I remember watching the first season of the network show, “The Biggest Loser” and being amazed as participants would weigh-in each week and lose 10-25 pounds a week.
Season after season the show continues to wow its viewers, but is the dramatic weight loss permanent after the show is over?
Ryan Benson: Season 1
In one season, he was able to lose a staggering 122 pounds!
So how is Ryan Benson doing these days?
A recent article in Time magazine checked in with some of the former “Biggest Loser” winners, including Benson who has gained back roughly 90 pounds after the show was over.
He claims that as soon as the show was over, he regained “32 pounds in 5 days simply by drinking water.” This is incredible and points to the fact that when any person loses weight rapidly, (faster than 1-2 pounds a week) normally the weight loss is mostly due to water loss.
Kelly Miner: Season 1 Runner Up
Kai Hibbard, consumed only sugar-free Jello and asparagus for several days along with jumping in and out of a sauna for six hours prior to the final weigh-in.
Where is Kelly Minner Now?
One former participant who is still losing weight after losing the show is Kelly Minner.
The first-season runner-up went from “242 lbs. to 163 lbs. by the finale and now weighs 140 lbs.”
Matt and Suzy Hoover: Season 2
He lost 157 pounds and she lost 95 pounds but have since gained some of the weight back.
They aren’t giving up though and are continuing on the weight loss journey.
Erik Chopin: Season 3
Although he had one of the most dramatic weight losses in the show’s history, he gained most of the weight back.
He weighed 407 pounds before the show and returned to 368 pounds after the show.
Bill Germanakos: Season 4
He lost 164 pounds on The Biggest Loser and only gained 37 pounds back after the show.
He’s now a spinning instructor.
Ali Vincent: Season 5
She was the first female to win on the show with a 112 pound weight loss. She managed to maintain the weight after the show.
This weight loss launched her new career with her own book and website.
Michelle Aguilar: Season 6
She weighed 242 pounds at the beginning of the show and 132 pounds at the end to claim the prize.
However, she doesn’t disclose what she now weighs. Never ask a woman her weight, I guess.
Helen Phillips: Season 7
Helen lost 140 pounds on the show and only gained back 18 pounds.
She now works to end childhood obesity.
Danny Cahill: Season 8
Danny lost a whopping 239 pounds to win season 8 and he has kept most of the weight off since.
He is now a motivational weight loss speaker that travels the country.
Michael Ventrella
He started at 526 pounds and weighed 262 pounds at the show’s finale.
He now weighs 289 pounds.
Patrick House
Patrick only weighs 16 pounds more than he did when he won The Biggest Loser and has been working on building muscle.
He now works with overweight teens.
Olivia Ward: Season 11
She started The Biggest Loser weighing 261 pounds and then dropped to 132 to claim the show’s title.
Now she’s just 10 pounds heavier and appears regularly on the Dr. Drew Show as a weight loss guru along with her sister Hannah.
Read More About The Biggest Loser
- The Biggest Loser: Dangerous Weight Loss
- Former Contestant Slams “The Biggest Loser”
- Biggest Loser Club: Free Trial?
- Jillian Michaels Airbrushed, Really Dumb Idea
Do you think the show promotes long term weight loss success or just short term benefits?
How can you say biggest loser disgusts you. If you actually look at what the show is trying to do you will realise it is trying to teach obese people that they can not go on the way they are. You need to exercise and change what you eat and change you life style. Yes they may do it in a extreme way but all the principles are there. These people put weight back on because they have no will power, you wake up in the morning and choose your own attitude this also means you choose what you want to shove in your mouth.
I cannot believe you think obesity can only be cured by surgery. I am living proof that what you just said is completely 100% false. I am 22 years old.. 5’10″. In Mid-May, I weighed 240 lbs, which was on the high end of obesity (close to morbidly obese). Now, just under 5 months later, I weigh 202 lbs. I have done this by watching what I eat (Weight Watchers!) and working out 45-50 minutes 3 times a week (walking & running on the treadmill). I am 52 lbs away from my goal weight (150) and I now know it CAN be done with healthy eating and exercising!
I’m currently re-watching all the seasons of BL on Netflix. Ryan is a total a$$hole. Karma is a biotych Ryan, and in this case you’ve gained almost all your weight back. Maybe try working on your mind first….you clearly have some issues.
That is what liposelection is good for. They have a new laser technology that permanently and non-surgically get rid of these fat cells. They literally explode, and go away. Has anyone ever considered the HCG diet? I know there isn’t a magic pill or potion, but what about a natural one, that is God given? I am going to look into this method. I have been dieting and exercising, and I am losing weight. But it is kinda slow. I wanna lose more, faster. All I know is that after being 461 lbs, and almost immobile, as soon as I can walk and move around, I will never gain this weight again. I just need a boost.
so true, if that was all water ,they would all die of dehydration. Kinda like how some women gain 60 pounds while pregnant and say its all “baby” weight.
I am so over TBL. I was going to give up weight loss shows entirely until I saw some ads for the new show Heavy (on A&E). I cannot WAIT for this show to start. Seriously, it looks amazing. Really hopeful and positive (unlike other weight loss shows, ahem TBL). I heard the participants went to this weight loss spa Hilton Head Health (www.hhhealth.com) to lose the weight and from the previews, H3 looks super pretty. I’m looking forward to watching people lose weight and learning how to keep it off in healthy, long-term way.
