Nicole Brewer was sent home after just one week on "The Biggest Loser" ranch. She returned on Tuesday night's episode -- and viewers were happily surprised -- her competitors not so much -- to discover that even though she only had a short amount of time to pick up weight-loss skills, she learned enough in that time to go home and lose 87 pounds all on her own.

"I had my calorie counter and I knew my calorie budget," she says when asked how she was so successful without the daily guidance of trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels. "I knew I had to cook my own meals to control my calories."

Nicole also learned how to workout that first week at the ranch. It also didn't hurt that she had a goal other than getting healthy: Her upcoming wedding to Damian Gurganious, who is also doing well since leaving the ranch. He has lost more than 100 pounds.

"Every day I am reminded I am marrying the perfect man for me," says Nicole, who has lost 107 pounds total, going from a size 24 when she weighed 269 pounds, to a size 16. Nicole and Damian have yet to set the exact date, but their wedding will take place sometime in late summer.

"When I first went shopping for my wedding gown, I was so happy. I had a man who wanted to marry me and I was going to have a beautiful wedding, but I was so unhappy that I was that size," she recalls. "This time around, I could look at dresses that I could never have looked at as a size 24. I felt sexy. I felt beautiful. I felt victorious."

Nicole should feel like a winner. When she was on the ranch this week, she placed second on the list when it came to the percentage of weight lost.Tara Costa is the only one who out ranked her.

Now that her diet and exercise program is paying off big time, Nicole says she has not plans to slack off. Rather, she will be adding weights to her cardio workouts in order to "have a more sculpted body and look absolutely fabulous from all angles when I walk down that aisle." To her it is a dream come true that she is not going to get married "fat."

That said, both she and Damian are planning to invite their "Biggest Loser" competitors to the wedding.

"Damian is saying we are going to have a whole 'Biggest Loser' table," she says.

"The Biggest Loser" airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.