Photo by: Will Gentry
Although Edmond-local David Brown did not officially win Season 15 of “The Biggest Loser,” he still walked away victorious.
“The Biggest Loser” is a reality television show that centers on overweight contestants attempting to lose the most weight while competing for a cash prize.
“It’s a journey of hope, healing and health,” Brown said. “For me, that’s my platform that I’m going to be speaking on for the rest of my life to help people break free of their addictions one step at a time … I want to help people find healing in the places they didn’t know they needed healing, one step at a time.”
Brown lost 222 pounds, finishing just 20 pounds shy of claiming the final spot.
“It was never about winning the show for me,” Brown said. “It was about getting my life back and I’ve absolutely done that. I’ve won in the most important way possible. So when I said at the finale that we’re all winners and that the confetti’s going to fall on all of us, I’m speaking from my heart.”
Weighing in at 409 pounds, Brown was the second largest competitor on this season’s “Biggest Loser.”
“The reality was I was sick, I was out of shape and I needed help,” Brown said. “I needed the kind of rehab that “The Biggest Loser” opportunity presented … It was me stepping out of my comfort zone and putting myself out there.”
Brown logged 2.2 million steps throughout the course of the show.
“When I walked on the ranch, if they would have told me what it would have taken to be at the end, that mountain was too big,” Brown said. “So this story for me of ‘one stronger’ has become kind of my brand. It’s an idea that with one step at a time is all it takes.”
The steps Brown took during the show were ultimately the encouragement for his central philosophy of being “one step stronger.”
“Going in as the second-to-heaviest and the oldest guy on the ranch, I had every reason not to be successful,” Brown said. “But I pushed through those barriers and here I stand, the healthiest I’ve ever been.”
Sophomore Preston Kemp sees Brown’s story and achievement of his end goal as inspirational for Oklahoma Christian University students.
“I think what ‘The Biggest Loser’ aims to do is take a person and make them see their potential by creating a physically fit body in hopes that it will transform other parts of their life as well,” Kemp said. “It’s a place for people to realize their potential.”
For Brown, his journey was not solely about shedding physical pounds; it went deeper than that.
“I weighed more emotionally than I did physically; that’s what I try to explain to people,” Brown said. “You see the physical, and it’s magnificent; it’s a huge contrast from coming in at 409 and where I ended up at 187. But the physical transformation pales in comparison to the emotional and mental transformations that happened. Those are the places that I got my years back.”
Through strict nutrition and exercise regiments, “The Biggest Loser” contestants participate in a 16-week training camp on the ranch.
“My story and this season were really about second chances,” Brown said. “It took the ranch and ‘The Biggest Loser’ experience to get me to dig deeper, back into my past and deal with the stuff that I had swept under the rug for all those years.”
Brown’s first wife, the mother of his two older daughters, fought a long battle against brain cancer for the first few years of their marriage.
“For me, faith is indispensable,” Brown said. “I was at the end of myself physically and emotionally. There was nothing I could do that would help my wife. It was in that moment that – it sounds so cliché – but I had a peace beyond understanding. There was something that washed over me that let me know it was going to be okay.”
When the disease ultimately claimed the life of his wife, Brown was left a widower with two daughters. As Brown described, his own emotional baggage was “swept under the rug” so he could care for his daughter’s needs instead.
“The contestants’ stories make them more real,” sophomore Jenisha Spivey said. “You see them struggling, you see them throwing up after the first workout, you see them saying how they physically can’t do it. You watch them grow to where they’re losing weight and seeing results.”
Personal motivation is key to any weight loss regiment. For Brown, believing in himself and his family were those key motivators.
“I learned the first week that I had to have a ‘why’ that was bigger than the pain, that was bigger than the excuses, that was bigger than the will to quit, that was bigger than the fear to accept the next workout, that was bigger than the things working against me,” Brown said. “You have to have a ‘why’ that is so compelling and so big that you would die for it. … Once you’ve got that, the excuses start to pale in comparison.”
Brown underwent many lifestyle changes to maintain a healthy weight after his return to Edmond.
“I live on the side of town over here close to campus, so I would find myself running the Eagle Trail and riding my bike mile after mile after mile,” Brown said. “It’s part of my ongoing strategy. So as you guys are out there on the Eagle Trail, look for me out there. I’ll be running alongside you or I’ll be passing you on the bike or something along those lines. You’re going to see a ‘Loser’ out there on those trails doing it.”
Brown’s story is one of ultimate faith in the midst of extreme trial. He plans to spread the inspirational messages he’s gotten out of his own journey to others.
Brown’s goal is to help others on their own journeys of hope, healing and health. Text “1stronger” to 44622 to receive free weekly inspirational messages from Brown.
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