The Biggest Loser winner Ryan Benson is speaking out about the former reality show competition. Benson won the first season of the show. Now, Benson is sharing his side of some drama that went on behind the scenes.
According to Benson, The Biggest Loser products set up contestants to fail. He said they would intentionally put large food platters on set to entice and embarrass contestants. At the time, Benson was 36-years-old. He weighed 330 pounds. By the end of the show, he shed 122 pounds weighing 208 pounds.
"Within three days after the show, I had gained 25 to 30 pounds back just in water weight alone," Benson told People. He said that The Biggest Loser exploited its contestants.
"In the first season, they had food out everywhere," he said. "There was a part of me that thinks that they wanted to catch people on camera, just gorging themselves on this food and kind of almost making it funny...I don't know what they expected, but there were times that I felt like, 'Yeah, they want us to fail.' We were definitely exploited."
Benson had a lot of praise for the show's trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels. He said they worked out with them. But he had a lot of contempt for the producers and the way they did the show.
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"I think since I was in the first season the producers and the trainers and everyone involved with the show were kind of learning as they went," he told the outlet. "We would do an hour of cardio before breakfast after a good weight workout and then maybe go for a long hike followed by more cardio and then maybe more weights... anywhere from six to eight hours a day."
According to The Biggest Loser winner, they trained like professional athletes. There was a fear of injuring himself. Also Benson said he would intentionally starve himself for the last 24 hours before weigh-in.
"For the last 24 hours, I didn't put anything in my body and just went to the gym and had a rubber suit on to sweat and then went to the sauna," Benson said. "I did a master cleanse where you just drink fresh squeezed lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup mixed together, and eat nothing, for 10 days while working out a lot."
However, after the show, Benson packed back on the show. He eventually gained back over 300. He also said that he ended up being so malnourished that he urinated blood.
"My kids are in a generation that is way more accepting of all body types and the whole realm of the human condition," he added. "They're so much more accepting than my generation was when I was young."
