Biggest Loser: Families
Eliminated October 1: Ed Brantley

Did you learn anything new about your wife, Heba, from sharing this experience with her?
Ed: We’ve always been really close. We had an instant connection when we met. We know each other really well, but I think our experience together has just solidified our belief in that. You just know that we were meant to be together. If I lived in Scandinavia and she lived here, I probably would have found her somehow.

What was the biggest misconception you had about the show before you were on it?
Ed: I would see these guys crying and huffing and puffing, but what they show isn’t even a fraction of what really goes on as far as working out. I thought I was going to be able to waltz up in there and blow everybody out, which totally was not the case.

Why did you vote for the gray team?
Ed: Everybody else had voted for them anyway, even the people on their own team. So instead of ostracizing ourselves from the rest of the group, we went with them to save face. Don’t get me wrong: I love LT and Tom to death. Our vote wouldn’t have mattered anyway. It wouldn’t have helped other than maybe making us look good. But in retrospect, I wish I had gone with my heart.

You didn’t lose anything at the last weigh-in. Do you think you could have done more?
Ed: All I needed was that one pound — what a kick to the chest! It was upsetting, but at the same time, I knew how hard I worked that week. I just really gave it everything. The body does betray you sometimes. I may have lost a lot of fat weight that week, but I probably also gained a lot of muscle weight that cancelled out my weight loss. It’s kind of the same thing that happened to LT a couple of weeks ago. That next week that I got back, I dropped 10 pounds, so it was really just a fluke.

How hard was the decision to go and let your wife, Heba, stay?
Ed: I hated to leave. I felt like we really needed to be there for each other. We were relying on each other for a lot of things, but I just knew in my heart that this was the best thing. This was the best format for her to lose the weight. I knew it would be easier for me to do it at home. Not that it was easy — there were times at home when I wished I was at the ranch. So I had to bring the ranch to home, in my mind.

Were you able to get any updates on her after you left?
Ed: No. Every week that I didn’t see her, I was like “Yes! She’s still there!” Not to sound terrible, but I was really hoping that I didn’t get to see her for two more months.

What’s the biggest thing you learned from your time at the ranch?
Ed: The ranch taught me about being out of a comfort zone. My biggest problem was that I was in a comfort zone. You go to work for 8, 10, 12 hours a day and it feels really comfortable to come home and eat and watch TV. But I would take the comfort zone to work as well because I would be tasting things and snacking. It’s a hardwired thing. You have to constantly taste the food to make sure things are right and I might have taken it to the extreme. I was basically eating meals while I was working without realizing it or accepting the fact that that was what I was doing. On the ranch, I got on a real schedule of eating.

How did your job as a chef change as a result of being on the show?
Ed: Basically, if there’s something that someone has specially requested that is not a normal menu item, I will taste it but spit it into a napkin. My classics are all standardized, written-down recipes that I don’t have to taste. On some of my menus, there are a lot of healthier things, but the reality is that the people still want the mashed potatoes, the macaroni and cheese, the barbecued chicken. It’s difficult to be around it all the time, but it’s also really good therapy. Anything worth working for is worth keeping for the rest of your life, and I’m just going to have to deal with it. I just remember that it’s just food.

Do you ever splurge?
Ed: I’ll try to save it up 10 or 13 days and then have a day, not where I’ll blow it out and do anything crazy like eat a dozen donuts, but I might have a hot dog at the fairgrounds — just something to tame the demons. If that means I have to run an extra mile to do that, I don’t have a problem with that. I’ll run two just to make it really right. As long as you’re putting the right things in your body the other days of the week and you feel like having something that you love, if you’re willing to pay the consequences for it and do the work, then by all means do it.

How much have you lost in total?
Ed: When I got to the ranch, I weighed 335 pounds and today, I weigh 245 pounds.

What was your reunion with Heba like?
Ed: When you see it, you’re just probably not even going to believe it. You’re going to be doing back flips, or up in a chair screaming. That’s all I can say about it. We continue to work hard every day and we know that so many people are counting on us and looking to us for support just like we have looked to them for support. We’re obligated to ourselves and to so many people to do the right thing, to lose the weight and be the healthy people that we want to be.