Bio Life Science Major here: I second this. Fat cells absolutely do multiply/increase in number with increased fat storage. Kicker: once they’re there, they NEVER go away. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so hard for individuals prone to weight problems to keep weight off.
What is your age, weight and height? I am 56yrs, 5ft 1 inch and exercise 60-90 mins 6 days. I always see the calorie counter on-line where my calorie intake is a lot less to lose some weight.
You are wrong, fat cells do multiply upon fat gain…WHAT text book are you reading?
my daughter always ate healthy and she still struggles. She does not eat junk like most teens, is involved in physical activity, yet still wears a 9/10, she cannot be thin without starvation, like I did at that age. When I lost 60 lbs last year, I deprived myself of everything, who can live the rest of their lives like that?? Do not tell me genetics has nothing to do with it, that is BS. I grew up in a thin family, full of activity, etc, yet I was the one with the weight problem and my mom could never understand why. You obviously have not had the same struggles as me. Genetics plays a HUGE role. Ask my thin husband who has lived with me for 18 years about my struggles, he could tell you I am not a pig gorging like the fat bashers love to say I must do. I guess my daughter does the same thing, NOT
This show is AWFUL!! NO one can possibly keep up the excercise and diet they have on the show afterwards. It is no wonder so many do gain the weight back. It annoys me as a person who has struggled with my weight my entire life. There is a fat gene involved here and to deny it is just plain ignorant. I do not gorge myself with food all day long (like fat bashers love to say most overweight do) and I have kept up an excercise routine for a long time, yet I see my lost 60 lbs creeping up again. My teenaged daughter cannot eat ANYTHING in order to keep weight off, so how dare anyone say genetics has NOTHING to do with it. I just found this site and it seems we have a lot of “fat” experts on here who think they know it all, but in reality, know absoultely nothing. All the fat experts can piss off, because your “expertise” means nothing. Someone like me who has TRULY struggled are the only experts on fat, PERIOD.
You might not stay healthy, but you will stay the same weight, which is really what this article and discussion is about.
Calories in = calories out is science. It’s not open for interpretation. If you want to dispute it, dispute it with science, not anecdotal evidence and stories.
Everyone seems to think that they can spout some nonsense about hormones and metabolism and that somehow invalidates the science. It doesn’t, all of those things effect one side of the equation or the other, it doesn’t invalidate it. If your hormones cause your metabolism to be slower than average, then your calories out goes down, because you burn fewer with the same activities. It doesn’t mean calories out is fake or a myth. If you take some kind of drug that prevents your body from absorbing fats, then your calories in goes down, it doesn’t invalidate the equation.
If the only supposition here is that it’s incredibly hard to measure calories in and calories out because of the various factors that apply to them, then that is true (although much more so of calories out, which is almost impossible to accurately measure). That doesn’t make the equation a myth.
No, what’s silly is the notion that he could gain 32 lbs in 5 days from eating poorly. That’s 112,000 calories for him to gain that in fat. Do you have any idea what it would take to eat over 100,000 calories in 5 days?
The body can easily be dehydrated of 32 lbs of water. Like someone else mentioned, professional fighters do it all the time to make their weight class at weigh-ins. They routinely drop 20lbs in 1-2 weeks by working out with garbage bags under their sweats or sitting in a sauna for 4-6 hours a day. 32 lbs in 5 day of rehydrating is perfectly plausible.
No. Google for a test that was run recently by a scientist where we ate a twinking every 2 hours for two months and very little else. He lost 27 lbs in those two months, because his caloric intake was way below his daily caloric burn.
A calorie is not a magical mystical thing with varying contents, it’s a measure of heat. Specifically it’s the amount of heat needed to raise 1 cubic centimeter of water 1 degree celcius. Caloric content of food is how much heat would be released if the contents of the food were combusted, and is a standard measure regardless of the food content.
What you suggest would be equivalent to saying that you can’t really tell how long 9 volt batteries are going to last because the volts in one battery are different than the volts in another. It’s a scientific measurement, not something open to interpretation.
First, if you are maintaining a 1500+ daily calorie defecit, you are gaining no muscle, you are losing it.
Your body is cannibalizing itself for energy, it will not be using the precious nutrients it’s taking in to produce new muscle tissue when it’s constantly eating muscle tissue to survive.
If you feel stronger, or think you are getting muscle size, it’s your vascular system making the energy consumption by your muscles more effcient and then expansion of veins and arteries to deliver blood and oxygen better for more efficienty energy creation.
Second, the guy said he gained 32 lbs in 5 days. That’s water weight. In order for that to be “bad eating”, he would have had to consume 112,000 calories (3500 cals per lb of fat x 32) in those 5 days. If you spent all day wolfing down the filthiest pasta or meat covered pizza, you would still could not accomplish that kind of calorie intake.
Think of professional fighters. They fight according to weight class. Light-heavyweights fight at 205 lbs, these guys walk around at 225+ lbs. They cut 20lbs in as little as a week to make the weigh-in. That’s ALL water weight. These guys are already at 8-10% body fat, it’s not possible for them to drop more than 2-3 lbs of fat in a week.
You people are seriously deluding yourselves if you think these people are losing 10-20lbs of fat every week. Do they lost a lot of fat? Yes, they lose a lot of everything (fat, muscle, water, blood density) as their bodies tear themselves up trying to maintain. Realistically they are going to gain back at least 40% of the weight almost immediately as soon as they stop working out 8+ hours a day and dehydrating themselves.