Manatee County Government Hosts Season 4

BRADENTON – Manatee County Government will host Bill Germanakos, who lost 164 pounds to win the fourth season of NBC’s ”The Biggest Loser“ competition, later this month for a free motivational speech open to the public.

Germanakos was one of 18 contestants on the fourth season of the hit reality show featuring overweight contestants who attempt to lose weight for a cash prize. His mantra on the show was ”to become half the man, so that he could be twice the man.“ He won the competition by losing 49.1 percent of his starting body weight, going from 334 lbs. to 170 lbs.

He will speak to the public on Jan. 26th from 6 to 8 p.m. at Manatee Memorial Hospital Auditorium. He will talk about his experience and success on the show as well as sign autographs and take pictures. The event is sponsored by Quest Diagnostic Laboratories and there was no cost to Manatee County Government for Germanakos’ visit. Germanakos is the Quest Diagnostics Wellness Ambassador.

Natalie Johnson, Manatee County’s manager of Health and Lifestyle programs, said Germanakos represents a typical American and gives hundreds of people hope and motivation to change. County officials hope his visit will motivate Manatee County residents to make healthy lifestyle changes.

”The show is a huge success and very popular with the members of our health plan and we are thankful to Quest Diagnostics for providing this opportunity to our employees and the citizens of Manatee County,“ Johnson said. ”It is our goal to assist our employees with changing their lives the same way Bill did in order to improve their personal health and to be better employees by increasing productivity, lowering absenteeism and reducing costs which ultimately will allow them to better serve the public.“