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Michael Ventrella won the “Biggest Loser” show of NBC. He lost half his body weight and hence was named this season’s winner of “The Biggest Loser” Tuesday night.
He had started the season at 526 pounds and was the heaviest contestant in the history of the contest.
By the time he reached the final show he had lost 50.19 percent of his body weight and a total of 264 pounds. He bettered the record of Danny Cahill of 239 pounds which was set last year.
He went on the beat fellow contestants Ashley Johnston and Daris George with his current weight of 262 pounds. He thus has won the $250,000 prize money.
Michael who hails from Chicago had struggled with his weight from childhood and had tried everything to lose weight including over the counter pills, prescription pills, diets, nutritionists, starvation and even bulimia.
"At 526 pounds, nobody at that weight can ever feel any sense of hope," he told the TODAY show's Meredith Vieira in a Wednesday morning interview. "You feel like any day is your day, is your time: You're going to die."
He displayed great determination to lose weight during his 18 weeks on the “Biggest Loser” ranch.
"I realized, 'You know what? I'm going to give it everything I got to battle this and tackle this because I'm done with being like this," he told Vieira.
Ventrella hopes that his weight loss will help him pursue a career in advertising and public relations and also meet the love of his life.
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