Danny Cahill loses 239 pounds, The Biggest Loser" may be first and foremost about weight loss, but when it comes to love, it has matchmaking reality shows beat - or at least it did on Tuesday's season finale.
Danny Cahill won after losing the most weight ever on the show - and he did it with the help of his wife and family.
"My family means the world to me and they are the reason I started this journey. They're the reason I filled out the application for season 6 and 7 and 8," Cahill told People magazine after the show, where it was revealed he dropped 239 pounds - more than half his body weight - to shrink from 430 to 191 over the course of the season.
The 40-year-old musician and surveyor, who makes his home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, stepped on the scale for the last time in front of his wife of 14 years, Darci, who also lost 60 pounds as she supported her husband's efforts at home. Also in attendance were the couple's two children, David, 10, and Marie Claire, 8.
Darci told People that the show has made their marriage stronger than ever. "When somebody gets to be that obese," Darci said, "he turned into somebody I didn't know, so part of this journey is getting to know each other again. It's awesome. It's like a new beginning."
Cahill told the magazine the couple plans to renew their vows next September.
The Cahills, who are $250,000 richer thanks to Danny's victory, aren't the only ones whose love lives have blossomed thanks to "The Biggest Loser."
Finalist Antoine Dove proposed to fellow contestant Alexandra White during the finale.
Before he stepped on the scale for his finale weigh-in, he put his newly in shape physique to work by getting down on one knee and popping the question to White, who was the first contestant voted off during season 8.
"I love you with all my heart. I've accomplished the impossible in my life because you were by my side. And now we're going to be able to live our lives together forever if you'd accept this ring," Dove told his stunned girlfriend.
White told Us Weekly she was "shocked," after the 23-year-old health insurance professional, who lost more than 41% of his body weight on the show, popped the question.
They had been talking about marriage, "but not anytime soon," she said to the magazine after the fact. "Life happens!"
And again, the couple's shared efforts weight loss brought them closer.
"He really supported me through my whole weight-loss journey, and he really accepted me for who I was one then," she told Us. "I guess we would say the same thing. We really supported each other through losing weight. Losing weight is not easy. If anyone tells you that it is, they're fibbing. We really helped each other, and right now, we're focusing on couples' weight-loss. Regardless if it's your fiancé or your mother, you need that support."
