'The Biggest Loser': Season 17's Heaviest Contestant Encourages Americans to Copy His Incredible Efforts

Roberto Hernandez, who began The Biggest Loser: Temptation Nation as the season’s heaviest contestant, is now a top contender to win the titular title. And with just two weeks remaining in Season 17’s competition, Hernandez is most passionate about encouraging his fellow overweight Americans to get busy becoming losers themselves.

In a preview of Feb. 15’s penultimate episode of the season, Hernandez, who weighed 348 pounds when he started the competition, tearily shares how his weight prevented him from being able to play with his children, and how that has motivated him through grueling workouts and major changes to his nutritional habits.

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“If you just get up, just get up from that damn couch, and walk a little bit… and if you make it one block, the next week you’re jogging, the week after that, you’re running a mile!” Hernandez says, earning vocal support from fellow contestant Colby Wright, another top contender to win Season 17.

Hernandez, whose twin brother Luis was eliminated in week nine after losing 76 pounds, has so far lost (minor spoiler alert, as the video preview includes Roberto’s week 11 weight loss) 108 pounds, or 31 percent of his beginning weight. Wright, whose wife Hope was eliminated in week three after losing 14 pounds, has lost 90 pounds as of week 10, going from 339 to 249, and dropping 26.5 percent of his body weight.

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In Monday’s “I Got the Power” episode, first-year host Bob Harper presents the contestants with a challenge that could provide the winner with the most valuable prize so far: a one-pound advantage for themselves at weigh-in, and the power to give a one-pound disadvantage to one of his or her opponents.

The Biggest Loser: Temptation Nation airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on NBC; the live Season 17 finale airs on Feb. 22.