‘Biggest Loser’ winner Patrick House received $250,000 from the popular TV show!

Patrick House was announced to be the winner last night in the Biggest Loser finale. House, 28, a salesman from Vicksburg, Miss., won the $250,000 in prize money after losing 181 pounds during the show. Six months ago, he weighed nearly 400 pounds, CBS News said, and he lost nearly 45 percent of his body weight.

One of the Biggest Loser’s trainers, Bob Harper, thought House will win the show from the start. House was unemployed before participating in the program and he reportedly really needed money. He won the money, but can he keep the weight off post Biggest Loser finale?

“It’s very difficult to keep weight off for years,” Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the comprehensive weight control program at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center, told the source. In addition to sticking to a diet similar to the Biggest Loser meal plan, House will need to continue exercising regularly. And House has to keep the weight off, as he was reportedly pre-diabetic at his previous weight.

House took his family to a vacation in the Caribbean to celebrate winning the Biggest Loser reality show. When he returns, he plans to start a new business: a weight-loss academy.