"Days of our Lives" star Alison Sweeney takes over as host for this season of the weight-loss series.

When "The Biggest Loser" returns for its fourth season on September 11, "Days of our Lives" star ALISON SWEENEY will be replacing CAROLINE RHEA as the host of the weight-loss series, which will premiere with a two-hour special from 8 to 10 p.m. on NBC.

As fans of Ali know, the daytime vixen has had a struggle with weight her whole life. And it is only in the last few years that she has managed to make the lifestyle adjustments necessary to get healthy.

"I made some strong changes to my nutrition and learned how to hit the gym," she explains. "I was 21 when I came to terms with that. It is an ongoing decision. If you are not naturally thin, and you don't have that naturally perfect metabolism, you always have that struggle. You are always debating what is right and what is healthy for you."

Even so, Ali says that working with the trainers and the weight-loss hopefuls was a wake-up call.

"I would eat next to [the trainers] and be reminded of all the nutritional things I had learned over the years," the new host explains. "Also, I found other ways to work out. It doesn't all take place in a gym. [Their lesson is that] there is always a way to fit in a workout. There are a lot of different things you can do."

One thing Ali says she didn't realize when she took the new gig was just how attached she would become to the participants who were taking the weight-loss challenge.

"I didn't realize how involved I would become in all of their lives," she admits. "People ask me all the time if I had a favorite. I couldn't root for any one person, because I cared about them all so much. To see them struggling with it and what they are accomplishing by doing it, it touches you so deeply. I never realized how emotionally connected to these people I would become."