'Biggest Loser' star hopes to inspire through lectures and consulting

Neil Tejwani had only once seen his father cry, until he dropped more than 200 pounds with the help of the reality show “The Biggest Loser.”

“Once was when my grandmother died, and the second time was when I walked back into house after the show,” Tejwani says.

The sight of a drastically fitter Tejwani had a powerful effect on his loved ones, who’d been worried about his health and lifespan, and the transformation was equally profound for him. Tejwani will visit Salem’s Old Town Hall on Wednesday, Jan. 14 to discuss his journey, both on-screen and off, and how others can apply the lessons he’s learned. (See the bottom of this article for details on the Salem event.)

Tejwani was a finalist in season four of “The Biggest Loser,” a popular NBC reality show in which participants compete for a $250,000 prize by trying to lose the highest percentage of their starting weight. The contestants work in teams with a trainer and are called upon to meet various fitness and diet challenges along the way, although in the end only one “Loser” takes home the prize.

When the season began airing in September 2007, Tejwani weighed the most of any contestant, at 421 pounds. By the end of the eight-month process, he’d dropped half of his weight to claim 211 pounds for his 6-foot-2 frame.

He credits much of his remarkable slim-down to the intensity of the show, which includes six-hour workouts under a trainer’s guidance and creates an environment where participants — temporarily free from work and family obligations — can focus entirely on fitness and diet.

“I would say about ‘The Biggest Loser’ that it is a very ideal place to lose weight,” he says. “It really is a good environment and zone to lose it.”

Now 26, the Marblehead native has left his job as a chemical engineer and devoted himself to his new life. He founded a weight-loss consulting company (see below for details) and delivers lectures to corporations, schools, athletes and charitable groups.

Getting fit and staying that way isn’t as easy when you’re in the real world, Tejwani says. In the talks he gives, and in his work as a weight-loss consultant with Neilz Health World, Tejwani taps into his own experiences to guide people to change their own lives.

“If you keep making small changes here and there, eventually you’ll get there,” he says.

Tejwani has said he was always on the heavy side but didn’t start packing on serious pounds until high school, when a leg injury kept him from the various sports he liked to play.

It was during the college years that Tejwani’s weight began heading in a dangerous direction. Like so many young men in their early 20s, it was a time of pizza, takeout food and plenty of alcohol. At that point, Tejwani wasn’t terribly troubled by his weight. He was the “fun guy,” the “life of the party,” the buddy you’d call up to hit the bar or go out to eat. He did well in classes, had plenty of friends and pretty good luck with the ladies.

Then reality hit. “I was 420 pounds at 22, 23 years old. You have the doctor telling you you’re not going to see past 30 years old,” he says. During a routine physical, his doctor diagnosed Tejwani with hypertension, sleep apnea and borderline type II diabetes, and told him he literally might not live past 30.

Aided by his family, friends and girlfriend Stefanie Nigro (now his fiancée), who were deeply worried about his health, Tejwani began pursuing serious weight loss. Hoping to try a gastric bypass with New England Medical Center, he undertook the lengthy, requisite process of taking seminars and being evaluated. But he soon learned he’d have to lose at least 40 pounds to even qualify for the gastric band, which is considered the less invasive procedure.

Tipping the scales at 460 pounds, his highest weight ever (even higher than his debut on “The Biggest Loser”), it seemed a daunting task. Once he applied himself, however, the pounds began to slip away. After losing the 40-pound minimum, he told his physician he was starting to doubt whether a gastric band was the right choice — perhaps he should continue losing weight the old-fashioned way.

The doctor urged him to stick with the bypass route, warning him it would be incredibly difficult to drop so much weight and nearly impossible to keep it off long-term. To Tejwani, that amounted to a challenge. He told his doctor the next time he was in the office, he would have lost all the weight.

Around that time, his girlfriend heard about a casting call for the next season of “Biggest Loser.” A fan of the show — not to mention her boyfriend’s health and future — Stefanie Nigro urged Tejwani to audition. He was initially reluctant, arguing that a reality TV show wasn’t a good venue for weight loss. But he gave in and submitted a five-minute tape that won over the “Biggest Loser” producers. He was soon on his way to the show’s campus in California.

The next thing Tejwani knew, he was losing 10 pounds a week, nearly every week. The same innate qualities that made him balk at a doctor’s lack of faith in his willpower and discipline also served him well on the NBC show. In addition to the grueling daily workouts and a sense of responsibility to one’s teammates, the contestants are also presented with various challenges.

Participants might be given a chance to call loved ones at home in exchange for eating a sugary, high-fat food that could lead to their elimination. Or they might be offered immunity or a prize for besting the other competitors in an extreme physical challenge.

At the end of the first 14 weeks, the North Shore resident had slimmed down to a lean, sculpted 278 pounds. He’d made it to the end as a finalist, although due to the team dynamics of the game, he was eliminated that week. It was the first time in the show’s history that a contestant who actually lost the highest percentage of his starting weight didn’t make it to the finale.

Yet the finale is also a chance for all contestants to gather for a reunion. The participants return home and are expected to keep up the weight loss on their own, so the pressure was on to stay slim.

Back in Marblehead, friends and family welcomed Tejwani with what he describes as “probably the warmest response I’ve ever seen in my life.” This was the moment that his father, so relieved about his son’s health and so proud of his fitness, was actually moved to tears.

Determined to stay in “Biggest Loser” mode, Tejwani soon decided to relocate to his now-fiancée’s hometown in New York State until the finale episode was filmed. In Marblehead, everyone wanted to catch up with Tejwani over dinner or at a barbecue, a recipe for dieting disaster. In New York, he was better able to maintain his training and dieting regime.

His loved ones, Tejwani realized, would have to get used to him having undergone not only a slim-down, but an actual change in lifestyle.

“It took my friends and family a while to realize that it is Neil, but it is Neil a lot healthier, so we can’t just expect him to do same things,” he recalls.

It was worth it to delay his permanent homecoming: At the reunion, Tejwani weighed in at his all-time lowest, 210 pounds. He had literally lost half of his body weight. Having shared a unique bonding experience, the finale was a proud and celebratory reunion.

“The best part of the finale is seeing the transformations people went though over the whole eight months, whether they were voted off or not,” he says.

People still approach Tejwani at airports and grocery stores to ask for autographs, share their own struggles with fitness and diet and comment on his dramatic weight loss during “The Biggest Loser.” Today, he closely resembles his “after” photos, weighing in at roughly 240 pounds.

As life-changing as the show was, however, the story Tejwani tells to audiences is equally focused on the road that led him to obesity and the passion and perseverance he relies on to keep off the weight.

“The question was, how can I keep that fire burning that I had on campus, how do I keep that fire at home…?” says Tejwani. “No matter how hard it is to lose the weight — and it is hard — keeping it off is the hardest thing I’ve ever done my life.”

He shares his message on the lecture circuit and with Neilz Health World, the fitness consulting business he now runs with nutritionist Joan Schwager. These projects, he says, help him reach the many people who are struggling with their health the way he used to.

“Biggest Loser” provides regimen and personal attention that aren’t available to the average person, Tejwani acknowledges. But he has faith that the show can be adapted into more gradual lifestyle changes. These are the lessons that have helped him stay fit, and the ones he tries to share with others.

“‘The Biggest Loser’ shows you that when people are removed from their everyday lives, they can accomplish amazing things,” he says. “… But in the real world, people can lose the weight, it is possible.”

To learn more about Tejwani, his fitness consulting business or his lecture availability, visit www.neilzhealthworld.com or send e-mail to neil@ neilzhealthworld.com.