The Biggest Loser Winner Ali Vincent Speaks Out After Regaining Weight: I Don't Know If I Ever Believed in Myself

The reality show contestant recently revealed publicly that she weighs almost the same amount she when she first went on the show

By Samantha Schnurr Dec 05, 2016 6:58 PMTags

Ali Vincent first made headlines when she shed 112 pounds to become The Biggest Loser's first female winner in 2008. Now, she's back in the spotlight for a struggle known to many previous contestants.

In late April, the Arizona native took to Facebook to reveal to fans that she had regained most of the weight she had shed on the show eight years earlier. "On April 16th I did one of the hardest things in my life I joined Weight Watchers and weighed in close to the weight I started at on The Biggest Loser. I swore I would never be there again, be here again. I couldn't imagine a day again that I would weigh over 200 pounds," she penned in a lengthy message. "I feel ashamed. I feel embarrassed. I feel overwhelmed. I feel like failure."

Then, in October, Vincent revealed she had been sexually assaulted while getting a massage and kept the trauma a secret. "I haven't talked about it because it's not something you just talk about," she said during a segment on Oprah: Where Are They Now?. "A lot of things have changed over the last couple of years in my life. I moved here, to Northern California. My routine completely changed. I've realized, over the last year, as I've gained this weight, it was so much of my life slowed down, that a lot of stuff came up that I just hadn't dealt with."

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Though she has begun to lose weight on the program, Vincent questioned her own self-esteem during an interview on T.D. Jakes Monday.

"The Biggest Loser gave me the opportunity to believe in myself and I don't know that I ever really did," she told the host. "Everybody wanted me to and I wanted to for them, and I had results to prove it. But do I really deserve to have everything that I dream of? Do I deserve to have this happiness?"

The former competitor was critical of herself as she questioned her personal battles and her age. 

"I know there's stuff to deal with and I know that it goes back way far, but then I also feel like—I'm 41 years old. When am I going to just own my own stuff?" she asked out loud. "How can I just let go?"

As Jakes advised her, "It has nothing to do with age. You can be 91. Until you confront whatever it is that's eating at you, it will live forever."

"You cannot allow what happened to you to control what is possible for you."