home > news > health

Biggest Loser Still Motivating Others

By Kristi Nelson

| Monday, Mar 15, 2010 | Updated 9:48 PM CST

Getty Images

Abby Rike, a teacher from Mabank, captured hearts as a contestant on Season 8 of NBC’s hit reality show “The Biggest Loser.” In the process, she lost 100 pounds, and started rebuilding her life.

“The Biggest Loser to me was the catalyst that changed the entire trajectory of my life,” said Rike.

In October 2006, Rike lost her husband, 5-year-old daughter and 2 week-old son in a vehicle crash.

Food became a way to cope with her grief. When she started the “Biggest Loser," she weighed 247 pounds, and was an emotional wreck.

"When I went on The Biggest Loser, I was really at the lowest point, personally, I'd ever been in my life,” Rike said. “I thought, if this is my life, then deliver me, there's got to be more.”

By the Season 8 finale, Rike had lost 100 pounds, and had gained new perspective on life.

“It's amazing how through health and fitness and losing weight, that there was so much emotional healing," she said.

Rike is now a motivational speaker and finds that people are more interested in hearing story on surviving tragedy than those on how to lose weight, and she tells them that there is always hope, and time to start again..

"I will never go back,” said Rike. “I will never feel that way again."

Photos and Videos

The Biggest Loser Does Change Lives