Checking In With Jillian Michaels and the Forged of The Ideal Loser
As The Ideal Loser trainers Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper every publicly weigh in on their delicate relationship, we're doing a check-in with all 18 winners from the opponents series.
No surprise that Jillian Michaels is keeping it pretty valid relating to her feelings about the Netflix documentary Match for TV: The Truth of the Ideal Loser.
Accused of the use of questionable how to assist contestants on the NBC opponents series tumble a total bunch of pounds in their quest to be named The Ideal Loser and affect money prizes, the teacher weighed in on Instagram Aug. 19.
And she introduced receipts.
Referencing “the allegation that I restricted contestants from ingesting adequate energy,” she captioned a screenshot of an electronic mail sent to season 11 winner Olivia Ward, “I have faith an example of an instantaneous written correspondence with a contestant, whereas she changed into once residence for the holidays at some level of filming, wherein I explicitly urged her to eat 1,600 energy per day.”
As for the joys that she plied her trainees with caffeine capsules, she insisted the stimulant “changed into once NEVER banned on The Ideal Loser.” What's more, she added, fellow trainer Bob Harper—who participated within the three-episode docuseries—no longer only knew about the capsules, he instructed them.
Critical Michaels, “I crucial to utilize my label as a replacement which capacity that of they had been cleaner and had no bigger than 200mg of caffeine (equal to a solid cup of coffee).”
While Michaels declined to take part in Netflix's deep dive of the series' rigorous exercises—frail contestant Tracey Yukich detailed how a mile-future triggered her organs to shut down: “It started with my liver, then it changed into once in my kidneys and then it goes to your coronary heart. And that's where I almost died—she changed into once resolute to assist up the truth.
As she build it on Instagram, “Wild how some folks unexcited lie treasure it's 1985 sooner than texts and electronic mail had been a thing.”
E! News has reached out to reps for Michaels and Harper, to boot to Netflix and NBC, for comment and whereas they haven't replied, other past contestants were overjoyed to talk on their experiences with Michaels.
For season six victor Michelle Aguilar, the Defending It Real podcaster “wasn't valid my trainer,” she wrote in an Aug. 19 Instagram post. “She changed into once my motivator, my files and most steadily the tricky like I didn't know I crucial. Jillian has this form of pushing you past what you have confidence you studied is that you just may per chance maybe maybe per chance also judge of and one design or the other making you have confidence you studied in yourself on the identical time.”
To Aguilar, “She is, indubitably, the very simplest!”
And Aguilar isn't the one past winner to in actuality feel she obtained some distance bigger than she lost. 5 years after the series wrapped its 18th and closing season we're doing a check in with all of the frail champs.
Ryan Benson / Season 1
Ryan Benson changed into once The Ideal Loser's first winner, losing bigger than 120 pounds assist in 2005. He rapid obtained all his weight support (“Inside three days after the repeat, I had obtained 25 to 30 pounds support valid in water weight by myself,” he urged Of us in 2024) and joined the solid of The Tall Rotund Truth, a proceed-off repeat where other Ideal Loser contestants got a 2d likelihood to shed the pounds.
“You feel accountable for going through this and no longer residing as a lot as what you potentially did on the repeat even two decades later,” he famend to Of us. “I mean, someone who's overweight and struggles with weight in their life, you’ve got issues that you just lift with you.”
Despite the indisputable truth that the L.A.-primarily primarily based SVP of Global Impart Provide at Lionsgate is grateful his three childhood with major other Mariah Yost Benson are growing up with more body positivity.
“My adolescents are in a period that’s formula more accepting of all body kinds and your total realm of the human situation,” he urged the outlet. “They're so primary more accepting than my period changed into once after I changed into once young.”
Matt Hoover / Season 2
Matt Hoover shed 157 pounds at some level of his time on The Ideal Loser in 2005, but he obtained primary, primary more.
He and Suzy Preston, the season's 2d runner-up, fell in like on the repeat. Married in September 2006, they fragment sons Rex (a highschool wrestler treasure his dad) and Jax (a lacrosse participant). As Matt—who documents his expertise with getting a vertical sleeve gastrectomy in 2019—joked on Instagram in 2024, “Positively married a hot girl formula out of my league!”
Erik Chopin / Season 3
Erik Chopin took residence the mighty prize after losing bigger than 200 pounds on the truth repeat's third season in 2006. He ended up gaining most of his weight support after the repeat ended. In 2010 the Original Yorker—who shares a son and daughter along with his major other—starred within the documentary Confessions of a Truth Expose Loser, which detailed his fight to lose the pounds all over again.
