The Biggest Loser Exit Interview: Sione Talks About His Rifts with Jillian, Tara, and Ron

Fan favorite Sione Fa might not win The Biggest Loser, but for Sione, he’s already won. Along with his cousin Filipe, he lost 116 pounds at the ranch. And now that he’s home, the Tongan is now hell-bent on training his overweight family on how to be fit and healthy. Throughout the show, Sione formed some, let’s say, interesting relationships. His idolization of Bob compelled him to leave Jillian’s team, his insistence on beating Tara at everything caused some less-than friendly competition, and Ron wasn’t shy about his desire to vote Sione off. Despite all the drama, Sione came out of the house with a fire in his belly. Read on to find out his plans for life after The Biggest Loser.

Why do you think you only lost four pounds this week? Do you regret participating in the temptation?

I think everybody just has their weeks when they have a low number. This was the first time I fell below the yellow line. I kind of felt like it was just my week. I just had that feeling. And the temptation— it was kind of crazy. When you look back, I ate all that stuff… maybe that affected the pound because I basically got kicked off by a pound. But being in that moment if I was to get put back into that moment again I’d probably do it again.

Why did you leave Jillian to train with Bob?

Her training style is awesome; she’s a great trainer. I don’t take anything away from that. When we did train together I gave it everything I had physical-wise. I think emotionally we connected better with Bob. And obviously that showed. On Biggest Loser a lot of things that people don’t realize being on the ranch is it’s just as much emotional as physical there; we can’t talk to our families, we can’t talk to our kids, we can’t talk to, you know, what I like to call normal people. It was just a conflict in personal issues.

What was your relationship with Tara like, considering she was one of your biggest competitors?

She’s a great competitor; she works her butt off. And she was a motivator for me and she had actually told me that watching me workout that motivated her. And it turned into the little competition in every challenge. As you can see, she’s awesome and she works hard. I think we’re in the same relationship right now just mostly she’s somebody that drives me and then I’m somebody that drives her.

Was it hard breaking the tradition of eating in your culture?

Yeah, when we get together as a family you don’t count calories at our get-togethers… you just pile your plate as high as you can get it and just go at it. And a lot more people, when I go to those gatherings, they’re a lot more conscious on what they’re eating. Weight is a big issue in the culture but I think with me and Filipe doing this journey together they’re seeing it that we’re happier. And culture or not, when you’re overweight you’re overweight and you have to deal with the problems of being overweight and all the diseases out there and possibly dying young and heart problems. And I think it’s finally clicked with them. And it’s fun. I’ve actually been to a luau where they baked a lot of chicken, made brown rice. That’s unheard of.

What was your favorite milestone that you accomplished? Hitting the 100 pound mark? The half marathon?

Physically-wise pushing myself to the limit was the half marathon definitely. Up until that point I barely got to running 2.5 miles straight through without stopping. That was a huge physical milestone for me. Emotionally it would be the car-pulling challenge where I just realized that I need to pace myself and finish strong instead of just giving everything I got and not finishing because I saw that pattern in my life a lot. So those are probably the biggest two breakthroughs that I had.

What was Ron really like? Was he really as bossy as he seemed?

He was a father figure. I don’t know necessarily like to what extent to some people. But he’s definitely a big influence in the show and a lot of the decisions he made stuck. And you’ve just got to give it to him for playing the godfather role well. He really did control a lot of that game. We were going to stick it through and stick it all the way to the end. And as you get closer to that those dollar signs and you get close to the title of the Biggest Loser some of those alliances go astray. And we felt it a couple weeks prior that the alliance to us really wasn’t that strong. Like it showed in the last episode true feelings towards us kind of came out. I don’t hold anything against him. You get in this weird state of mind on the ranch and it feels like you’re trapped in a bubble. When it all comes down to it, it should be about you and your personal journey there.

More on These Topics: Exit Interview | The Biggest Loser