By Dani M. Stone
Adrian Dortch has a head start on the other Biggest Loser contestants. After topping the scales at 420 a few years ago, 34-year-old Adrian enters the ranch at 370 pounds. As an accomplished performing artist with a very impressive resume of background vocal work for artists such as Seal and Paul Anka, Adrian knows about discipline and preparation. It’s the cruel twists life gives us that has thrown him off his weight loss journey, including the loss of his infant daughter. Adrian and his teammate, older sister Daphne Dortch, hope to reach their goals together this season on Biggest Loser 13.
For Adrian, excess weight has always been a part of his life. Though he was thin as a child, by 10 he started to put on extra pounds and couldn’t stay active enough to keep it off. Though he learned to cook from his grandmother and still credits her with his extraordinary culinary skills, he admits the food was prepared in saturated fat and wasn’t the most healthy diet growing up.
Adrian and his wife currently have two children and are excited for a new baby on the way. Sadly, his first child, a daughter, was born prematurely and passed away when she was just six-months old. Adrian admits being the backbone for his wife and trying to keep her spirits up took everything he had to give. A self-described “people pleaser,” Adrian gave up on taking care of himself to concentrate on the people around him.
A few years later, Adrian would be rushed from a movie theater to an emergency room with heart palpitations. At the time his wife was pregnant with their second child. He remembers the sadness he felt, thinking about the loss of his first child, and the fact he might not live to see his second. He decided at that moment he needed to make a big change.
As a community activist and civic leader, Adrian works in the lives of families every day, trying to keep their spirits up and improve their situation. This season Adrian will need every bit of that motivation to make it to the Biggest Loser 13 season finale.
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