Invoice Germanakos / Season 4
Shedding 164 pounds assist in 2007, Invoice Germanakos stays committed to keeping it off. Stressing his desire to “reverse the pattern” of gaining weight at some level of the holidays, the dad to son Luke and daughter Hope printed on X in December 2019 that he'd lost fifty three pounds “and am having a scrutinize for one other 7 in December! Who’s with me?”
Ali Vincent / Season 5
In 2016—or eight years after worthwhile The Ideal Loser—Ali Vincent printed that she reached 200 pounds again and changed into once joining Weight Watchers noting she felt “ashamed” to be starting over.
But keeping at it has its advantages, with the frail Are residing Tall With Ali Vincent huge title staying healthy and taking part in life on the side of her major other Jen and three childhood. As she marveled to Yahoo, “I in fact below no instances would have faith conception being fragment of such an expertise would have faith such a profound affect on my life.”
Michelle Aguilar / Season 6
While she ended up losing 110 pounds at some level of her 2008 proceed, Michelle Aguilar is most grateful for the relationship she obtained as a result of repeat.
“I did the repeat with my mom and earlier than happening, we weren't talking,” Michelle shared with E! News. “Yes, I stood on the tip and the confetti fell and I obtained and that's all extra special. But on the cease of the day, because of The Ideal Loser…my mom and I had been in a dilemma to rebuild a brand new relationship.”
Within the period in-between, she managed to design a slew of more healthy habits. Crediting trainer Jillian Michaels with changing her life, she wrote on Instagram in August 2025, “She changed into once my motivator, my files and most steadily the tricky like I didn't know I crucial.”
Now, she persisted, “I rep to name Jillian my buddy, and that's one amongst the supreme items I’m in a position to even have faith ever imagined.”
Helen Phillips / Season 7
Despite the indisputable truth that Helen Phillips, who dropped 140 pounds in 2009, looks to end faraway from social media, she shared an image of herself at a fitness event in March 2019 proving she's unexcited in immense shape. She furthermore regarded in a promotional video for StreetStrider.
Danny Cahill / Season 8
In 2016, or bigger than seven years after worthwhile the repeat, the Original York Times checked in on Danny Cahill and reported that bigger than 100 pounds had crept support onto him. “I obtained't be sufferer to this,” he urged the e-newsletter. “It's the hand I've been dealt.”
For the main few years, he detailed to ABC News, “I kept the burden off entirely. I puzzled why others had been gaining it support. I changed into once conception two hours a day and riding my bike all over the effect town to mosey where I changed into once going. Once that stopped, the burden started creeping support on.”
Michael Ventrella / Season 9
365 days after doing the repeat in 2010, Michael Ventrella opened up about his life to Chicago Mag. “It's been honest and sinister,” the teacher and motivational speaker shared. “The honest fragment is I'm residing, no longer only with my body but with my life. A year ago, I'd be trapped in a basement bedroom, jamming out on my computer.”
For the time being, the Illinois resident is centered on his valid property occupation.
Patrick Dwelling / Season 10
Six years after incomes the tip dilemma for his 181-pound weight reduction in 2010, Patrick Dwelling gave main credit ranking to the series for changing his life for the upper.
“The burden I have faith obtained support is straight proportional to my time centered on weight reduction program and gym time,” the motivational speaker shared with Of us. “The one location to level the finger is on the man within the mirror. Maintenance is hard, but it's no longer no longer seemingly. Ought to you're ingesting honest, clear, healthy food and no longer overeating, you may per chance maybe maybe per chance also't affect weight. Your body doesn't form energy—strive and be inserting them in.”
Olivia Ward / Season 11
After worthwhile the repeat on the side of her 129-pound weight reduction in 2011, Olivia Ward changed into a grasp instructor at Soul Cycle. She furthermore co-based the app Counterbalance on the side of her sister Hannah Curlee (her fellow season 11 competitor) to fragment recipes, exercises and other health guidance.
“Shedding the burden changed into once extra special,” she detailed to Of us in 2023, “but valid to have faith that have faith and to be spherical that trend of expertise and that more or much less enhance … what I left with changed into once intellectual that I had this astonishing opportunity to pass on what had been given to me.”
Now residing in Alabama with husband Ben Ward and their sons Harper and Felix, she unexcited counts trainer Bob Harper as a shut buddy. “It is seemingly you’ll per chance maybe even have faith gotten confirmed up for me in ways I’ll below no instances be in a dilemma to repay & you’ve got persisted to drag down this toll road of life with me,” she detailed in an August 2025 Instagram tribute. “Sharing our lives together valid keeps getting sweeter & sweeter & I’m in a position to’t wait to guage about what happens subsequent.”
