The Biggest Loser: What you didn’t see!

BiggestLoser0930.jpg Viewers chose to give Amanda Arlauskas a chance to change her life during last season’s Biggest Loser finale. Now a member of the formidable Pink Team, the 20-year-old nursing student and patient care technician will be giving intouchweekly.com readers all the exclusive behind-the-scenes dish every week! In the third episode of season eight, fellow contestant Tracey’s rash decisions caused trouble at the ranch. “I don’t think she really understood how crazy she was getting,” Amanda tells In Touch. “But the rest of us obviously all saw it.”

Click here to read more about what you didn’t see on this week’s episode of The Biggest Loser.


It was a pretty dramatic episode last night!
Amanda: Yeah, it was a good one. I enjoyed that one.

Was it pretty accurate or did they make Tracey look crazier?
Amanda: It was pretty accurate. In that first challenge when she stepped over that bar to get the 2-pound advantage over the trainers for the week, that’s when we all start wondering, “What is going through her head?” None of us realized she had that side of her until that moment. Since then, things just kept happening where she made split decisions that were affecting everybody else. I think I can speak for almost everybody when I say it ticked us off. We were like, “What is she doing? It’s only week three, we all have a good relationship right now, and all of a sudden this crazy lady starts coming out of Tracey and she just wants to take control of everything.” I think it was because of fear. She hadn’t been on the ranch for a while because she had been in the hospital. I think she felt like she needed to do something to try to get herself back in the game.

It was a week of choices, and Tracey jumped on them. Did you ever consider taking the 2 pounds or eating the cupcake?
Amanda: The first challenge, Rebecca, right away was like, “We need anything we can get.” I said, “No. We need these trainers more.” I would rather try to burn off two extra pounds with the trainers than give up the trainers for a week. They are essential. That’s why we came to the ranch, to work with them. I remember telling Rebecca, “Maybe if it goes to 8 pounds, then I’ll think about it.” Rebecca was just nervous and scared. I definitely talked it out of her.

What about the cupcakes?
Amanda: I told Rebecca in the beginning, I would never ever give into a temptation. They didn’t show me a lot, because I didn’t even pick up a cupcake. Cupcakes do nothing for me. They didn’t tempt me at all. If it was Chinese food or something, maybe I would have thought about it. I was lucky that I wasn’t tempted at all and then I decided it wasn’t worth it to get the power. A part of me kind of wanted Rebecca to do it because she was doing well. She was losing enough weight to carry her side and I knew that if she had eaten some, no matter what if she didn’t win, somebody would have put me on the scale.

Which is what Tracey did, even though you asked her not to, as a favor. Did she try to explain herself in a moment that we didn’t see?
Amanda: After the weigh-in when she put me on the scale, she apologized. At the time I wanted nothing to do with her. I was like, “You’re lying to my face.” Tracey and I had a really close relationship. She was like my mother figure on the ranch. In that first episode when she went down in the sand, I was by her side nonstop because I loved the woman. All of a sudden a couple of weeks later, the roles are reversed. I needed her help, and she put me on the scale. She let game play get in the way of our relationship. It was hard for me because I’m young and I trust people easily and I trusted that she was going to take care of me and she didn’t. It was sad that it had to go down like that, but I’m glad that I was able to step up and prove to her that I could do it. I lost 5 pounds. After that, I was upset with her for a while. It took me a while for me to actually want to talk to her again.

You really worked hard to make sure you wouldn’t fall below the yellow line. Bob seems to have made you his focus.
Amanda: It was week three that Bob and I got super-close. He told me it was because he had seen me struggling so much the first couple of weeks and he just wanted to take charge. Since then, he still hasn’t let go. He’s held my hand through the whole process. Truly, that’s when our relationship started. You’ll see how close we get and how much I rely on him because he helps me not only physically but mentally. He’s become a huge part of my life.

In the end, Antoine and Sean made a huge sacrifice by offering to go home so Shay could stay. How did you feel about that?
Amanda: For Rebecca and I, that was our worst nightmare. We were best friends with the orange team and the red team. Poor Sean was still over 400 pounds and I felt bad because Shay has a lot of work to do but so does Sean. At the end of the day we did feel like Shay needed it a little bit more. Rebecca and I wrote letters to Antoine and Sean, just letting them know how much we loved them and how much we were going to miss them.

How is your relationship with Tracey now?
Amanda: It took some time for Tracey. I was obviously disappointed by what she had done. I felt like she betrayed me. I forgive but I don’t forget. The day after I was still talking to her. It’s not like I gave her the cold shoulder or ignored her, because that’s not who I am. I know that she was playing the game, and I know that she was doing it out of fear. I was cordial and worked with her, but I never forgot that she basically threw me under the bus. But we’re still friends. We talk. I was glad I was able to rise above it.

| Posted: September 30, 2009 |

Get your daily dish of Latino News and Gossip at  terra

CURRENT ISSUE

Current cover
Subscription Special
5 issues for $7.99

IN THIS ISSUE

Demi Moore: Rock Bottom
It could have been a happy night for Demi Moore — a chance to put the most painful and humiliating period of her life behind her, even if just for a few hours. But while Demi had been nominated for a Directors Guild award for co-directing the Lifetime special Five, she spent the January 28 ceremony in hiding as she coped with the fallout from a drug incident that landed her in the hospital five days earlier. “She’s literally hiding in shame over how far she has fallen,” a pal shares.

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie On The Rocks?
Could Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. be the next in a long list of celebrity couples heading for divorce? Although their rep denies the story, the duo, who have managed to remain largely out of the spotlight throughout their relationship, raised eyebrows recently when Sarah, 34, walked the Golden Globes red carpet solo — and without her enormous diamond engagement ring.

Tabatha Coffey’s Tough Love
“Look, I know it’s like boot camp when I come in,” says Tabatha Takes Over star Tabatha Coffey with a twinkle in her eye and a smile so broad that fans of her hit show might not even recognize her. The Bravo star admits with a giggle that channeling her inner drill sergeant is often the only way to get the job done.

Seal’s Ex: Don’t Take Him Back
The song that Seal chose for his performance on a recent episode of Ellen — Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” — seemed specifically designed to make his estranged wife, Heidi Klum, reconsider her decision to end their marriage. While Seal may have good reason to endear himself to Heidi — who has legions of fans and pulled in a whopping $20 million last year — former supermodel Tatjana Patitz, 45, maintains that the singer is a selfish, immature man who is prone to frightening rages. “He is not a nice person,” Tatjana, who dated Seal for nearly a year, tells In Touch.