Interview with Aubrey Cheney, Eliminated Biggest Loser Week 12

Aubrey's starting weight was 249 pounds; final Biggest Loser ranch weigh-in was 191 pounds.

She had watched Biggest Loser seasons one through six with her husband, and during those years had three children and gained more than one hundred pounds. “I was humongous,” says Aubrey Cheney. “I knew I had to do something.” That when the 28-year-old mom of five asked older sister Mandi Kramer to audition for Biggest Loser season seven as a team. Aubrey spent the first week at the ranch, and due to an unexpected twist in the premiere episode, she was sent home for 30 days where she lost only two pounds.

A lot of moms who find themselves in a similar position – overweight, constantly putting everyone else’s needs first and a desire to be fit and healthy – are turning to Aubrey. When asked what her advise is to other moms, she hesitated and said “it’s so hard.”  She lost 58 pounds on the ranch, but once she returned home, all her old habits and demands were waiting for her and she gained nine pounds in three weeks. “Why can’t I grasp this at home?” she says about her frustration. Then she knew she had to create a schedule. Aubrey credits her schedule with saving her life. She tells other moms to make a schedule and that there is always at least one to two hours in a day for yourself, for the gym. Aubrey says she found the slowest two hours of her day, and makes that her workout time, either in the gym or using Biggest Loser fitness DVDs. She says it’s easier to combine chores like laundry running in the background while she’s preparing dinner or helping with homework, than it is to dedicate time only to that and miss a workout.

Aubrey pulling a two-ton race car in week 12 of Biggest Loser 7.

Aubrey’s also been an inspiration to her father who is battling weight issues of his own. She says she’s taught him things that she’s learned and encourages him to find someone who can help him, but until after the finale, she can’t concentrate her energy on him. She did take him to his first trip to the gym, where she says he cried and told her he felt embarrassed. Her reminder to him serves us all well, that in just getting to the gym you’ve already done the hardest part.

Aubrey has nothing but kind words to say about the competitors she left in the Biggest Loser gym. She says this season is unique because none of them are there for the $250,000 prize, only focused on changing their lives. She says the way they’ve concentrated on bettering themselves, that they’ve been able to break so many records this season. She’s hopeful that this is Bob Harper‘s year to be the trainer behind the Biggest Loser. She prefers his methods over Jillian’s, saying that with Bob she learned to do it for herself, whereas Aubrey felt she was doing it for Jillian. She’s also hesitantly said she’s got her hopes set that Bob’s trainee Kristin Steede will become the third female Biggest Loser. “Can I say that,” she said afterward.

Her own goal for finale is to get back to her high school weight of 125 pounds. She says that Bob and Dr. Huizenga agree that an ideal weight for her body is 135-140 pounds.