This week, on The Biggest Loser: Families, the contestants and trainers were shocked when orange team member Ed Brantley failed to drop any pounds at the weigh in. His wife, Heba, lost 8 and started to celebrate until she noticed the zero on his side of the scale. Heba immediately started crying, saying that she couldn’t be happy because she knew what the meant for their team: one of them was going home. In a new twist this season, the team with the lowest percentage of weight must decide which of them will go home and which of them will stay. Ed made the decision to remove himself from the competition so that Heba could soldier on but saying goodbye proved to be difficult for the husband and wife. Today, Ed spoke to BuddyTV in an exclusive interview about his decision and his weight loss – or lack there of.
Ed told BuddyTV that trying out for The Biggest Loser was all his wife’s idea. “We drove to an open casting call,” he said. “I was a little skeptical at first!” It didn’t take long for Ed to get on board, especially with Bob Harper as his trainer. This week, rival trainer Jillian Michaels flipped out on her team when no one was doing the workouts of the homework she assigned. Jillian brought several of her team members to tears, a move Ed didn’t agree with. “I feel like Jillian didn’t motivate them the proper way,” he admitted. “I don’t think her reaction was justified.”
When host Alison Sweeney asked Ed why he didn’t lose any weight, he had no answer for him. All this time later, he still isn’t sure what went wrong. “The body can betray you sometimes,” he said. “I probably lost fat, but gained a lot of muscle that canceled it out.” Ultimately, he did decide that he would be the one to leave but it was very difficult for him to walk out that door without his wife. “It was the hardest thing I have ever done- leaving Heba behind,” he told BuddyTV. However, he said that he was glad he wasn’t voted out of the game. “I was glad we got to make the decision to eliminate ourselves.”
Since leaving the show, Ed has lost 85 pounds. His ultimate goal is to weigh 180 pounds. Ed says that he learned many things from Bob and The Biggest Loser, mainly that “social calendar is less important. The temptation to eat nice dinners all the time is easier to resist,” he said.
– Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of NBC)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
