SHOW TRACKER

“The Biggest Loser’s” Helen Phillips said she knew what her more youthful competitors were thinking: “They never considered me a threat. . . . They just looked at me and said, ‘You know what? She’s 48. She’s never going to make it.’ ”

And that’s just the way she wanted it.

Mike Morelli, 19, and Tara Costa, 24, were considered by many to be the front-runners going into the Season 7 finale Tuesday night. But instead, victory was snatched by Helen, the retired retail manager and mother of two who showed up at the ranch at 257 pounds and went on to lose 140 pounds -- or more than 54% of her body weight. She went from a size 22 to a size 2, and in the process won the $250,000 prize and the title of the Biggest Loser, becoming the oldest person to ever do so.

“Lucky for me, huh? I kept my mouth shut and flew low under the radar,” said Helen, sounding jubilant during a media conference call despite just three hours of sleep. She had been whisked off to New York after the finale so she could be interviewed on TV bright and early Wednesday morning.

Helen said she struggled at times during the season when she lost challenges to younger, stronger players. In retrospect? Perhaps it was meant to be.

“There’s a reason I didn’t win anything else -- I was meant to win the big one.”

Helen said her decision to lie low was her only foray into game play during her time at “The Biggest Loser” ranch. The rest was old-fashioned hard work and, cliched as it might sound, her conscious decision to start believing in herself.

She said that when she got to “The Biggest Loser” ranch, she couldn’t blame anyone for dismissing her chances at making it to the finale.

“I never believed in myself in the beginning, either.” But when she made that decision, when she said, “I’m tired of doubting myself,” something clicked. “The minute I started doing that, things changed for me.”

Helen, who went to the ranch with her daughter, Shanon, got some guff in the blogosphere for a turn of events early on that resulted in Shanon being sent home while Helen stayed at the ranch. They said Helen was selfish. Helen stressed that she and Shanon made the decision jointly -- and voted the way they did because they’d quietly realized Helen had a shot at going the distance.

While many of this season’s contestants struggled to continue losing weight after they were sent home from the ranch, Helen excelled. She began training with the football coach at her son’s high school and worked out a jaw-dropping six hours a day, doing old-school exercises such as flipping tractor tires end over end for a full-body workout and running bleachers over and over.

“I really stayed focused when I got home,” said Helen, describing the grueling regimen.

She’d wake up at 4:30 a.m., hit the gym for two hours, go back for two hours midday and go back again at day’s end for two more hours. In between? “Plenty of good food and rest. It paid off. I was concentrating on finishing my journey.”

She said the prize must be shared with her husband, who “held down the home front” for eight months and allowed her to focus on herself. She said No. 1 on her list of things to do is to take hubby to the Bellagio in Las Vegas and “give him a break.”

Next up for Helen? A whole new life.

She just shot a “Got milk?” ad and said she wants to open a spinning and wellness center near her home in Michigan and has hopes of becoming a motivational speaker, focusing on men and women of a certain age or those who fear they are too busy with family obligations to lose weight.

“They don’t need to settle because they’re middle age. Get on a diet and exercise and nutritional plan . . . make it a family affair,” she said.

One downside to the 140-pound weight loss is loose skin, particularly in the chest, she said. Though she will not rule out surgery, she is first going to apply the same tried-and-true tactics that got her this far. To date, she had focused on losing weight. Now she will focus on toning and building muscle strength and see where that leaves her before she makes any other decisions.

She’s not worried that this new workout regimen may put on a few extra pounds: “It will all be lean muscle.”

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rene.lynch@latimes.com