From big to 'Biggest Loser' and back again

BOISE, Idaho — Over lunch on a recent weekday afternoon, Mandi Kramer nibbled on a veggie-laden salad at Chicago Connection and talked about her ongoing struggle to keep off the weight she lost while on the popular NBC reality TV show.

After regaining more than half of what she lost, she's rededicating herself to living a healthy lifestyle.

"Every day is a new day to start with the tools I learned on the show," she said.

She takes part in a Fit Club Bootcamp and is also working out three days a week at the Body Renew gym in Boise. She watches what she eats — choosing less-caloric versions of her favorite foods. For now, it's skim milk, low-fat mozzarella and SmartBalance butter and about 1,200 calories a day. She's also given up alcoholic beverages for a while.

"The Biggest Loser" has given her extra motivation to get back on track because the show will be in Boise in March to shoot an update on her progress. The show gave her a heads-up in November.

The 32-year-old Boisean and her sister, Aubrey Cheney, 30, of Gooding, Idaho, were on Season 7 of "The Biggest Loser" during 2008-09. The show is a rigorous weight-loss competition in which participants compete to lose the highest percentage of body weight — in hopes of not only changing their lives but winning the grand prize of $250,000.

Kramer, who is 5-foot-8, worked mightily over several months at "The Biggest Loser" ranch and at home to shed 98 pounds by the show's May finale.

She ran Boise's grueling 13.1-mile Race to Robie Creek in April and got down to 171 pounds, about what she weighed in high school when she was a three-sport athlete at Meridian High.

Weight came off, but came back faster

But she didn't get to enjoy her leaner, lighter frame for long. "I gained 20 to 30 pounds in the first month," said Kramer, who thinks about one-third of it was water weight she had wrung out of her body during four months of 10-hour daily workouts.

She admits her exercise fell off from five days a week down to two days, then to none at all some weeks. Things began to spiral.

"The less you work out, the more crappy food you eat," she said.

By Christmas, she had gained another 30 pounds. She said her head never really caught up with the changes in her body.