done, but she knew she still had three months left.

By the end of the year, Rachel was down a total of 161 pounds, weighing in a 208 pounds. Now that she's lost the weight, she no longer needs to get lap band surgery and she can enjoy a healthier lifestyle at home, with her family.

Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.

(Photo courtesy of ABC)

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