Best friends David Lee, 23, and Daniel Wright, 19, decided they wanted to be losers — “Biggest Losers,” that is. After an unsuccessful casting call in Charlotte, the unprepared duo decided they weren’t going to give up. They drove from their homes in Fuquay-Varina and Willow Spring to Miami and waited in line for hours with hundreds of other applicants; their efforts paid off when they were selected to be contestants on Season 7 of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” which is currently airing.

“We met through some friends,” Wright said. “We go to the same church. We both want to be in the ministry. But we can’t help anyone spiritually until we help ourselves physically.”

Wright attends The College at Southeastern, a school of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Lee plans to attend the same college this fall. At home, Lee and Wright would hang out and go out to eat. That was one of their problems. “We would go out to eat or out to the bar, where they’ve got unhealthy foods or drinks,” Wright said. Two weeks into the show, he already wants to make changes. “I would have changed the way we hung out to do more active things,” he said.

On the show, Lee and Wright comprise the heaviest team ever to compete.

Lee started the show weighing 393 pounds while Wright weighed 454 pounds. Wright is the largest person to ever be on the program.

“I know we’ve damaged ourselves,” Wright said. “And now I want to lose the weight, and I want to do it myself.”

A fan of the show for several years, Wright had heard a lot about what he was going to endure while appearing as a contestant. “It’s hard. Everything that I had heard did not measure up. It is a tough, physically taxing and emotionally taxing experience.”

Viewers only see so much at home, he said. “You don’t see what it is. We spend six hours a minimum in the gym per day. You get here and you go through it and you say, ‘I can do this,’ but it is hard.”

However, for Wright, going through the experience with other people who are just like him makes it easier. There is a community bond because, as Wright said, “You are surrounded by people who are going through the same struggle, who have been there.”

“I want to go home and try to inspire people to act. Waiting and putting it off is only shortening their lives,” Wright said. “Watch the show and be motivated, but learn to apply that to your own life. Go to a gym and change your life, eat healthy. All of the information [you need] is out there.” When he returns to North Carolina, Wright hopes to start a program for overweight college students in the area and to become certified as a personal trainer to help and inspire people to lose weight.

Watch NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” Tuesdays at 8 p.m. to see how much weight Wright and Lee have lost. The Biggest Loser will be decided in May and will take home $250,000.

Haven’t seen Fuquay-Varina’s David Lee on the show lately? A curveball was thrown this season on “The Biggest Loser.” At the end of the first week no contestants were eliminated. However, each team had to send one partner home for 30 days. If the other partner is still at the ranch after 30 days, the partners will be reunited on the show. Wright and Lee decided Wright should stay because he had more weight to lose.

How’s Willow Spring’s Daniel Wright doing so far? As of the Jan. 21 episode, Wright had lost 48 pounds, which brings his weight down to 406 pounds. In week three alone he lost 15 pounds. “I’m feeling fantastic, apart from the muscle pains, I truly feel much better than before. I can run, walk long distances and get through the day with much less pain than before,” he said.

Temptations: Each show the contestants are faced with temptations.

Episode two offered $5,000 and a limo to the airport if a contestant wanted to quit the show. The money grew to $25,000 and even though one contestant considered taking the money, everyone stayed. Episode three left the contestants alone in a room full of calorie-laden snacks. Back home, the partners were subjected to the same temptation, and the team which together ate the most calories got a trip home and a joint workout with the trainer. Wright resisted the temptation, eating nothing. Lee also resisted.

Challenges: The first episode showed the contestants running as fast as they could from one side of a bridge to the other and back. On the way, they had to climb over a small mountain of dirt and grab a flag before they could return. Contestants began the second challenge in the middle of a lake. They had to kayak to shore and race up a mountain. Wright, helped by teammates on the last push up the hill, was last. He received a 1-pound penalty at the weigh in. Episode three’s challenge was for the players to jump over a Styrofoam beam for as long as they could. Wright was an early elimination in the contest.