NEWSOK!'s 'Biggest Loser' Exclusive: Courtney & Marci Crozier — We Lost 310 Lbs!
April 8 2011, Published 9:33 a.m. ET
The dramatic weight-loss story of mother-daughter duo of Courtney Crozier and her mom, Marci, is only in OK! this week! Food used to rule Courtney's life, she explains. “Chips, cookies, deep-dish pizza. I’d go out to eat several times a day; I was eating all the time,” the fan favorite of The Biggest Loser’s 11th season revealed in an exclusive sit-down with OK!.
“I just kept gaining more and more weight.” Eventually she tipped the scales at 435 pounds. Then, she had an epiphany. “I went out on my 21st birthday and couldn’t even have a good time,” says Courtney, now 22. Plus, her weight was driving a wedge between her and one of the most important people in her life — her mother, Marci.
“She always had an issue with my weight, and we were never able to talk about it. It was on the back burner all the time,” Courtney says. “I realized I had to make a change.”
Inspired by watching The Biggest Loser, Courtney decided to take matters into her own hands. “I started making small changes. I stopped drinking soda, and that alone caused me to lose 15 pounds,” she explains. “I used a body-bugg an iPod-size gadget that tracks how many calories you burn and paid attention to how many steps I was taking. I had to be conscious of all my decisions. It wasn’t easy.”
Still, on her own, Courtney amazingly shed 112 pounds! Then, at 323 pounds, Courtney decided she wanted to keep going, so she turned to her mom. A health-club manager and restaurant owner, Marci blamed her own weight gain on stress and being a workaholic (at the time, she weighed 238 pounds).
“I’ve always wanted to work with The Biggest Loser’s Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels,” Courtney says. “I’ve always looked up to them.” “I went to the ranch thinking I was doing it for Courtney, and when I got there, I realized how much I needed it, too,” recalls 49-year-old Marci.
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At the Biggest Loser ranch, hard work helped the weight start to fall off. To date, the mother-daughter team has lost a total of 310 pounds (since going to the ranch, Courtney lost 116 and Marci lost 80).
“When my husband saw me, he said, ‘I think I’m in a time warp,’ ” says Marci. “He said, ‘This is the woman I married,’ and told me I looked just like I did when I was in college!”
FOR MORE ON COURTNEY AND MARCI'S DRAMATIC WEIGHT LOSS STORY, PICK UP THIS WEEK'S ISSUE OF OK! - ON SALE EVERYWHERE NOW!
