Bill Germanakos bested 14 of his fellow “Biggest Loser” contestants to take home the $250,000 prize on the popular NBC show Tuesday night.
“I haven’t even slept yet,” an overjoyed Bill told Access Hollywood during a promotional stop in NYC, earlier today. “As soon as the finale ended they [shot] us to a limousine and brought us straight out the airport for the red eye and you know, we’re a little too excited to sleep.”
On Tuesday’s big finale, Bill had extra weight on his shoulders during his final weigh-in; his twin brother Jim, who lost the biggest percentage of his body weight out of the eliminated contestants,had already been awarded a $100,000 prize early in the broadcast.
For an extra confidence boost, Bill looked to his loved ones as he hit the scale.
“I looked over and I saw my family in the audience and they were so happy for me,” he recalled. “When I saw what the weight came in at, I was just ecstatic! And to know that my twin brother won for the eliminated group and we made it a twin sweep, [it] was more than we ever could have hoped for. It was just fantastic, we really enjoyed it.”
Bill, who referred to himself on the show as an “old-timer,” said the experience of losing 16.6% of his body fat (164 pounds) has completely changed his life. And his brother’s life has been altered as well.
“This experience is a new lease on life for us,” he said. “We’ve been losing friends that are leaving kids without dads and it was just time to make a change. When we had the opportunity to do this, we thought this would be fantastic and it’s been a real, complete change in life and a complete re-education.”
As for Jim’s win for the eliminated group, he told Access that being sent home early, but still knowing his brother was in the competition, helped propel him to his $100,000 weight loss victory.
“My goals changed when I went home, it was not only me against the other contestants, but it was me against Bill,” Jim said. “We’ve always been very competitive and I tried to catch him. I got within five pounds.”
Jim said one of the exciting new activities he plans to do now that he has lost weight is take his son on a winter sports excursion.
“I promised my son that I would snowboard with him so that’s gonna be new for me,” he smiled. “Snowboarding! In February we’re gonna go away for vacation. There’s a lot ahead. I can’t wait. I’m hoping to keep my level of fitness right where it’s at and just go from here.”
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