A few weeks ago, I wrote about MSN users participating in the Million Pound Match-Up, which dangled the prospect of winning quality time with a personal trainer on a fitness cruise. All they had to do was blog about their experience on MSN Spaces — and drop some excess, off course.

Five pairs, accounting for 156 of more than a million pounds lost by  19,764 teams, earned a trip to the April 14 season finale of NBC's "The Biggest Loser," but each duo felt that they already were winners, based on what they'd gained from the experience: a sense of empowerment, accountability, community and accomplishment, in their real and online worlds.

Judges evaluated each team's site, story and weight loss, crowning a couple from Ohio as grand prize winners. Read about Marcus and Amber Sea and the other four team and their results as of April 9.

MARCUS & AMBER: BATTLE OF THE SEXES: This Cincinnati couple's Web site is worth a visit just to enjoy their sense of humor, partially exhibited by their playlist and list of weight-loss lies, but also to watch their downward movement on the scales. Marcus, 39, a planner for an aerospace company, is approaching a decade where doctors say his triglycerides put him at a 40 percent chance of a heart attack; that threat fueled his 36-pound reduction. Amber, 36, who works in a hospital delivery unit, has bested her husband's loss, melting off 38 pounds with the help of Weight Watchers and blogging.

First the couple turned their participation into friendly in-family competition. "We were also looking forward to spending some quality time together, doing something that was necessary but would make us feel great," Amber explains.

"We get on our site several times a day," she says. "At first it was just trying to figure everything out and learning how to put the site together. After a few days, we were overwhelmed at how many people there were sharing this experience WITH us! That kept us coming back again and again, changing this from a fun little contest to an extended family!"

Their nuclear family is shrinking, with one son heading to college and the other soon entering high school, so they felt it was time to concentrate on themselves. The blog made that both easy and hard — providing them support but also requiring time at the computer.

"My only (previous) form of blogging was message boards," Marcus says. "I never used a format such as Live Spaces, but I agree with Amber: I wish I had started one long ago."

Echoed his wife of seven years: "I am actually amazed at how easy and freeing it is. … We are in awe of this community of people who have come together to care for and support perfect strangers! It has touched our hearts and lifted us up to succeed for not only myself but for my newfound friends. … We feel that we need this Space and these people to reach my ultimate goal."

KNOCKOUT NURSES TO BE: Co-workers at a Baltimore hospital, Cynthia Alaoui, 39, and Alice Lambert, 47, are intent on getting thinner. In their quest, they never quite felt they were walking in circles (though they walked the labyrinth at work) and encountered some challenges in getting the Million Pound Match-Up blog going. "When we were first starting, it took hours to figure out how to use the customize options and to place photos," Cynthia explained. Neither had blogged before, but its merits quickly became apparent.

"The more I blogged the more open I became," writes Alice, acknowledging that she surprised herself with how honest she became in her blogging — even posting a photo of her belly, front and center. "I wrote if I had a good day eating healthy and exercising and wrote if I had a bad day eating the wrong foods and not putting myself first to go and exercise. I cried when I did our voice video. I loved the blogging experience because it made me realize that in the midst of trying to be a good wife, good mother, good daughter and a good nurse that I needed to be good to myself. I heard myself write about how busy my life was. For the first time in my life I knew why I was so fat. I put everyone and everything in front of me. I noticed the more I blogged the more I exercised and tried to eat healthy. When my Internet was down, I gained weight. The difference this time was that I received so many encouraging comments and e-mails when I gained the weight that I felt like I had to get right back on track because I knew all my friends were rooting for me."

Over the course of the contest, Cynthia gained no weight on a cruise, dropped below 300 pounds for the first time in more than a decade and now can spend 40 minutes on an elliptical (previously she couldn't last even five minutes). One night, logging on at 11:30, Alice became so immersed in surfing fellow competitors' sites that she looked up to see that it was past 4 a.m.! Since January, she's lost 8 pounds and says, "I can't really say how many hours I put into this, but I do know that I would love to blog every day if I had time. I plan on making more time for me. When the contest was over, I blogged and ask everyone to please stay on their Space. I said we can call this 'Million Pound Match Up, Phase II'!"

COAST 2 COAST LOSERS: Former high school jocks Stefanie Henderson, 24, of Orcutt, Calif., and Gayle Jordan, 25, of Chesapeake, Va., met last summer on a MySpace area devoted to people using the weight-loss medication Alli. Their e-mail contact later ebbed, but when Stefanie learned of the MSN contest, she contacted Gayle, suggesting they buddy up. Their site reflects their energy — right down to the thoughtful 15-song playlist.

