The ‘Biggest Loser’ Loses A Little More — With Surgery

Access Hollywood checked in with this past season’s “Biggest Loser” champion, Erik Chopin, to see how he was faring following his triumphant weight loss.

It seems that after losing 214 pounds and nearly half of his body weight on the show, Erik was left in a strange predicament: he suddenly had folds of excess skin drooping around his waistline.

“When I was really big I would be like — you know, it was more like a Buddha thing — I could pat my belly. And then [after the weight loss] it became this thing I could just kind of grab, you know. I was like, ‘this has to go, I have to get rid of this, now [that] there’s nothing here anymore.’ It’s just weird.”

Erik underwent a lower body lift procedure, where excess skin in his abdomen, back and waist was surgically trimmed and tightened. He had originally planned on having a tummy tuck, but the surgeon explained that if he merely had that done, the excess skin on his sides and back would still be there — and even be accentuated. But with the body lift, Erik was able to get rid of all of it, which he says left him “thrilled”:

“It couldn’t have been better, you know, there’s just nothing on the sides anymore. I really was expecting just to have a flat tummy, but the result of this surgery also gave me a loss of this love handles section that I normally have, which wasn’t fat anymore, it was skin. But it looks like [fat], it plays with your head.”

Three weeks following the surgery, Erik is dealing with the pain that comes from swelling, and the sadness of being unable to exercise while it heals, but he’s staying positive about the ultimate results.

“It’s healing really great,” he says. “It’s just a matter of waiting for this little bit of swelling, getting the okay on the exercise. If the doctor gives me the ‘thumbs up,’ I’m gonna really start hitting it hard, and by June/July I want to have that six pack.”

Erik’s journey on “The Biggest Loser” has been extraordinary — he is the top contender in the show’s history on NBC — but it’s not quite over yet. He reveals that he’ll play a part in the upcoming fourth season:

“I definitely see from talking to the producers of the show that there’ll be some type of role for me — meeting with the contestants towards the end of their journey, explaining to them how it is when you get back out in the real world. You know, being off that ranch, and being around food and your family, and being exposed to those triggers. I can tell them about that.”

Beyond that, Erik has one more wish. “I’m hoping to do some type of role at the finale,” he says. “I’d love to pass the torch to the new winner, Biggest Loser 4.”