Ruben Studdard entered the Biggest Loser Ranch as the contestant with the most weight to lose; at 462 pounds, he knew going in that he had a long, hard road ahead of him. But during the premiere episode of season 15 this week, Studdard showed the trainers that he’s committed to a healthy lifestyle and dropped an incredible 21 pounds.

“I have to get up every day and give myself the two hours that I need to keep myself together before I even get into any music stuff, and that’s just going to have to be how I do it,” Studdard said before entering the competition.

The “American Idol” alum has seen some heartbreak over the past few years, going through a divorce that ultimately helped him creatively.

“I had the opportunity to be married to a wonderful person. And for some reason two good people couldn’t make a good thing work. But in life, the one thing that I love about being an artist is that you can sometimes use the pain that you go through to make beautiful things,” he said.

The new season of “The Biggest Loser” has a few twists, not the least of which is the addition of a “trainer save”–a way for the trainers to keep one of their team members in the event of a bad week–which helped a member of Jillian’s group, Craig. This season may be as interesting as any we’ve seen yet, with several contestants all working overtime to prove themselves. In fact, Craig lost the least amount of weight during the premiere episode but had dropped a whopping 13 pounds.

“Thirteen pounds sounds really good when you’re at home … ,” Craig said. “I was devastated …. I came in here thinking I would be the leader. But it turns out I was the weakest link.”

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