Counting Biggest Loser Calories with Andrea Hough

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by Troy Rogers

Although Andrea Hough of The Biggest Loser Couples was a late bloomer in terms of reaping the inner benefits of Biggest Loser competition, Andrea walked away from this week's elimination a new person. This week Andrea came into her own at The Biggest Loser ranch but fell victim to Biggest Loser strategy when Sam Poueu failed to lose any pounds at this week's weigh-in. As a result, The Biggest Loser ranchers felt it was better to keep Sam and send Andrea Hough packing in order to continue their own Biggest Loser progress.

The latest episode of The Biggest Loser Couples also saw two forms of Biggest Loser surprises, as Sunshine and Andrea both won new cars before The Biggest Loser competitors got a visit from former Biggest Loser winner, Danny Cahill, and a lesson in personal finance and investment from Suze Orman. Although Andrea saw her time on The Biggest Loser come to an end, Andrea walked away a winner in more ways than one.

The morning after Andrea was eliminated from The Biggest Loser, we hopped on the line with the newly transformed Andrea Hough to learn more about her Biggest Loser journey, counting Biggest Loser calories, and why it took so long for Andrea to open up to Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper.

THE DEADBOLT: Why did it take you so long to reveal your problems about being loved to Bob?

ANDREA HOUGH: You know, I think a part of it was that I didn't think I had issues with it. When you're on the ranch, you get to know the people in the house. The closer you get to people in the house, the more you're willing to open up - for me at least - to open up to everybody. And I never hid it necessarily from the girls, I was close to Ashley, Stephanie, and Sunshine. I never hid it from them; we talked about it. I never took it to Bob and Jillian.

That week that I was on the chopping block for the first time below the yellow line, it was like a wake up call for me that I'm not going to be on the ranch forever and I need to start allowing myself to process the things I need to process. Talking to Bob was the point of me saying, "Okay, this is where it's at. This is what it is. This is how I feel." Just kind of putting it all out there .

THE DEADBOLT: What did you learn from Danny Cahill and Suze Orman?

ANDREA: Danny is amazing, I adore him, and he just kind of spews out wisdom as he talks to you. He got to talk with Daris and I when we were on the stair-stepper, and they showed a clip of it last night, but he just sort of encouraged that aspect of it's okay to want to be first. Especially in this scenario on the ranch, it's okay to want to be first but it's not really cool to step on people to get there. That was kind of my perspective the whole time, as well as Daris' and lots of people in the house. He really encouraged us to strive for first, do it with integrity, get there by being the best, and that's how you're going to walk out of the ranch with your head held high.

Suze Orman, she's knows her money. [laughs] I mean, she knows what she's talking about. It was really encouraging for her to sit there and tell us to just don't be afraid to get started. Like, go home call your debtor. Call the people you need to and talk to them. It kind of took away [the feeling] like the monster is bigger in the dark. So go home, turn the lights on, and face the monster and you'll realize it's not as big as you think it is.

THE DEADBOLT: Well, do you think it put a target on Sunshine's back with Suze saying she's probably going to win?

ANDREA: I think we all took that with a grain of salt. [laughs] We live with the people in the house everyday and we know that every single person wants to win. We're going to work our hardest, but I don't think anybody looked at Sunshine differently after that, because it's a person coming in who had a good prediction once before, saying, "We think Sunshine is going to win." She could've said, "I think Mike is going to win. I think Drea is going to win." I think everyone would've looked at it, "Okay, I'm glad that's your opinion. Let's go workout."

THE DEADBOLT: I was surprised that Koli didn't count calories. How strict are you with that?

ANDREA: There was a period of time on the ranch where I kind of got away from it just because the schedule was busy and sometimes you just get really sick of doing things. That was one of the things that in my head I could let go. However, my weight wasn't really affected by it in that period of time but I could tell that my discipline was. So I started back up.

Since then, I still count calories every day. I try to keep it as close as possible. Some days I forget to put on a piece of gum or something. Other than that, I try to just stick to my calorie counting because we've all learned, being on the ranch and coming home, that the things we learned on the ranch to do, they really are effective. So that's something I've continued to stick with.

THE DEADBOLT: I also thought it was cool that Bob sent you that DVD from when you first started. How did that affect you when you watched it?

ANDREA: It wasn't as emotional or sad as I thought it would be. As soon as I saw the DVD, I thought, "Oh my gosh, I'm going to cry like a baby," and I didn't. You know, I watched it and it made me really proud of myself and really happy that I've come this far. It was a reminder that you're doing the right things. You're doing a good job so keep it up because you don't want to go back to that person. I walked away from watching that DVD and I was really happy. It was really cool and I love seeing Bob, whether in person or on TV.