Dozens line up to be the 'Biggest Loser'
The grand prize for being "The Biggest Loser" is $250,000.
But for many of the dozens lined up Sunday morning in Schaumburg for a chance to be on the show, the money is secondary.
"I'd do it for free," said Sam Morel, 26, originally from California but now living in Hanover Park.
Morel sat his 375 pounds on the curb waiting for the doors to open at the maintenance department at Woodfield Lexus, 350 E. Golf Road, where auditions for the NBC reality show were being held.
Contestants compete to lose the highest percentage of their starting body weight. Clearly a lot was at stake for Morel, who said he gets out of breath just going from his room to the bathroom or going up the stairs to bed.
"I want Jillian (Michaels, one of the show's personal trainers). She's the hardest trainer on there, and I want her because I know she's going to kick my butt," said Morel.
For 40-year-old Janet Stecker of South Elgin, who weighs 245 pounds, life has been a constant battle of the bulge. "I have been dieting since 6th grade. I have lost weight, gained it back, lost weight and gained it back."
Stecker, who works in a dental office as an office manager, said fast food and comfort food are mainly to blame.
She said she wants to provide a positive example for her children, who are 8 and 11 years old. "I don't want them to grow up and have the problems I have."
The applicants included Janet Palasz, 42, and her son Michael, 21, both of Elmhurst.
"We'll drive each other. We're competitive," said Michael, an operations agent for a trucking firm.
Janet, a textbook manager for Follett's, weighs 283 pounds and wants to lose 120.
"All my jobs have had food in them. Restaurants. Pizza places," she said.
"If you didn't need it, you wouldn't be here," she said, adding, "Every doctor says that my weight will kill me before anything else. I literally had a doctor tell me that. 'Don't worry about anything else. Your weight will kill you first.'"
Palasz said she is willing to appear on the show, even though it could be embarrassing having excess flesh exposed by revealing outfits. "When you're heavy, you're embarrassed enough wearing clothes, let alone being half undressed on TV."
She said she also realizes the show's methods can be brutal, but realizes they are needed.
What will she do if she doesn't get cast?
One option, she said, will be joining a new 24-hour gym opening up in Elmhurst.
Getting cast isn't easy, even if you're a "VIP." At the front of the line were several VIPs, including people who have won radio station contests or sent material to the show before. They also included some who were previously rejected.
Melissa Guillaume of Indianapolis, who has been at eight castings, said that she weighed 405 pounds in January but has since lost 42 pounds.
Living with excess weight is not easy, said Guilliame, a 33-year-old nurse. "It can be miserable.
"We went to the mall yesterday. There was one store we could go to buy clothes in our size."
Just fitting in chairs can be a problem, she said, noting that she has a seat belt extender in her car.
Brandon Nickens, the show's casting director, said over the next few days there will be callbacks for an on-camera interview in downtown Chicago.
Nickens allows that the show's routine can be grueling. "There are days when you're going to work out nine hours a day. Three-hour workouts three times a day."
Asked about what happens to contestants after the show is over, he said he thinks 85 percent of the people usually stay within 20 pounds of their final weight.
Most of the contestants, he said, stay in touch with the show's doctors and trainers. "I feel like as the show goes on, people tend to keep the weight off more and more."
Some of those who came in teams had interesting histories.
They included two women from Green Bay, Wis., who have been married to the same man.
Sherry Sommerfeldt was wearing a T-shirt with her husband James' picture on it, while Sue Roberts, James' ex-wife, was wearing a shirt with the picture but a line drawn through it.
Sommerfeldt said she hoped the two would have an edge. "We're hoping that it's a unique relationship, because they're looking for brothers or sisters or families who are teammates. We figure that's kind of a unique relationship."
Another couple was 19-year-old, 320-pound Jared Hamby of Hampshire and 20-year-old, 220-pound Lindsay Wood of Batavia, who were once boyfriend and girlfriend. The two wore shirts that read on the front, "I may be fat," and on the back, "But I'm also phat."
"When we're young, we can do something about it now," Wood said. "We don't have all the responsibilities of a job and a family. We can take a year off of school and just get back in the thick of things and be twice as healthy."