Television
'Biggest Loser' Winner Ali Vincent a 'Whole New Woman'
By Ann Turner

Apr 17, 2008

Ali Vincent

On Tuesday night, Arizona hairstylist Ali Vincent became the first female contestant to take home the top prize on the reality weight-loss series The Biggest Loser. With healthy eating and a grueling exercise routine, Vincent lost 122 pounds during the course of the show. Although second place winner Roger Schultz lost more overall weight, Vincent was named the 'Biggest Loser' because of her higher weight loss percentage.  

Thirty-two year-old Vincent started her stint on NBC's The Biggest Loser at a weight of 234 pounds. Fit and trim in her youth, Vincent began gaining weight in her 20s, getting "fat five pounds at a time," according to an interview with MSNBC. Vincent auditioned for The Biggest Loser with her mother, Bette-Sue Burkland. As a team, the two were early fan favorites, but hit a wall when they were voted off the show in the fourth episode.  

Vincent refused to let the early vote-off deter her from her goal of losing weight and becoming healthy. Off the show, she lost an additional 33 pounds by sticking to a strict diet and exercise program, determined to make a comeback.  

“I was like, ‘Nobody can take this away from me,’” Vincent said, according to MSNBC. “I’m going to do it. I’m going to go back there and I’m going to stand on that stage, even if it’s with the at-home people, and I am going to be the Biggest Loser.”  

Luckily, Vincent got the opportunity to prove herself once again when she found herself unexpectedly thrown back into the competition. With trainer Jillian Michaels, she worked out 8 to 10 hours a day, pushing herself to maximum effort in hopes of becoming the first female winner of The Biggest Loser.  

The hard work paid off in the season finale of the show, when Vincent stepped up for weigh-in. Vincent had lost more than half her body weight, 122 pounds—going from 234 pounds to 112 pounds. Her overall weight loss percentage was an amazing 47.86 percent. Her dramatic transformation beat out the other two finalists, Roger Schultz, who lost 164 lbs and Kelly Fields, who lost 109 lbs.

For her victory, Vincent was honored with $250,000 in prize money from the show and a brand new body, courtesy of herself. "I am a whole new woman," Vincent told Today's Lester Holt on Wednesday. “My physical being is a direct representation of what I feel inside, which is strong and confident and beautiful.”