Photo:Trae Patton/NBC

Break out the Kleenex and the cookie dough. Tonight is NBC’s  weight loss reality show mega-hit The Biggest Loser’s seventh season finale, which means three hours of jaw-dropping transformations, tear-inducing montages, and Jenny-O turkey product placement (plus about 90 minutes of filler).

To commemorate the occasion, NEWSWEEK’s Kate Dailey sat down with Bob Harper, one of the trainers charged with getting Biggest Loser contestants in shape—at least for the duration of the season. He answered critics who say the show is too rigorous for its overweight contestants, explained why so many “losers” gain the weight back after the show wraps, and updated us on the fate of Max Morelli, the overweight teenager who rose to sudden national attention on the show—even though he wasn’t one of the contestants. Max’s father Ron, and brother, Mike, have made it to the final four – and the reunion scenes where Max struggled with being the last of the overweight Morelli men were some of the most emotional of the series. (Expect to see Max – as well as all slimmer versions of the season’s entire cast -- at the finale.) 

Excerpts after the jump.

The Story of Os: :The Food and Drug administration is cracking down on General Mills for claiming that eating Cheerios once a day for six weeks can lower cholesterol by 4 percent. According to a letter from the FDA, these benefits would make the cereal a drug, and an application to be considered as such would be required in order to advertise those health claims. (Dow Jones via CNN)

Falling Ratings: New researching indicates at 41 percent increase in injuries to children caused by furniture since 1991. The culprit? Flat screen televisions. With their top-heavy construction, extreme weight, and often precarious placement on walls and TV stands, these TVs pose dangers to any little legs, arms and heads that happen to be sitting below. (MSNBC)

Point of Fact: Acupuncture works - even without the needles. A new study shows that people with chronic back pain who received either acupuncture or "simulated acupuncture" (being poked with toothpicks) reported relief and a decrease in back pain. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Slow and Steady: Walking for longer periods at a slower pace is better for the heart than walking short distances quickly. So say researchers writing in Circulation, the Journal of The American Heart Association. They found that overweight cardiac rehabilitation patients who walked at a moderate pace for an hour a day burned more calories and showed more heart-healthy benefits than those who walked briskly for 20 to 30 minutes three times a week.  (Eurekalert)