The Biggest Loser's Callan Evans believes the unanimous vote to dump him was a strategic ploy and not a backlash for taking $30,000 out of the prize pool.
Evans was the seventh contestant eliminated from The Biggest Loser: Challenge, which has drawn all, bar one, of its weight-loss warriors from Ararat, in country Victoria.
The town is considered to have one of the most obese populations in Australia.
Evans was put up for elimination on Tuesday night because he gained 1.3 kilograms after deciding to skip exercise and sleep in on several occasions.
Also facing elimination was Biggest Loser intruder Kev Moore, who gained a couple of hundred grams in the Network Ten series.
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When the final vote was taken, everyone voted to oust Evans, who pocketed $30,000 from the prize pool, earmarked for Ararat, after winning a challenge earlier in the series.
Evans could have passed up the cash but didn't.
He says he successfully explained the reasons for putting himself before the town well before Tuesday's decider, and the money is being put towards the home he is building.
"When they first found out the money was coming out of the pool, everyone was pretty annoyed that I even contemplated about taking it," he tells AAP.
"After telling them what the money was for, they came around and knew why I did it and didn't hold it against me.
"When it came to voting I think they realised that I was going to pose more of a threat than Kev in the challenges and the voting was definitely strategic."
Despite going out at the halfway point of the series and gaining more than a kilogram in his final week, Evans still shed about 35kg.
It's changed his lifestyle and eating habits and it's also changed the way he shops for food.
He's found prying eyes on his trip to the supermarket and he often gets asked for health tips when he's out and about in Ararat.
"I get asked what tips could help people with their weight-loss journey," he says.
"The biggest place I get pulled up is the supermarket.
"As they are talking to you, you see their eyes wander and look in the trolley to see what you have got."
Now Evans is eliminated, there are eight weight-loss warriors remaining on the reality series.
