EMOTIONS were running high on The Biggest Loser last night when Mary Reid, the heaviest woman in the competition, became the fourth member of Shannan’s blue team to be sent home.
In an ironic twist, Mary’s fate was sealed by her own emotional plea to fellow contestants to save Big Kev instead of herself during the final elimination. “Keep someone who really wants to be here in the house ... Keep Kevin,” she begged.
The 49-year-old Ararat local admits her time in the house was a constant struggle to self-motivate and train hard while desperately missing her family. “I struggled 24/7 ... it was very emotional,” she told news.com.au.
Weighing in at 181.5 kilograms, Mary made headlines for being the largest female contestant in the history of The Biggest Loser Australia, and admitted the hardest thing was having the camera focus on her so often. “I sometimes felt they were putting a lot more emphasis on me and I couldn’t concentrate.”
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READ NOWDespite being so much heavier than her fellow contestants, the customer service officer says she was given absolutely no leeway by Shannan during training sessions.
“He [Shannan] offered me no charity for being so much more overweight than the other contestants.
“I didn’t expect any concessions for being bigger ... it takes you so much longer to recover and that let me down a bit.
“Being so much heavier than everybody else it does make a difference to how you train and how you recover ... I think they thought I was slacking off.”
As for her ‘heaviest female’ label, Mary says she didn’t let that get to her in the lead-up to the weight loss show. “You forget about the tags, you forget about the name. That all falls to the side.”
Having lost over 16 kilograms, she declares her weight loss journey is far from over and is aiming to crack the 100kg mark. “I’m more motivated, my head is in the right place, my family is all behind me. They push me, they tell me what they think, they are here for me 24/7 ... I definitely won’t be going back to the old Mary.”
Mary is the fourth member of Shannan’s blue team to be sent home. She will now join Michelle’s secret red team back in Ararat, alongside previous eliminated contestants Rodger and Matt.
The Biggest Loser: Challenge Australia continues Wednesdays and Thursdays on Ten at 7.30pm.