Helen Philips, a 47-year-old retired retail manager from Sterling Heights, MI, has been crowned The Biggest Loser and walked away with $US250,000 prize money after shedding a mammoth 54.47 percent of her starting body weight on the NBC reality show The Biggest Loser: Couples.

Philips, who entered the competition weighing 257-pounds (116.57kg), lost 140-pounds (63.50kg) to become the show’s third consecutive female winner, as well as its oldest, recording the largest percentage drop in weight since the program commenced in October, 2004.

Philips narrowly pushed into second place Mike Morrell, an 18-year-old student from South Lyon, Mi., who started the competition at 388-pounds (175.99kg) and lost 53.35 percent of his starting weight to finish at 207 pounds (93.89kg)

Tara Costa, a 23-year-old finance manager and former model from New York, NY., came in third with a whopping 155 pound (70.31kg) drop in her starting weight of 294-pounds (133.36kg), to finish at 139 pounds or 52.27 percent of her starting weight.

The winners were announced in a three hour long episode that saw the end of the shows seventh season, which began on January 6, 2009. NBC will commence casting for a ninth episode of the popular reality show commencing in May, 2009.