‘The Biggest Loser’ crowned a new winner in Jim DiBattista during the finale. Jim had lost 144 pounds by the finale and spoke with HL about his current goal, his toughest challenge since going home, and more.
Jim DiBattista, 47, was the final victor on The Biggest Loser. The Philadelphia-based youth football coach lost a whopping 144 pounds since starting his journey with the rebooted series. His total percentage of weight loss was 37.4%. Jim started out at 385 pounds and pushed himself over the course of the 8 weeks to become a healthier version of himself. HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with Jim about his ongoing journey and he revealed he’s now 228 pounds. Jim weighed 241 pounds at the finale, which was filmed in Dec. 2019, so he’s down an additional 13 pounds.
Jim’s healthy journey continues even though The Biggest Loser is over. He’s been working out 5 to 6 days a week and revealed the new goal he set for himself after the finale. “For me, personally, what I needed to do was make sure that this was going to be transferable to home, that I was going to be able to take everything I did on campus,” Jim told HollywoodLife. “It wasn’t about winning. It was about changing my brain, physically breaking down and stripping myself down mentally about food, nutrition, and exercise and building it back up in a way that made it healthy. Because, obviously, something was wrong with my brain to allow me to be 400 pounds. So, coming out of this, I had a game plan already set in place, already be in practice. When I came out, my goal is simple. I have a window. It’s impossible to live on a scale. Impossible. You’ll drive yourself mad. But I think it is possible to have a window. My window is I’m trying to keep my weight somewhere between 220 and 230. There’s going to be good days and bad days, and there’s going to be high weeks and low weeks. But as long as I’m in that window, I feel like I’m doing my job and I can be really happy and enjoy myself. Occasionally, me and my wife will go to dinner and share a dessert and be normal. If you can’t be normal in the process, what’s the point?”
Going from The Biggest Loser campus back home was a transition and Jim opened up about the biggest challenge he’s faced. “Before what’s been going on, the biggest challenge was food prep, time, making sure I was disciplined with my time when it came to prepping my meals,” Jim continued. “I’m the cook of my home. My wife cooks a lot, but I also get home for work before she does, so it’s just natural for me to start making dinner and things like that. So finding the time to food prep for lunches, that’s everyone’s challenge. I think that’s the whole entire world’s challenge. Now, with the coronavirus crisis, the challenge is making sure we have the necessary proteins and when they pop into the supermarket, I’m able to get them.”
Jim’s family has also gotten involved with his fitness journey. “It is 100 percent one of the coolest things that came out of this,” Jim said. “My wife and I went to Planet Fitness before it closed. She’s a member of a local gym where she goes and does cardio kickboxing for just women. I begged them [to attend] because I think it’s an awesome gym, but they won’t let me come because it’s just for women. I totally understand that, so I go to CrossFit. The CrossFit gym I go to I include my son, who’s a senior in high school. He loves it, so we go and we work out together. So it’s not just my wife. My younger son works out and then my older boys work out with me. It’s kind of changed us fundamentally.” During the current health crisis, Jim said he’s been doing “unbelievable” virtual workouts.
‘The Biggest Loser winner Jim DiBattista went from 385 pounds to 241 pounds. (Richie Knapp/USA Network)
Jim won the grand prize of $100,000 when he was declared the winner. He hasn’t made any concrete decisions yet but Jim discussed what he plans to do with the money. “I have three boys. One’s in college and one’s about to go to college. I’m going to pay my debt down so I can absorb maybe some of their debt,” he told HollywoodLife. “That’s really the main plan. I might clean up some things around my house. We need a kitchen. My wife deserves a new kitchen. So, we’ll see. We haven’t really thought that far.”
Sourse: hollywoodlife.com
