Another member of Anna Kournikova’s team was sent home this week on “Biggest Loser” Battle of the Ages, after losing the least amount of weight. The Black Team (the older team) eliminated Johnny Forger, a 65-year-old realty company owner from Canton, MA, after a two-pound gain at the weigh-in. But Johnny hasn’t let the elimination slow down his weight loss! In the post-elimination update, Johnny, who arrived on the ranch weighing 328 pounds, said he currently weighs 269 pounds.
Here’s what he told us about his experience on the ranch, staying on track at home, what he thought of his trainer Anna Kournikova, and more!
On staying motivated and on track while at home:
Going home I said to myself, “There’s no way that I’m going to come back on this show and have lost five pounds. I’m going to go at it tooth and nail.”
Sometimes I’ll end up at 8, 9, 10 o’clock at night at the gym. On some mornings it’ll be 6 or 7 o’clock or it’ll be 2 o’clock in the afternoon, but I know that I have to do it.
And it’s made me feel like a different person and I’m enjoying it. I recommend it highly to America. Do it, you might like it. You will like it.
His thoughts on having Anna as a trainer:
Well, Anna is a world class athlete and there were rumors that she’s not going to be tough and a real trainer. Well, she’s more than a trainer because the trainers usually train and aren’t being trained constantly. And Anna explained her life from the age of five coming to the U.S., and then nine becoming a tennis player and the intensity that she went through.
And when she said, “You know you need to do this,” I knew that she knew and she had experienced it, and she was good. She was hard, she was tough, and there were days that I thought to myself, “Where’s the break? Where’s the break?” There is no break as you can see on the week before with Bonnie asking for water and so forth.
She taught me to look at the three hours in my own head, and as we walked into the gym I thought to myself, “In three hours it doesn’t matter what she can do to us, okay? She can do just as she pleases and push us to the limit. I know that 10 or 15 minutes after it’s over I’m going to feel like a new man,” and I was – I wanted it. I wanted it and she brought it on.
She took us outside one Sunday morning and I thought we were going to go for a walk in the pastures, all right? Well, we took a right-hand turn and we climbed a mountain. We got up, came back down, and it was a tough climb and everybody did it. We came back, we’re almost to the gym, and I thought to myself, “She could kill me, I don’t care. It’s 100 degrees outs here, air conditioning here we come,” and Anna turns around with her big hat on and says, “Okay, time to go to the hill again.”
What was going through his mind when he first arrived at the ranch:
The God’s honest truth is when I walked into the first exercise routine it was like walking into a buzzsaw. I didn’t know it was coming and, baby, oh my, God. I took a look and I’m talking to myself, but I’m saying, “When I get home I’m going to kill every one of you kids.” They did, they sent me into a buzzsaw and – but you know what, I’m glad they did.
On his new diet:
I’ve been fairly happy with what I’m eating. I’ve eliminated a lot of things that – you know, the spare ribs I used to down, I’d stop and get them and eat them on the way home in the car, and then come home and eat some more of something else, and so forth.
Now, I have it down to what I like. You know, I’ve got a lot of sliced turkey in my life, a lot of fruits, a lot of vegetables, a lot of chicken, fish. And, you know, I used to think that I needed to have two pounds, now I’m happy with the six, eight ounces, five ounces, whatever it happens to be. And that zero fat yogurt. I never ate the stuff before, but it works out beautifully and you mix it up with a few nuts and some berries and so forth and it’s just good eating!
And since I got away from the bread, the bagels, the pastas and so forth, the food seems to stick with me better. I don’t have the ups and downs on the sugar. So it’s working and I’m happy about it.
What he’s looking forward to doing now that he’s lost the weight, that he couldn’t do before:
When I used to fly on planes I always had to ask for an extender belt, and I had an extender belt in my car. When I get back there was no need for that extender belt. It’s gone and there’s a big, big piece of seatbelt that’s left to go around me, so it’s really been a milestone.
Climbing stairs…I used to hate to go up the stairs because I’d think, “Oh, God.” Now, I think about it and I think, “Those are the old thoughts! Go up, go up, go up. I love the stairs.” As a matter of fact, at the gym we have a think called the Summit Climber and the trainer told me – while I’m on it – he said, “Most people beg me to get off this after one or two minutes,” and I was into my second minute.
And I thought to myself, “I’m not going to let him put me in that category,” so I went four minutes the first time and the next time I think I went six, the next time I went eight, the next time I went ten, and then ten maybe back to eight. And this week, one day I came in and I did 30 minutes on it. The same thing goes with the boxing and the punching, you know, and the workout boxing. He told me the same thing when I put the gloves on for the first time that people cannot, and some – most guys can’t do it more than two minutes. Well, I got it up to where I’m throwing 2200 punches, which takes an hour, and will throw 100 or will throw 200 rapid fire and take a 10, 15 second break. I found that to be very effective in taking weight off my upper body. It makes me happy.