Ryan Benson talks weight gain after 'Biggest Loser' fame

Losing weight can be hard and sometimes keeping it off is even harder.

Ryan Benson, the very first winner of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" -- way back in 2005 -- went from weighing 330 pounds down to 208 in the course of the show's 5 month production.

But the ten years since then have been a struggle.

Benson talked about his challenges with weight in a piece for Yahoo Health. He says that after the show, keeping all that weight off was almost impossible. Today, his weight has crept back up to nearly 300 pounds.

"I've been up and down the scale [...] One thing I didn't expect when the show ended was that for the next year or so, every time I'd go out to eat, or was in the grocery store, I'd feel like people were watching everything I ate, or watching what I put in my shopping cart."

What the show did do for him was teach him how rethink his lifestyle, in order to live a healthy life. Recently, Ryan has been training for the Malibu Triathlon and raising money for the Los Angeles Children's Hospital.

He wants to reach a sustainable healthy weight not only for himself, but to set an example for his three children -- and with all he's been through, he tells others to go slowly and be patient

"Sometimes it can be hard to enjoy the process — we want immediate results — but when we can learn to enjoy the journey a little bit, it's easier to be healthy and happy."

See photos from the show: