There's no denying that Kelly Minner looked red-hot in her sexy halter dress on last week's finale of The Biggest Loser. While the 28-year-old teacher lost the $250,000 prize to Ryan Benson, she still graduated with honors. Ms. Minner, who was the last remaining female player, lost an astonishing 79 lbs., acquiring a trimmer waistline over the show's run. Having slimmed down to 163 lbs., Minner now weighs in on her friendship with the most annoying player (Lisa Andreone), the agony of defeat and her personal picks for the $100,000 consolation prize that'll be awarded on tonight's Loser special (8 pm/ET on NBC).

TV Guide Online: Are you excited to be so close to your goal weight of 150 pounds?
Kelly Minner: That's really exciting. That is a dream come true, but to do it in such a short period of time is amazing. I never thought it would happen. The fact that it did got me over that psychological hump that I was meant to be big.

TVGO: But you'd lost a lot of weight before Loser even started.
Kelly: I had lost weight before and gained some of it back, but had kept some off. I was actually much heavier in college. It got frustrating because I hit a wall and people kept saying, "Maybe this is the size you were meant to be." This wasn't the size I was meant to be; I wasn't this size when I was really little. That is when I got frustrated.

TVGO: Were you disappointed to lose?
Kelly: Going into the finale, I kept saying that I was going to be so disappointed if I didn't win. I've worked so hard. My dad kept saying, "If five months ago, I told you that you could lose all this weight, would that have been amazing?" I said, "That would have been the greatest gift in the world." He goes, "Do you need money to justify that?" No. So I went in with that [in mind,] and it was the first time I was ever excited to get on the scale. There was a moment of, "Darn, this sucks I lost." But it passed quickly. I had not weighed myself. I decided to find out with America what I weigh. So it was such a genuine emotion. I think I even cried — I didn't think I had lost that much. I couldn't be disappointed with that number. The money never factored in until the end, when I thought, "Not only do I get my dream of losing weight, but I get money for doing it? That's phenomenal." I was so happy for Ryan, he worked so hard.

TVGO: But you disliked Ryan at first.
Kelly: When I didn't understand Ryan, I found a lot of his comments offensive. To me, this was a very emotional issue. The fact that he would come in and say, "I'm here to have fun"... I don't see it the same way. These are real people with real feelings dealing with a big issue, and to make light of it was very upsetting to me. Then, I found out that was Ryan's defense mechanism. We became good friends as the show went on.

TVGO: Who's your pick to win tonight's runner-up prize?
Kelly: I'd love to see Lisa win. I think she looks phenomenal. When I saw her, I was blown away by how she looked. I would love to see Mo, too. You've got to love him, he's such a wonderful human being. He made such enormous strides. I was so proud of him. If I had to choose who I wanted [to win], they would be the two people I'd choose.

TVGO: Lisa rubbed everyone the wrong way. How'd you get along with her?
Kelly: I seem to be one of the only ones [who did]. I get a lot of flak from people for liking her. What I say to them in defense is, "You weren't on the show. You saw clips of Lisa." Was Lisa crazy like that? Certainly. Was she emotional like that? Yes. But you can't judge her just by that. People say, "You seem so nice. Why would you like someone who is not nice?" She is so nice. What you didn't see was when Gary got homesick and wanted to leave the show, Lisa went and talked to him. When Mo was homesick, Lisa wrote him a card. When I was sick at the beginning of the show, Lisa sent me a card that said, "You know you can do this. Hang in there." No one saw that aspect of her. She is a giving person; she just also happens to be an outspoken and emotional person. We all have those moments, but she was a good friend.

TVGO: Anyone in the house you didn't like?
Kelly: There were people who got on my nerves from time to time. The person I had the least connection with was Dave. I didn't understand him. He comes from a very different background than me. He probably taught me to be more open to people. Just because I wouldn't be that way, I shouldn't judge others for being that way.

