Danni Allen amazed viewers Monday night with her weight-loss transformation on the season 14 finale of “The Biggest Loser,” and she doesn't plan to “mess with success,” she told us Tuesday afternoon.
The 26-year-old Chicago woman hopped a red-eye flight to New York after Monday’s “Biggest Loser” finale in Los Angeles to make the talk show rounds but stopped her whirlwind briefly to talk with reporters.
Many “Biggest Loser” winners work out furiously to make their finale weight and a lot of them have said that once the show is over, they head back to the gym to build more muscle. But Allen famously packed on 19 pounds of muscle on the “Biggest Loser” ranch. So we wanted to know whether she was going to change her diet and fitness routine now that the confetti has been swept up.
“You know what? I say ‘Why mess with success,’ right?” she told us Tuesday. “I really think I’m going to keep things going. I do think I’m going to get a little more experimental.”
And she wasn't nervous that building that extra muscle would dash her chance at the $250,000 prize.
“The best part is that 19 pounds of muscle I think gave me a little bit of an advantage where then I was just able to shred through the last of the fat I had, which exposed that muscle on stage,” she said. “I was so excited to show off my arms, and right now I’m just excited to keep building and keep toning. I really want to tone up everything that I’ve worked for, just so I feel like it’s that perfect display of hard work.”
Her finale dress showed off her hard work, and we wanted to know a little more about what went into choosing that Halston Heritage one-shouldered stunner. She said it fit perfectly with her theme song -- Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire.”
“When we found it, I put it on and I knew. That was my ‘fire’ dress,” she said. “I tried on hundreds of dresses before that with some friends and family, and once we put that on, it was like those fashion shows you see on TV where your friends hold up numbers,” she continued. “It was like, 10’s across the board when I put that dress on, so it was that perfect ‘this girl is on fire’ dress, and I felt like I was on fire that night.”
And believe it or not, Brussels sprouts had a little something to do with fitting into that dress.
“I absolutely love Brussels sprouts,” she said with a laugh. “ I've found so many ways to cook them now because they were just my one go-to food. I love them.”
But she’s spreading around the cruciferous vegetable love.
“I wanted to make new things with cauliflower, like cauliflower mash,” she said. “I’m an experimenter. I think the one thing I really do want to somehow indulge in is maybe some culinary arts, because I really want to learn more about food.
“ I've been able to ‘manipulate’ food,” she said, laughing. “I think that’s the best thing you could ever do. If you could make a vegetable not look and taste like a vegetable, you are truly a chef.”
But it wasn't all vegetables and spring water fueling her fire.
“I’m not going to lie. At the end of the day, I still needed my nibble -- not every day, but a nibble of dark chocolate, because that is my simple food,” she said. “It just makes me feel – ‘Ah, I got my bite of dark chocolate.’ ”
As to that rumor going around that she’ll be looking for love on a dating show?
“No, I do not plan on doing any reality dating,” she told us. “I think I need to just concentrate on myself right now. A lot of people are focusing on the fact that I’m single and what am I going to do with it, but right now I’m just enjoying being me. So no, I would love to put the kibosh on that.”
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