Where are The Biggest Losers now?

Thought this interview interesting, too. This is the guy, Ryan, who won the first season.

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The Biggest Loser Questions and Answers...


What has your weight loss journey been like since the season 1 finale? Ups? Downs? Successes? Frustrations? Advice? Tips?

This has been an amazing/weird two years since winning the Biggest Loser. Going from such a high in winning the show, to being very depressed because I started falling back into some of the same eating habits I had before the show. To being on the highest of highs when my twin girls were born on 9/22/06. People say it all the time, but until you have children you really cannot know the effect they will have on you. Now that these two beautiful girls are here my resolve to give them the best and happiest life possible is stronger than ever, and I need to be here for that to happen, which means I need to be healthy.

What I now know is that the show was just a quick fix for me. It was fun for me to be on a reality show – and I wanted to win it – it just so happened that winning this show meant I had to lose a bunch of weight, so that's what I did. I worked my *kitten* off on the show.

I wanted to win so bad that the last ten days before the final weigh-in I didn't eat one piece of solid food! If you've heard of "The Master Cleanse" that's what I did. Its basically drinking lemonade made with water, fresh squeezed lemon juice, pure maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. The rules of the show said we couldn't use any weight-loss drugs, well I didn't take any drugs, I just starved myself! Twenty-four hours before the final weigh-in I stopped putting ANYTHING in my body, liquid or solid, then I started using some old high school wrestling tricks. I wore a rubber suit while jogging on the treadmill, and then spent a lot of time in the steam room. In the final 24 hours I probably dropped 10-13 lbs in just pure water weight. By the time of the final weigh-in I was peeing blood.

Was this healthy? Heck no! My wife wanted to kill me if I didn't do it to myself first. But I was in a different place, I knew winning the show could put us in a better place financially and I was willing to do some crazy stuff. All this torture I put myself through has had no lasting effects on me (that I know of) and at the time it was sort of a fun adventure for me – but I am sure it reeked havoc on my system.

In the five days after the show was over I gained about 32 lbs. Not from eating, just from getting my system back to normal (mostly re-hydrating myself). So in five days I was back up to 240 – crazy!

So, in essence, I am the first to admit I didn't take from the show what I should have – how to change my habits/lifestyle. I know how to lose weight better than most, I could tell anyone what to do to lose weight, what to eat, how to exercise, and there are no tricks/gimmicks. Its simple – burn more calories than you take in.




Thinking back to the first time you got on the scale in the first episode, how has your mindset about weighing yourself changed? Does the scale still frighten you?

Weighing myself has never really been a problem for me – it's just a number. I know when I'm in good shape and when I'm not, you can feel it.


How would you compare the challenge of losing weight to that of maintaining that weight loss? Would you say weight loss is easier then maintenance or vice versa?

Maintaining weight loss for me was obviously much harder – as seen in the fact that I have gained weight. Weight loss and maintenance are both the same thing – a complete change in your frame of mind. For many years I have always thought "If I can just lose the weight then I can eat anything I want." Unfortunately this isn't true, you have to keep a similar mind set whether you are losing weight or maintaining weight loss.