![\"Danny](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/the-biggest-loser-danny-cahill-zz-250819-01-db634e.jpg\")
Danny Cahill after winning “The Biggest Loser.”Trae Patton\/NBCU Photo Bank \/ Getty Images<\/p>\nAbout three years after winning season 8 of \u201cThe Biggest Loser,\u201d Danny Cahill started sustaining injuries from working out so much.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became really evident that my body was really tired, and my joints were breaking down,\u201d the 56-year-old from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, tells TODAY.com. \u201cI would have injury after injury, and I couldn\u2019t keep it up.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Biggest Loser aired for 17 seasons from 2004 until 2016 on NBC, which is owned by NBC Universal, TODAY\u2019s parent company. Those who lost the highest percentage of weight competed for prizes, including $250,000 and the title of “the biggest loser” for the winner.<\/p>\n
After Cahill\u2019s win in 2009 because he shed 239 pounds in six months, three weeks and five days, he returned home and added as much movement as he could into his daily routine. <\/p>\n
\u201cI exercised every time I got a chance. If I went and got a haircut across town, I would ride my bike,\u201d he says, adding it was an 18-mile trip one way. \u201cI would walk everywhere I went that I could. I would jog to the post office to check the P.O. box. I incorporated working out into my life.\u201d <\/p>\n
Danny Cahill after winning “The Biggest Loser.”Trae Patton\/NBCU Photo Bank \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
He ran two marathons and \u201cfelt like a million bucks,\u201d he recalls. His doctor weaned him off medications. <\/p>\n
\u201c(My doctor) was blown away,\u201d Cahill says. \u201cI came back 240 pounds lighter, and my numbers were good. I was pulled off my meds because my blood pressure fell in line.\u201d <\/p>\n
While his doctor was pleasantly surprised by Cahill\u2019s success, he did worry about the speed at which Cahill lost the weight. Still, Cahill felt amazing. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything was just great,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was the weight that was causing all these (health) issues.\u201d <\/p>\n
But then the injuries began. He recalls being on an obstacle course and injuring a ligament in his big toe from hoisting himself up onto a platform. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt almost tore (the ligament) in my big toe,\u201d Cahill says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t walk. I wouldn\u2019t wear a shoe on that foot for a month.\u201d <\/p>\n
At the time, he walked, biked and ran most of the time for his exercise. To heal, he stopped working out to rest and noticed that he gained 20-30 pounds. Even that slight gain made Cahill feel bad.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou start feeling this pressure and this shame,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I started regaining the weight, I withdrew.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cahill shares his experience with \u201cThe Biggest Loser\u201d in the Netflix documentary \u201cFit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser.\u201d In the three-part series, he reveals that he gained back all the weight he lost. It became increasingly difficult to incorporate so much exercise into his busy life with a full time career and parenting.<\/p>\n
These days, “my movement is not very often because by the time I get home from a day of work, I\u2019m exhausted,\u201d Cahill says. <\/p>\n
Cahill also faced some health troubles. Two years ago, he felt a pain in his back and visited the emergency room. He waited for 20 hours and considered leaving a few times. But something kept him there. <\/p>\n
\u201cI started feeling really strange, and then I was like something\u2019s wrong here,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you feel like something\u2019s wrong \u2014 they always say that people have this sense of dread or a sense that says something\u2019s wrong \u2014 get it checked out.\u201d <\/p>\n
Doctors found a large aneurysm, which they attributed to a failing heart valve, which was \u201cpartially fused\u201d since he was born. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was lucky to find (the aneurysm),\u201d he says. \u201cI could be dead right now.\u201d <\/p>\n
Doctors repaired his valve during open heart surgery and he has been doing well since. He takes blood pressure medication and prescription for nerve damage in his foot, which makes it hard for him to walk at times. <\/p>\n
Cahill and his wife recently made some lifestyle changes. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re taking walks with the dogs. We are starting to cook better and eat whole foods instead of processed foods,\u201d Cahill says. \u201cThat\u2019s going to make a difference. It just takes time to see that difference.\u201d <\/p>\n
He hopes he\u2019ll be able to stop taking blood pressure medication again. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve gotten to where I can walk pretty good distances again and I\u2019m happy about that,\u201d he says. \u201cI can\u2019t wait for it to be six months, a year, for me to be off those meds. That\u2019s my goal.\u201d <\/p>\n
Even knowing what he knows now about \u201cThe Biggest Loser,\u201d Cahill says he would do it again. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot of fun. It was very scary. It was very exhilarating. It was boring at times,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I did it again now, I would do it a little different. I would eat some more because I don\u2019t know that eating an extra 400 or 500 calories a day would have made that much of a difference in my weight loss as hard as we were working out.\u201d <\/p>\n
He says that because he felt motivated to win, he sometimes ate fewer calories than the calories recommended by the show doctor, Dr. Robert Huizenga. <\/p>\n
Cahill feels proud of what he accomplished on the show. <\/p>\n
\u201cI still have records on \u2018The Biggest Loser\u2019 of the highest percentage of weight loss of any man, of losing double digits every week for seven weeks in a row, which is a record that still stands with 380-plus contestants in America,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
He remembers watching the finale with his son, David, who felt surprised by how much weight his dad lost. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I want everybody that hears this, including my kids and everyone around me, is that you can do anything if you put your mind to it,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you have the support system around you \u2026 you can do anything.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About three years after winning season 8 of \u201cThe Biggest Loser,\u201d Danny Cahill started sustaining injuries from working…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-78916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}