A Big Loser, she sheds 108 pounds

After losing weight on a popular high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet, Shannon Mullen went back on the carbs two years ago and ended up regaining all the weight she had lost, plus an additional 30 pounds.

At 5 feet 3 inches and just 29 years old, Mullen, of Revere, was just shy of 260 pounds and desperate.

''I was thinking of gastric bypass," Mullen said.

But then Mullen decided she would squeeze into Spandex and be weighed on a flatbed-size scale in front of millions of television viewers on a hit weight-loss show. For two months early this year, she joined 13 other contestants on the NBC reality show ''The Biggest Loser," enduring rigorous diet and exercise for a chance at a $250,000 grand prize.

''Nothing else has worked for me, I felt I had hit rock bottom," Mullen said. ''Even if America had to see me, all 257 pounds, in a tank top and sports bra, then that's what I had to do."

In March, Mullen, now 30, left her job and family, including her 12-year-old daughter, to combat her lifelong weight problem on an isolated ranch in California. She was eliminated after nine weeks, but managed to lose 57 pounds while on the show. From June to November, she lost another 51 pounds on her own in Revere, as she got ready to attend the show's live finale in California on Nov. 29.

Mullen, a single mother, who had often been told, 'You have such a beautiful face, you just need to lose a few pounds,' has gone from a size 22 to a 10 (although the dress she wore to the finale was a size 8). She now wants to help others lose weight, such as her 23-year-old sister, who tipped the scales at over 300 pounds, and her stepmother. Both Mullen and her sister attended the show's casting call in Boston last year.

''I got chosen, but in the end it's going to be like we both got picked. She's down 40 pounds since I've been back," Mullen said. ''My stepmom is now walking without a cane."

Mullen, a human resources administrator in Boston, has gotten a handle on her weakness for Chinese food, works out at a local women's fitness center, is training to run a 10K race in the spring, and is taking classes to become a personal trainer.

''I've decided to take this experience and use it to help people," Mullen said.

''Even though I wasn't the winner in the end, I won something by losing 108 pounds. I won probably 20 years of my life back," she said. ''I just never thought that I could work so hard. I realized I'm really, really strong.

''This is what being confident is, to not think about what people are saying about you," she added. ''My self-esteem, no amount of money can replace that feeling."