Shannon Mullen from The Biggest Loser tells all!

Height: 5’ 3 1/2”
Starting weight: 257
Lbs lost so far: 49
Goal size: 10

What made you want to be on The Biggest Loser?
I couldn’t lose weight by myself. When you grow up in a West Indian household, where everybody says, “Big is beautiful,” it’s hard to change. My aunt made dinner, and we had white rice with creamy curries or meat with heavy sauces every night.

And what made you want to change?
The staircase at work. I was climbing the stairs while on my cell phone one day. At the top I had to tell the person, “Hold on while I catch my breath.” After that, I had to ask myself: I’m 29, and I can hardly get up one flight; is this the way I want to live my life?

What’s the most important thing you learned at the ranch?
You need an eating plan that works for life, not just a short-term diet. Two years ago, I went on Atkins and got my weight down to 190 pounds in 4 months. I rewarded myself by adding back carbs and boomeranged back up to 257. The entire time I was on the diet I was telling myself, Once I get my weight below 200, I can eat bread again. Obviously, that’s not a long-term solution. At the ranch, I developed a taste for whole grains and brown rice so that I could avoid white starch. Sure, it’s a trade-off, but it’s a hell of a lot better than giving up carbs completely.

They made you ride on an airplane that went into a nosedive. Did you ever think, I can’t believe I’m doing this?
Every day! Imagine going on national TV at more than 200 pounds in a bikini! It gets worse: For that challenge, we had to dive into a swimming pool to retrieve these gold bricks. While going after my third brick, I fell out of my top! I didn’t even realize it. I had my goggles on, and I was focused on the bricks. Suddenly, I looked up and saw my teammates hunched over, laughing. I glanced down and saw that my top was completely off! It would have really set us back if I’d taken time to put the top back on, so I just kept going.

Which was more difficult--the strenuous exercise or avoiding all the tempting food they kept around the ranch?
Exercise--except on the third week, when they took away all of our healthy food, and we had to order out for everything. It was tempting, and majority ruled when picking restaurants. One night we ordered Mexican. There weren’t many options, so I chose a light burrito. It was huge and covered with cheese, but I ate the whole thing because we ordered late and I was so hungry. Eating probably 1,000 calories in one sitting really stressed me out. I spent the rest of the week making up for it. I steered clear of food that sounded suspiciously saucy--marinades are also a no-no--and stuck to the left side of the menu. You can’t go wrong ordering salads unless you use a ton of fattening dressing. (I always got oil and vinegar on the side.) Still, I thought I’d be lucky to just break even that week. But when I stood on the scale at week’s end, I’d lost 4 pounds. Before that challenge, I was convinced that after the show I’d have to be confined to my own kitchen if I wanted to stay slim.

What surprised you most about yourself?
How hard I can work out. Before the show, my idea of exercise was window shopping. It was never a part of my life. Now I can’t get enough. I jogged for about 45 minutes around the ranch and then up a mile-long hill--without taking a break--on my birthday, of all the days.

When you get home, what’s the first change you’ll make?
I love coffee, and I’ve never been shy about helping myself to the cream and sugar. Generally, a quarter of the coffee is heavy cream--I never realized that’s like 200 calories from cream alone! Now I would never dream of wasting that many calories on cream in my coffee. That’s a whole afternoon snack.

How did it feel to get weighed in tight clothes while 10 million viewers looked on?
Uncomfortable. You watch the numbers bounce all over the place. I wanted to lose the weight so bad. Imagine--you’ve worked hard all week, and yet there’s always that chance that you’ll let down your team, yourself, and the whole world by not losing a thing.

What’s your best no-gimmicks advice to those who want to do what you’ve done?
Count calories. You hear and read about it all the time, but until you get a food scale and learn how many calories are in everything you put into your mouth, you have no idea how much you’re eating. When I started calculating, I discovered that I’d been consuming nearly 5,000 calories a day. The two Krispy Kreme doughnuts I’d have every day were 400 to 700 calories alone.