John Rhode / Season 12
After going from 445 pounds to 225 pounds in 2011, John Rhode stayed faraway from social media. Followers, on the other hand, noticed the motivational speaker—dad to sons Daniel and Dimitri with major other Jill—in a Crossfit video assist in 2012.
Jeremy Britt / Season 13
After his season got here to an lead to 2012, Jeremy Britt made it obvious that it changed into once only the starting for his fitness run. “Defending up with all of the stuff we realized at some level of the repeat, there's no longer an cease design anymore,” he urged Michigan's Day-to-day News that year. “Now we wish to preserve centered on our health which capacity that of that’s the cease design—being healthy for the rest of our lives.”
Danni Allen / Season 14
Since leaving the repeat in 2013, Danni Allen has got her yoga, biking and private instructor certification. “I strive and rep a whine in four to 5 days a week if I’m in a position to—anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes a day and it's about diversity for me,” she explained to E! News. “I rep uninterested within the identical thing day after day. I attain yoga. I attain swim. I rep into the pool. I alter it up as primary as I’m in a position to so I don't rep bored.”
The advertising director for a Chicago-space Planet Fitness wed David Pufundt in 2022, the pair welcoming son Luka in January 2025. “It feels treasure a lifetime ago, but I bring it to mind treasure the day earlier to this,” she reflected of her Ideal Loser expertise in March 2025. “So primary has modified since then—so primary enhance, like, and a family that’s only gotten bigger in every formula.”
Rachel Frederickson / Season 15
As one amongst the supreme losers, Rachel Frederickson faced lots of criticism for her dramatic, 155-pound transformation in 2014. She would later mirror on her run in an essay for This day. “There will always be other voices in life. The effort comes whenever you end taking mark of your maintain,” she wrote. “I’m committed to trusting my choices and standing solid within the support of them. I came at some level of energy in this fight and I’m taking mark of my maintain narrate again!”
A voiceover actress, the Minnesota resident launched her maintain t-shirt line in 2015. After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a stage in logistics, gives and present chain administration in 2020, she landed a job at Land O'Lakes, for the time being working as a consumer insights and analytics supervisor.
Toma Dobrosavljevic / Season 16
Months after going the distance within the “Glory Days” season that contains frail athletes, Toma Dobrosavljevic printed on Fb in January 2016 that he suffered an damage that affected his whine routines. “Well, I need some support getting support heading within the accurate route,” he shared along with his followers. “I'm unexcited attempting to rep over a calf damage I sustained about a months ago and sign my weight is starting to scuttle up on me…and I promised myself I'd below no instances mosey support to where I changed into once!”
He did affect one thing handsome special from the expertise, connecting with season 15 contestant Chelsea Arthurs. “We had been in some Ideal Loser alumni groups on-line and we started talking,” she detailed at some level of a 2021 look on Are residing with Kelly and Value. “He flew down [to see me] and we’ve been together ever since then!”
Roberto Hernandez / Season 17
Since worthwhile the repeat in 2016, Roberto Hernandez has competed in 5K runs, half of marathons and triathlons. He furthermore participated within the Financial institution of The United States Chicago Marathon. Per the American Heart Affiliation News, Roberto has worked laborious to preserve his weight off. But yes, he’ll take care of himself to about a special foods. “I'm no longer going to deceive you,” the Chicago-space resident shared. “We are Mexican and we treasure our pozole to be treasure mom makes pozole.”
He and his brother Luis Hernandez, who he competed with, “is maybe no longer” at their finale weights, he printed of his 160-pound loss in a 2020 Instagram post, “but we’re indubitably no longer where we had been.”
The dad of three (with major other Rosie Hernandez) added the major changed into once to steal “the bull from the horns and benefit going.”
Jim Dibattista / Season 18
The first season support after a four-year wreck saw Jim Dibattista claim the crown by dropping 144 pounds. At the 2020 finale, he cited major other Deb Dibattista and their three sons as his inspiration, asserting, “I’m so proud that I changed into once in a dilemma to rep it performed for ALL of them; they sacrificed so primary for me. The Ideal Loser modified my life eternally. I’m and will always be the repeat's 'BIGGEST' cheerleader!”
He roots for himself as correctly. Sharing some sooner than and after photos in March 2022, the highschool lacrosse coach acknowledged that “the pic on the honest is a lot from 'ideal' but I’m overjoyed, residing my life and in formula better shape then I ever changed into once in my total life.” Plus, he careworn out, “I’m below no instances f–king going support to that guy on the left.”
Source credit : eonline.com
