Houston County father, daughter to compete on TV's 'The Biggest Loser'

A father-daughter pair from Houston County will be featured on the upcoming season of "The Biggest Loser," a popular reality TV show focused on weight-loss makeovers for overweight contestants.

Rob Kidney, 56, and his daughter, Sarah Gilbert, 27, are among eight pairs of contestants vying for a $250,000 grand prize that comes with a slimmer physique.

Kidney, of Warner Robins, starts the season weighing 326 pounds. Gilbert, a makeup artist living in Perry with her husband and 3-year-old son, starts the season weighing 267 pounds. The two have lived in Houston County since 1996.

Kidney owns Backyard Basics, an outdoor retail store with locations on Eisenhower Parkway in Macon and on Houston Lake Road Warner Robins.

"My weight gain experience and story really started with the Mother's Day tornado in Macon," Kidney said of the 2008 funnel cloud that destroyed his store. "I lost everything I owned at that place. ... It put me in bankruptcy."

Within a few years of the tornado, Kidney had two prostate cancer surgeries, a son battling a drug addiction and "a zillion other things happened," Kidney said. "And I just kind of ate my way through every one of them."

"(Eating) is how I handled stress and how I handled the pain, I guess," Kidney said. "I gained a lot of weight in seven years, and it was time to do something about it."

Kidney and Gilbert applied for Season 9 of the show but weren't selected as contestants. Eight seasons later, Kidney said, Gilbert applied again, and they were chosen.

"This body's been turned into something I never thought it could be turned into," Kidney said. "It's the hardest and most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life. It's changing everything about what I do."

The theme of Season 17 is "temptation." Contestants will learn how to deal with temptations ranging from food and money to electronic devices, according to a news release. The first episode airs Jan. 4 on NBC.

"We're going to watch it," Kidney said. "I think it's exciting."

To contact writer Laura Corley, call 744-4334 or follow her on Twitter @Lauraecor.

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Houston County father, daughter to compete on TV's 'The Biggest Loser' ."