Big brothers

That was then. Now Mark and Jay Kruger are half the men they used to be.

Jay (left) and Mark Kruger are both about 100 pounds lighter than when they first appeared on "The Biggest Loser: Couples." (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

DARTMOUTH - Since being eliminated from NBC's "The Biggest Loser: Couples" in April, Mark and Jay Kruger, brothers from Southeastern Massachusetts who nearly walked off with the top prize of $250,000, have heard from weight watchers, fitness freaks, and reality-show junkies, among others.

Both have coped with temptation and celebrity, too, sometimes simultaneously, while struggling to make permanent diet and lifestyle changes adopted during their 15-week run on "Loser." While the taste of fame is often sweet, both say, it's hardly as satisfying as having added years to their lives by trimming many inches off their waistlines.

"I'll take my 15 minutes [of fame], but it's a strange experience," Jay, 32, says over a breakfast of turkey bacon and oat-flour pancakes at Mark's house in Dartmouth. "We're really just regular guys. Right now, I'm trying to find a balance between work, family, and working out. It's tough, though."

Taking his wife to a New Hampshire inn one weekend after being eliminated, Jay was hovering over the breakfast buffet when he noticed guests staring at him. "There went that idea," he says, laughing. "You think about what you're eating with all those eyes on you."

Mark, 36, who played the heavy in more ways than one on "Loser," learned plenty about himself during the competition, he says, including the fact that he can cry like a baby when he allows his emotions to run freely. Nevertheless, he's content to be back in real life and out of the reality-show version.

"At the end of the day, we're guys who were on a TV show, that's all," says Mark. "Quite honestly, it's already died down for the most part," he says, referring to the buzz - not all of it positive - surrounding them while the show remained fresh in viewers' minds.

Mark finished in fourth place, sent packing on March 3 after Week 15. Jay got bounced a week earlier, in an episode shot in Australia. Together they earned about $5,000 on the show, most of it from winning weekly challenges and competitions staged by the show's producers. Mark gave back a $10,000 bonus attached to one such challenge, exchanging the money for an extra pound subtracted from his weigh-in total one week.

"In retrospect, I might like to have that money back," he says smiling.

More important, both returned home changed men - not just physically but with a whole new outlook on life.

Jay, who weighed 350 pounds a year ago, dropped 91 pounds during the course of the show and is now down to 202, a level he's working diligently to stay at. Back home in New Bedford, he filled seven garbage bags with XXL-size clothes and donated them to the Red Cross. Twelve months ago, says Jay, "My doctor told me if I kept going this way, I'd be a candidate for gastric bypass surgery. I lived all my life as an overweight person. Now I'm in uncharted territory, but it feels great."

Mark, who's taken up road running, dropped 129 pounds in five months, reaching 156 pounds at one point. Like Jay, he's given away sackfuls of old clothing, keeping only a size-52 suit (he now wears a 40) bought for a family wedding last year. His wife, Erika, lost 44 pounds herself while Mark was away and helped rid their house of junk food when he got back. Mark now believes he was headed for a heart attack until "Loser" came along.

Their adventure began last August. Exiting Fenway Park one night, the Krugers were spotted by show producers in Boston to audition potential contestants. Jay was familiar with the show, Mark was not. "I never thought of myself as being big enough to be on that show," Jay says. "Apparently we were."

Wary about whether they'd qualify for "Loser," and if so how they'd rearrange their lives around the show's schedule, the Krugers agreed to a follow-up interview. By October, they'd joined 39 couples in Los Angeles for the final weeding-out process. Jay and Mark were locked in a hotel room for a week until the competition began. "That's when they start the mind games," Mark says. "They want you a little frazzled. It helps create the conflict and drama they're looking for."

Strategizing among and against the other couples also began immediately, the Krugers say. One aspect of the competition they have not divulged publicly before: their conscious decision to play good cop/bad cop. Jay was chosen to be the "nice" brother, Mark the more abrasive, hypercompetitive one. While exaggerated for effect, the roles were based on their natural personalities, according to Mark. "I was no different to people on the show than I am to people at work."

The longer they lasted, the more competitive they became. Initially eliminated in January, Mark returned to the show a week later as the biggest at-home weight loser. He came back with a new attitude, less caught up in the show's gamesmanship and more focused on getting fitter. "The more the other contestants wanted to get rid of us, the more hardnosed I got," he recalls. "If I was going out, it was going to be on my own terms."

Back home, a tightknit family and supportive employer (both Krugers work for a company that makes and markets aerial buckets for customers like utility companies) helped ease the pressure of being gone for months on end. Meanwhile, Mark was showing "Loser" viewers more emotion each week he stuck around. When Jay failed to make the cut, he bawled like a baby on camera.

"People make fun of me for that, but I wear it as a badge of honor," he says. "I used to think a real man never showed his emotions. Now I think it's a sign of strength when a man does. And that's really helped me. . . . I'm a lot calmer than I used to be."