The inaugural winner of “The Biggest Loser” alleged the reality game show set up contestants for failure, claiming producers would arrange large, unhealthy plates of food to “catch” and embarrass the cast on camera.
Ryan Benson was 36 years old and weighed 330 pounds during the show’s first episode in 2004 before losing 122 pounds in 24 weeks to weigh 208 pounds during the live finale on December 14.
“In three days after the show, I’ve gained 25 to 30 pounds back just in water weight alone,” Benson told People.
Benson, the 56-year-old SVP of Global Content Delivery at Lionsgate, believes that producers are exploiting the 12 contestants to grab the camera at a desperate moment.
“In the first season, they had food everywhere,” he said, noting the large plates included fast food and dessert.
“There’s a part of me that thinks they want to catch people on camera, just eat this food and almost make it funny…I don’t know what they want, but there are times when I feel like, ‘Yeah, they want us to fail.’ We are definitely being exploited,” Benson said.
Benson noted that the show’s coaches Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels weren’t household names during the first season.
Harper worked as a celebrity fitness trainer while Michaels operated a sports medicine facility before being brought on the show.
“He was there every day working with us,” Benson said.
However, Benson blamed the production and lifestyle of the contestants for the drastic turnaround in weight.
“I think since I was in the first season, the producers and the coaches and everyone involved in the show learned something,” he told the outlet.
“We’ll do an hour of cardio before breakfast after a good weight workout and then maybe go for a brisk walk, then more cardio and maybe more weights…anywhere from six to eight hours a day,”
Benson compares his training to that of a “professional athlete.”
“You have to do something when you wake up in the morning. It was always difficult for me. Luckily I never got hurt or hurt myself,” he said.
Before the weigh-in, Benson said he would take drastic measures to cut weight according to the urgings of either the show or himself.
“For the last 24 hours, I didn’t put anything on my body and just went to the gym and put on a rubber suit to sweat and then went to the sauna,” Benson said, recalling how he kicked into high gear before his last live show.
“I did a master cleanse where you only drink fresh lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup mixed together, and don’t eat anything, for 10 days while working out,” he says.
Benson credited competitiveness as one of the main motivators to win the show, as he first joined to lose weight, but soon realized he wanted to win.
“It’s interesting to think, ‘I get to take two or three months off from work and just focus on losing weight.,” he said. “That competitive side really got to me.”
After being crowned “The Biggest Loser,” Benson gained 25 pounds back in three days and ended up weighing more than 300 pounds again.
“You feel guilty for going through this and not living up to what you did in the event even 20 years later,” he said.
Benson claimed that she was so malnourished that she was urinating blood after the show.
The father of three said he is happy to see the show grow as it inspires more people to embark on their own weight loss journeys as the production removes the temptation of food and other aspects used to “get the look.”
“My children are in a generation that is more accepting of all body types and all human conditions,” she said. “They are more accepting than my generation when I was younger.”
The show was canceled in 2016 after 17 seasons but is getting another one in 2020.
The NBC hit averaged at least eight million viewers a night at its peak.
