"Biggest Loser" Trainer Bob Harper Reveals He Fought Depression After His Heart Attack
Bob Harper, a trainer and host on The Biggest Loser, had a heart attack this past February after collapsing at a New York City gym. Now, in an excerpt from his upcoming book,The Super Carb Diet, published in People, Harper details the heart attack that changed his life, and how he's never been the same since.
In the book, he elaborates on the scary details that surrounded his heart attack. Harper had been complaining about being dizzy, and recently had fainted during a workout, but he ignored the warning signs and put off a doctor's calls for more tests. So on February 12, he met up with a trainer for a workout at the gym, and he stopped in the middle of his workout; his trainer knew immediately something was wrong. The gym staff called 911 and used a defibrillator, and luckily there was a doctor present at the gym who performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
"They pulled out their heavy-duty defibrillators and gave me a shock that was so intense, Sherry, the fitness coach, said that my whole body levitated off the floor," he wrote. "This still gives me chills." Harper was rushed to the hospital and was in an induced coma for two days. He stayed at the hospital for eight days, but his recovery was just getting started. When he got home, he couldn't even handle walking around the block. "Me, the fitness guy who works out every day, could not walk around the block without getting winded or dizzy," he wrote. "It was a humbling experience, to say the least. Humbling and tough."
He says that in the months after his heart attack, when he was recovering at home, he became very emotional and depressed. "'My heart gave up on me,' repeated in my head. Rationally I knew this was crazy, but I couldn't stop it," he wrote. "I've cried over my broken heart since that February day. Now that it's recovered I am trying to trust it again."
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