Gayle, on blood-pressure meds, has faced some emotional and physical challenges, from kidney stones that led to a medical discharge from the Army after a three-month stint and from January uterine surgery. Since January, she's gained a few pounds but has lost a lot of time at the keyboard, refining the site with graphics, video and Photobucket galleries, all while spending a couple of hours a day encouraging other competitors, including Stefanie.

In February, Gayle's mom helped to fly Stefanie to Virginia for a casting call for the next season of "Losers." Though they were heartbroken at not being selected, their natural cheerfulness returned, allowing them to bond even more. Both say their friendship will last for their lives, the skinny years ahead and the grueling months to get there.

Stefanie, who regulates ad traffic for a radio station, has a short-term goal of being able to tie her shoes and a longer-term one of becoming a police officer. "Thin life is going to be amazing," she says. As with Gayle, blogging will be a part of it.

"We'll keep blogging and losing," vows Gayle, a monitor of refuse truck scales who aspires to be a personal trainer. "I'll probably never stop blogging. … I've got too many people relying on me. Quitting on myself would be quitting on them, and I don't intend to do that."

WEIGHTLESS LOSERS: This team from Somersworth, N.H., has been connected since the womb: mother Denise Thomas, 57, and daughter Tara, 23. They're close friends — right down to carrying extra weight. Tara's circle of friends calls it just added fluff. Regardless, the young teacher is determined to shed it, along with bad habits from college. "My mom strives for me to do my best," Tara says, "and I do the same for her."

Since the contest began, Tara has lost 16 pounds. "This blog experience was good for me because I felt like I was singing with the choir and nobody cared how badly my voice sounded because we were all singing in the same key.

"I found … using MSN's Live Spaces very easy to access and use. Everything is a mouse click away. Need a background? There it is. Need to comment on a blog? Click on the "leave a comment" link. Want to make someone's pictures larger? Click on them! The only part I found limiting was the amount of HTML sections you could add to the space. I reached the limit and had to be creative on where to put other things."

While Tara slid easily into the role of webmaster, Denise started as a raw newbie — needing to ask Tara to define the word "blog." Now Denise is intimately familiar — and comfortable — with blogging, typically logging on at 5:30 a.m. to post and to offer comments in the "Losers" community.

"We found ourselves waiting and watching for America to reach the million pounds," says Denise, whose work in a medical office constantly reminds her that weight loss can reduce the number of medications she's on for sundry ailments. Now 14 pounds lighter, she notes a decrease in blood pressure.

"This has been helpful, inspiring, worthwhile and just plain fun," she says. "I am amazed at the changes in endurance, toning, attitudes as well as weight loss. This is far more than weight … it is attitude and a whole new way of looking at life in general. You can put yourself out there and feel proud of what you are doing."

SONJA & AARON'S 'BIGGEST LOSER' JOURNEY: At the bottom of the site of this Kansas mother-son team are two self-conceived T-shirts bearing mottos (courtesy of pageplugins.com). Sonja Ellis' says: "To not be the 'Fat Mom' at Aaron's graduation"; Aaron's boasts his aspiration: "To make the cheer squad in college."

Sonja set out to reach her goal last summer. An orthopedic nurse in a unit specializing in joint replacements, she knew what lay ahead if she didn't take action. In September, coming off her fifth knee surgery at age 38, she joined Nutrisystem, weighing 272.

By January, down to 230.5 pounds, she was ready to enter the Match-Up, given its allegiance to her favorite show and because Aaron, a high school senior, was willing too, wanting to firm up himself. "I was a little bit leery about it, since I know nothing about webpages, etc.," she wrote. That turned out to be misspent emotion — especially after sustaining a broken foot in January that necessitated surgery.

"This challenge very quickly became a community rather than a contest, which was very unexpected at least to me, but probably the best part of this entire experience. Especially since I broke my foot, the support and encouragement that I personally have received has been overwhelming and very inspiring. The funny thing is that everyone keeps telling me that I inspire them because I didn't just give up when that happened — but since I've used every excuse in the book in the past, I was bound and determined to let NOTHING stop me this time — not even a broken foot!"

Result: She's lost 23 pounds and is down to 207 — even more determined to keep her downward progress.

Sonja ­could keep to her workout schedule while relying on Aaron, who could be a budding Web designer — if he doesn't opt to become a forensics/drama teacher. While in the course of the competition, Aaron lost 12 pounds, but he also lost a lot of time, exacting the Web site. Having blogged before, he admits to thinking this effort would probably peter out, too.

Writes Aaron at length, in response to a few questions each competitor answered: "At first I began to think that people were just being friendly, but then as I noticed the comments were becoming more and more personal and began to realize that we were building friendships through this. It really gave me a reason to continue to blog and update the page because I knew my work was actually being looked at and appreciated. I'm hoping that everyone will stick around for a long time, because I can see this as a great way for Mom and me to keep in contact throughout college."