5 Questions With: 'The Biggest Loser' Winner Michelle Aguilar

And the winner of 'The Biggest Loser: Families' is ... Michelle Aguilar, the 26-year-old Fort Worth, Texas, contestant who lost 110 pounds, shedding 45.45 percent of her body weight, and won the $250,000 grand prize on Tuesday night's live season finale.

Aguilar had paired up on season six with her mom Renee, from whom she'd been estranged since her parents' divorce. Not only did the mother and daughter patch up their personal rift, but Renee made it to the 11th week of the competition and lost 106 pounds by the season finale.

Aguilar talked to AOL TV the morning after her win -- which made her only the second female 'Biggest Loser' champ -- about the moment she learned she had won, the key to her amazing physical transformation, the trick to surviving eight-hour workouts and more. -- By Kimberly Potts



1. When you stepped on the scale for the final weigh-in, you seemed calm. Did you have any idea that you were going to be the winner?
Well, everyone has their scales at home, so you have an idea. I kinda knew, in a roundabout way, where I was at. But then you start to think, "Well, what if my scale is off by a few pounds from the scale they're using?" and you don't want to get too confident. But I knew I had a pretty good shot when they said I only needed to lose 100 pounds to win. I knew I had lost at least that much.

2. It's such a major decision to put your personal life on TV. Not just your health and your weight, but also your family relationships. Was that freeing once you did it?
It's funny because the freeing thing physically, putting my weight out there, was a little easier. Standing up there in your spandex and letting people know exactly how much you weigh at your heaviest ... there is a freedom that comes with that. But then to also do that with your emotions, that's where it got difficult for me. Because I thought, well, [my weight] is not really so much about that. But, of course, deep down, it has everything to do with that. It ended up being the best thing that I could do. It gave people the chance to not only empathize with me, but to really look at me a little differently and say, "Are you really having a good day? Is there anything I can do?" without you having to smile your way through it.

For my mom and I, and I think we would both say the same thing: Our emotions played a huge part in us gaining weight. There's that whole emotional eating thing; stressed-out eating. We both have stressful jobs and we both had emotional issues we hadn't really dealt with, so for us to look at ourselves and say, "Oh, we're both overweight," it makes sense. Getting that under control and putting it on the table is what led to both of us being successful with our weight losses so far.

3. How is your relationship with your mom now?
Now, I would say it's great. Growing up, you always think it'll be one way, but as an adult, I realize that the relationship we have now is good. It's what works for us. It's new, it's fresh, it's different. But it's also stable and growing. That's progress, and it means we get to spend time together, and that's really the most important thing for me.

4. When you were in the middle of the competition, you would work out as much as two to four hours a day. How did you stay motivated?
Yeah, two to four, four to six, sometimes six to eight hours a day we'd workout. Now, I'll probably go with a two-hour a day program. I tried to stay motivated by giving myself variety; changing it up and going from machine to machine. And now, by going to a good gym that has a variety of machines and a lot of TVs and music channels I can plug into, I can sort of mentally check out if I need to and focus on the workout.

5. Is there something that you've always wanted to wear or something you've always wanted to do once before you lost weight that you can wear or do now?
Before 'The Biggest Loser,' whenever I was invited to go somewhere or do something, I'd always think, "What am I gonna wear? Can I wear something that will hide the parts of my body I don't like?" Like, someone would say, "Maybe we'll jump in the hot tub afterward." And I would be thinking, "Oh great, I'm going to have to think of something to wear, and maybe something to cover myself with to get in the hot tub." Now when someone asks me to do something, I throw on a pair of jeans and walk out the door without giving it a second thought. That was the special little reward that I got -- that I don't have to think about my body 24/7 anymore.