There is a skill on "The Biggest Loser" that has nothing to do with pumping weights or running laps.

It's the ancient art of dealing with people. Ron Morelli has apparently mastered it.

"Ron is one of the most competitive, cut-throat, manipulative players in the game," Kristin Steede, who is, with Morelli, one of the final seven contestants, said on the April 7 episode.

That comment brings a chuckle from Morelli. "A lot of it just come with age," he said by phone. "You go through life; you learn to deal with people."

He's 54; only one other contestant (Helen Phillips, 47) comes close.

Four finalists are in their 20's; one — Mike Morelli, Ron's son — turns 19 on May 5, a week before the show's live finale.

At that age, Ron Morelli said, he and his friends weren't working on people skills. "We were mostly interested in driving cars around the parking lot."

Later, he became a businessman in South Lyon, Mich. "I worked for my dad a little," Mike Morelli said by phone. "When he deals with people they tend to trust him; he's very good at it."

That takes him through the tough spots on "Loser," as he keeps surviving ouster votes. Still, he has also needed to shed weight.

"He isn't able to do anything more than walk, but he ... just keep working at it," Mike Morelli said.

In the April 7 show, Ron had shed nine more pounds, taking him from an original 430 to 308. Mike had lost five and had gone from 388 to 248; with four more, he'll have the show's record for total pounds lost.

The show is taped in advance, so contestants are home now. They can't say if they're in the final four, but they would be working out either way; the finale has a $250,000 top prize, plus prizes for ousted people who have kept losing.

Back home, Mike Morelli is in a running club, with one or two long runs a day. He's studying to be a trainer and plans to return to being a Michigan State University pre-med freshman next fall.

His dad is retired. (He had sold his food distributorship after havin health problems.) "Real life is back," Ron said. "I still sit on the city council; I still sit on the zoning board of appeals."

Otherwise, he avoids sitting. He walks around, chats, gets encouragement. Even in Michigan's tough economy, he said, spirits ar good.

"For the most part, people are doing well," Ron Morelli said. "We're middle-America ... We've got a sense of community."

It's the sort of sense that could help someone on a reality show.

WHEN TO WATCH

"The Biggest Loser"

7-9 p.m. Tuesdays

NBC