“Biggest Loser” Finalist Tara Costa Sued Over Weight

A fitness company is suing their spokesperson and former "Biggest Loser" star for gaining about 45 pounds

Tara Costa's 155-pound weight loss may have almost won her the title of "The Biggest Loser" four years ago — but now, a fitness company for which she's a spokeswoman is suing her over the pounds it says she's gained.

"She came on at a certain weight. We had a fitness clause. She was in material breach after she gained, in my opinion, about 45 pounds," Michael Parrella, the CEO of FC Online Marketing, told Newsday of the one-time finalist on the NBC reality competition show. His company owns ilovekickboxing.com, which he said Costa was to promote.

"She was supposed to visit 15 of our franchise locations, but we weren't able to send her anywhere because she gained a lot of weight," he told the Long Island-based newspaper.

That's a claim Costa has rebuffed — including with a tweet Monday, in which she said that the time the company says she gained weight was when she was "the most fit I have ever been in my life." It was also, she said, when she took part in the Ironman triathlon in Kona, Hawaii.

Her lawyer dismissed the company's claims — calling the suit "a worthless disguise intended to cover-up its own wrongdoing" — and said Costa is countersuing with accusations of her own.

"This case has absolutely nothing to do with Ms. Costa’s weight and everything to do with FC Online’s breach of an appearance contract, along with their exploitation of Ms. Costa’s name and image without compensation on a website that promoted their commercial services," he told TODAY.com.  
 

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