Ryan Benson was named the winner of The Biggest Loser Season 1 in 2005 after dropping more than 120 lbs. in just over 24 weeks. While Ryan walked away from the series with $250,000 in grand prize money, he also left at a weight that was unsustainable. 

The now 56-year-old recently sat down with People to talk about his ‘Biggest Loser’ experience, including what happened after Season 1 wrapped. 

“Within three days after the show, I had gained 25 to 30 pounds back just in water weight alone,” he told the outlet, noting that he eventually “gained back all the weight,” but has since dropped about 35 pounds.

“You feel guilty for going through this and not living up to what you did on the show even 20 years later,” Ryan said. “I mean, anyone who’s overweight and struggles with weight in their life, you have issues that you carry with you. But then facing it in a very public way and feeling what I did there … it kind of magnified the issues I already had as far as weight and health issues.”  

Ryan was a 35-year-old aspiring actor living in Los Angeles when he appeared on ‘The Biggest Loser,’ entering the competition at a starting weight of 330 lbs. After hearing about the show from a friend, he said he found the idea of taking a few months off from work to focus on his weight loss “appealing,” though he admits he didn’t know what to expect going into filming. 

“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 said, adding that the show’s trainers, Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels, “weren’t household names” at the time and were working out alongside the contestants every day.

Season 1 of ‘The Biggest Loser’ split the 12 competitors into two teams: the Blue Team, led by Bob, and the Red Team, led by Jillian– the latter of which Ryan was a member. Despite the contestants being overweight, Ryan recalls the teams “working out like professional athletes” every day for “anywhere from six to eight hours.” 

“ … It hurt to do anything when you’d wake up in the morning,” he said. “It was definitely tough for me. I was lucky I never got hurt or injured myself.” 

In addition to the extreme physical workouts and dramatic weight-loss expectations that were put on contestants, Ryan recalls the seemingly cruel tactics taken by production that involved placing desserts and other calorie-heavy foods “out everywhere” in an effort to tempt the cast into cheating on their strict diets.  

“There was a part of me that thinks they wanted to catch people on camera, just gorging themselves on this food and kind of almost making it funny,” he said. “ … 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.” 

While the show may have wanted the contestants to fail, Ryan was determined to do just the opposite. He admits that the competitive side “really got into him” during filming, inspiring him take extreme measures leading up to the finale to ensure that he took home the Season 1 win. As fans of ‘Biggest Loser’ may recall, contestants are sent home to finish their final weeks of weight-loss prior to the live finale. Ryan admits that during the final 24 hours of the competition, he “didn’t put anything” in his body and instead, “just went to the gym and had a rubber suit on to sweat and then went to the sauna.”  

“They were setting us up to fail,” he reiterated. “I just wanted to win.” 

In the 10 days leading up to the final weigh in (prior to his 24-hour fast), Ryan said his diet consisted solely of a “master cleanse” concoction of fresh-squeezed lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup– no food and “working out a lot.” 

Despite his ‘Biggest Loser’ experience, Ryan said if he were in the same position that he was in back in 2005, he “would probably do it again”– with a few conditions. 

“It would have to have a whole different spin,” he said. “They’d have to take a more holistic approach, focusing on both mental and physical health as opposed to just the number on the scale.”   

As The Ashley previously reported, ‘The Biggest Loser’ attempted this approach when the show was rebooted by USA Network in 2020. (The original version of the show ran on NBC for 17 seasons. USA Network is under the NBC Universal network umbrella.) Three years before the reboot was announced, ‘The Biggest Loser’ had gone off the air following a series of controversies, including Season 15 winner Rachel Frederickson’s drastic finale reveal, which sparked criticism and concern from viewers that Rachel had reached an unhealthy weight. 

The show also faced backlash in 2016 after an extensive piece done by The New York Times stated that researchers had found that contestants’ participation on the show may have caused medical issues that made it very hard for them to keep the weight off. A large sampling of former contestants– including Ali Vincent, the show’s first female champ– eventually came forward to reveal that they had gained back all the weight they lost on the show. 

While the OG series focused solely on overweight people trying to shed the most pounds, the 2020 reboot, which welcomed a new lineup of trainers, attempted to improve contestants’ whole body wellness by enlisting a team of experts– including a trainer, chef and life coach– to work with contestants; however, the reboot only aired for one season. 

RELATED STORY: Jillian Michaels Talks About What She Feels Was Wrong With ‘The Biggest Loser’; Says She Doesn’t Feel Bad About Yelling at Contestants 

(Photos: NBC; YouTube; Instagram; USA Network)