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Topics: TV And Film, Reality TV
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: TV And Film, Reality TV
A popular TV show from the early 2000s has come under blast after one of the contestants made shocking claims about what producers allegedly did 'to catch people' on the show.
Back in 2005, Ryan Benson was crowned the winner of the first season of The Biggest Loser after stepping on the scale weighing in at 208lbs having lost a staggering 122lbs. over just 24 weeks.
Ryan, who was 36 when he entered the reality TV show at 330lbs, was awarded $250,000 in prize money yet has since opened up about his experiences claiming he was 'exploited' by the programme.
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Ryan explained to People that he and his 11 fellow contestants underwent a pretty intense exercise and were 'working out like professional athletes'.
He recalled: "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.
"It hurt to do anything when you’d wake up in the morning. It was definitely tough for me. I was lucky I never got hurt or injured myself."
Claiming that the producers were 'setting [them] up to fail', Ryan also said the experience was brutal due to the 'temptations' the show had put in place for the contestants.
"In the first season, they had food out everywhere," he claimed. "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."
Admitting that his 'competitive side' really got to him, Ryan shared: "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."
He added: "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."
This was, unsurprisingly, clearly not healthy and, at one point during filming, blood appeared in Ryan's urine.
He recalled: "Doctors tested our urine the day of our last weigh-in, and they told me there was blood in mine because I was so dehydrated.
"My wife was so mad at me, she said 'Nothing is worth this'."
The extreme approach worked in the sense that it helped Benson shift the pounds to secure the win.
However, he said it was 'no secret' that the celebration was short-lived as he re-gained around 25lbs within three days, taking himself back to well over 300lbs.
Benson said the part he's 'struggled with the most' is the embarrassment of being unable to sustain the weight gain.
“You feel guilty for going through this and not living up to what you did on the show even 20 years later,” he added.
“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.”
Tyla has reached out to the NBCUniversal for comment.