TVGO: Was it hard to readjust to life without Jillian breathing down your neck?
Kelly: It was hard because Jillian was so much more than a trainer. I call her my life teacher. She helped me with so many things, so not to be able to talk to her when I started to doubt things was hard. But I would say the hardest adjustment was time management. The greatest gift was to go away for three months and concentrate on nothing but yourself. How many people get that opportunity? Now, I'm back in a world where I have to work and pay bills and have responsibilities and juggle the holidays and still work out as hard as I did on the ranch. This was really difficult for me.

TVGO: After America saw you in that slinky red dress, you may have to include dating in your juggling act.
Kelly: I hope so. Now that I have worked on me, that is the last piece of the puzzle that is missing for me. I really want to be a mom and I'm two years away from my thirties. So I'd like to meet someone and start something together. Hopefully, I'll find someone who isn't coming out of the woodwork just because I was on The Biggest Loser and lost weight. But [maybe someone] who just liked my story or what they know about me.

Once Mo got booted, most Biggest Loser fans were rooting for Gary Deckman to claim the $250,000 top prize. But it wasn't meant to be for the 40-year-old Brooklyn dad, who lost to Ryan Benson by one measly little point. (FYI, the winner's victory was determined by a combo of weight loss and body-fat loss percentages.) Here, Deckman — who lost 71 lbs., slimming himself down to 156 — tells TV Guide Online why, in his case, losing is everything.

TV Guide Online: Were you upset that you lost the game?
Gary Deckman: I was disappointed. But I was happy with the weight that I lost, and winning would have been the icing on the cake.

TVGO: A photo from your youth revealed you were quite the skinny hottie! What happened?
Gary: I was 18 in that picture. I had been smoking cigarettes since I was a kid, and by the time I was 21, I quit smoking. Within a year or two after I quit, I gained 25 pounds. [I] just never took it off and then, slowly but surely, every year I'd put on another five or ten. I got into a lifestyle rut of just eating whatever I wanted and never exercising and then, 20 years later, there I am.

TVGO: As the oldest contestant, was Loser more challenging for you than the others?
Gary: It was harder for me. I didn't have the physical strength. Well, I did, but not like that of a 22-year-old. I only had my mental strength and what it really meant for me to do this.

TVGO: Did you surprise yourself?
Gary: I definitely surprised myself. I never really thought I could push myself to the point that I did day in and day out. There were plenty of times that I wanted to pack it in and I got mental support from the people around me. As you keep pushing yourself, you find out what you are really made of and it is good.

TVGO: You also kicked your asthma!
Gary: Well, the thing with the asthma is that it is partly diet- and exercise-related, but living up in the clean air of the mountains in Malibu definitely helped. When I got back home, I live in [New York City] and there are environmental issues that play into asthma as well. So it came back a little bit, but nowhere near where it was before.

TVGO: Was it hard for you to vote out your pal Mo?
Gary: I don't really feel that I voted Mo off.

TVGO: Oh, really? You wrote his name down. How is that not voting him off?
Gary: Even though I put his name down on the paper, the votes were going to be a tie. I knew that Ryan was not going to vote for Kelly. Therefore, me placing my vote for Mo was more so he didn't go out on a tie situation, so he went out as the lowest-percentage person instead.

TVGO: What did you think of Ryan and Kelly after three months off the ranch?
Gary: I was thinking, "Wow, they look fantastic!" I was happy for them, and I am sure they were for me because we accomplished getting healthy.

TVGO: So you didn't view their skinnier bodies as a threat?
Gary: It was a little competitive, of course. We've been playing this game for so long, so it had a competition feel, but I was just happy to see these people who I'd spent so much time with lose all this weight and be healthy and happy. I got along pretty well with everyone.

It's been 20 years since Chris Knight — aka The Brady Bunch's Peter — has been active in showbiz (not including various Brady-related projects). But after a successful career in the computer industry, the man who made "pork chops and applesauce" part of the pop-culture lexicon is putting himself out there again. First, he got in shape on Discovery Health Channel's Body Challenge: Hollywood. Later, VH1's The Surreal Life (Sundays at 9 pm/ET) kindly provided him with a new — and much younger — girlfriend. (For more on his unexpected romance with America's Next Top Model's Adrianne Curry, click here.) Here, the Brady boy dishes the Surreal dirt...