BOUNTIFUL — It really isn't whether you win or lose, but how you played the game — even if you're as competitive as Heather Hansen of West Bountiful.
For more than three months, she played the weight-loss game on NBC's reality series, "The Biggest Loser" at a secluded ranch near Los Angeles. She survived physical challenges, grueling workouts and the threat of getting ousted by teammates — dropping 56 pounds in the process.
As one of the final four contestants, she then went home for five months before the Dec. 13 weigh-in to determine the $250,000 "Biggest Loser."
Viewers expected the contestants' stunning flab-to-fab transformations. But Hansen's announcement that she was five months pregnant was the biggest surprise. Even though it disqualified her from the competition, Hansen said she has no regrets about the timing of her pregnancy.
Last week Hansen reflected on the "The Biggest Loser" experience at her Bountiful office where she's an American Family Insurance agent.
"I got pregnant the first week I got home from the ranch," she said. "We'd wanted to have a child right after Bella (her 2 1/2-year-old daughter), and weren't able to. So it was a complete surprise, but a welcome surprise. I'm 36, and I want to have a bunch of kids. The show is so temporary, and real life is so permanent. I never felt like it was a loss."
Erik Chopin, a New York deli owner, won the $250,000 by losing 214 pounds — 52 percent of his original 407-pound weight. Hansen, who started out at 223 pounds, would have had to drop more than 110 pounds to best Chopin's percentage. Hansen said during the last few weeks on the ranch she realized she wouldn't win.
"I couldn't have come back at 111 pounds; it's not feasible," she said. "But I thought if I wasn't going to win, it had to be Kai (Hibbard) to finally get a female. I hope the show will make some changes in the future, and have both a female winner and a male winner."
Hibbard, who became close friends with Hansen, took second place by dropping 118 pounds from her original weight of 262 — an all-time record for any female contestant.
Were appearances deceiving?
Of all the contestants, Hansen and Hibbard sparked the most harsh comments from viewers on NBC's Web site. Over the course of the season, Hansen was shown in controversial situations, such as accusing a teammate of not working hard enough, trying to form an alliance to eliminate a teammate, and heatedly arguing with her trainer. Hansen blamed the show's editing.
"I was really hurt by how I was portrayed," she said. "After watching the first few episodes, I realized I was going to be portrayed as mean and aggressive, and there was nothing I could do about it. The humorous and generous sides of my personality were not shown. Some of the other players jumped on the message boards to defend me. They said I was the most poorly represented of the teams. I was grateful for the few nice moments, like when I was shown leading people in prayer when someone's son was in the hospital."
Playing the game
Hansen admits she was competitive.
"Every week I would sit down with a notebook and figure out where I needed to be, and who would do what in the weigh-in. Caroline Rhea (the show's host) called me the 'Mormon Mafia,' because of how well I predicted what was going to happen."
Hansen took risks, such as the week she gained four pounds. That forced a vote between herself and Bobby Moore, and led to Moore's elimination. Hansen said to gain the weight she drank a gallon of water just before the weigh-in.
To protect Hibbard from getting voted off, "I told everyone that Kai didn't have the drive to lose the weight on her own."
She also told of sabotaging the other team's fridge. "Kai and I would get fat-free Cool Whip and real Cool Whip, change the lids, and put the real Cool Whip in their fridge. We would put a smiley face on the fat-free container so we'd know we had the right one."
Hansen said she wasn't the only one with tricky tactics. "Everyone was playing their own game," she said. "And we would have never let Erik eat that regular Cool Whip — we were very protective of him, because we felt he needed to be there more than anybody. We didn't consider Erik a threat until the last three weeks, when he was working out alone with Bob (trainer Bob Harper). His whole persona changed, he gained a lot of confidence."
Hansen thinks her competitive nature helped her get on the show. Despite the freezing January weather, Hansen showed up at the Salt Lake audition in a pink sports bra and shorts, "with my tummy bulging out. I knew I would at least get a call-back because I really stood out."
She was then asked to submit a 10 minute video of herself. "I have a degree in advertising and marketing, and I put everything I had into that video. I wanted to show who I really was — a skinny me in a fat body."
It showed her going throughout the day — including eating at McDonald's, speaking at a high school and skiing — in the same pink sports bra and shorts. Her family was supportive. Her brother edited the video, and her father flew to California to submit it on time.
Life at the ranch
"We didn't have TV or magazines," she said. "We worked out five or six hours a day, and spent a lot of time waiting for production. The little weigh-in lasts maybe five minutes on TV, but it takes five or six hours to do. At the challenges, we would sit and wait for four or five hours before we even did it. There was a lot of hurry-up-and-wait."
Contrary to viewers' assumptions, there was no chef whipping up spa cuisine. The contestants ordered their own groceries and were responsible for their own meals. "We didn't have a lot of help in that area," she said. "You learned every week what types of foods were helping you and what didn't."
Injury issues
Hansen said when she left the ranch, she had a torn calf muscle, bursitis in her knees and tendonitis in her quadricep muscles. Doctors monitor the contestants, "but you get a lot of pressure from the trainers to push your body beyond its limits. The doctor would say, 'Don't do squats, hills or inclines,' but then the trainer would say, 'We're climbing up a sand hill today."'
That led to the angry exchange with trainer Kim Lyon.
"A few days before, I got dragged up the sand hill and tore my calf muscle. So when she said, 'Trust me, I won't hurt you,' I didn't believe her. But at that point, my legs were almost completely useless, and I couldn't afford any more injuries if I was going to make it to the final four. To Kim's credit, she wasn't malicious or cruel, just very competitive."
For the last few weeks, Heather worked out alone, sticking to swimming and stationary biking. "It probably irritated Kim, but my team was very supportive."
Baby weight
Hansen gained most of her excess weight after she became pregnant with her first child, but she doesn't foresee that happening with this pregnancy.
"I'd be lying to say I'm not concerned," she said. "But I couldn't have gone through all this, and have everyone in Utah recognize me in public, and then put on a bunch of weight. I couldn't take the embarrassment. Also, I learned so many valuable things at the ranch, and it's not really hard to do them."
She also learned to ignore temptation at the ranch. "There were treats in your drawers and candy everywhere. So you learned to ignore it."
She found it easier to lose weight at the ranch, where that was the sole focus. "But the downside is the emotional turmoil in the separation from your loved ones," she said. "Leaving a baby that was just under 2 years old — nothing prepared me for that. I felt like someone was stomping on my heart."
What's next
Hansen said she hopes to apply her experience in local endorsements, or in some youth programs to combat obesity. "If I can make a difference in other people's lives, that will be a real satisfaction for me."
E-mail: vphillips@desnews.com