Biggest Loser Eric Chopin Gains Back Weight

Eric Chopin was the winner of Biggest Loser in season 3 of the series. Biggest Loser is a reality show in which overweight individuals work with trainers to shed pounds and the person who loses the largest percentage of body weight wins.Eric Chopin weighed 407 pounds his first day on the show.

He was diagnosed then with a variety of weight related medical conditions including high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. He worked hard on this show and with the help of a trainer lost 214 pound making him the season winner.

After leaving the show in December of 2006 he slowly began to gain the weight back. He avoided the press for a time due to shame but recently decided to come on the Oprah show as she talked of her own struggles with weight gain and weight loss. Eric believes he is addicted to food, eats to relieve psychic pain and that that is what caused his 122 pound weight gain. He has decided to return to a healthier lifestyle and wants to eat better and begin a workout regime again. Only time will tell if Eric is able to overcome his addiction and shed the pounds for good.

Food can become as much an addiction as drugs or alcohol. I myself have struggled with weight issues for years and developed eating disorders as a teenager. I had a violent and dysfunctional childhood and I believe I used food to cope. I was very overweight as a child and when I hit junior high school I began to be teased. It was then I started on a weight gain and loss cycle. I would starve for months at a time, or binge and purge and get down to an unhealthy low weight. Then I would start to binge regularly and become overweight again. My weight stabilized for a while in my mid-twenties but went back up after I had my two children. I, like Erik, am currently struggling to find a balance in my life with food and exercise.

A healthy weight requires a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle requires making wise choices about food and engaging in moderate exercise. I have to wonder if the methods on Biggest Loser set some contestants up for failure. Rigorous workout routines take up much of the day while contestants are at camp. Contestants return home to their spouses, children, jobs and obligations and find they cannot find the time to keep up these full-time exercise routines and have to find a balance that fits into their life. Some may have trouble doing this on their own and gain the weight they lost back.