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"Ruben Studdard might be best known for his star turn on American Idol, but he showed up on another reality show this season - The Biggest Loser. Unfortunately, he couldn&amp;#039;t win both competitions and ended up leaving the ranch after four weeks. Even though he wasn&amp;#039;t victorious, though, Ruben lost a bunch of weight and had plenty of things to tell us about his Biggest Loser experience. Read on to find out 11 things we learned after speaking to Ruben...  1. He&amp;#039;s been doing very well at home. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m doing great,&amp;quot; Ruben said. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m still on the same plan I was on, I&amp;#039;m just moving forward.&amp;quot; Ruben didn&amp;#039;t really want to reveal how much weight he&amp;#039;d lost... but eventually spilled: 104lbs in total! 2. Ruben doesn&amp;#039;t think he could have done anything else to stay on the ranch. &amp;quot;I think we all pretty much were all on the same regimen,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;We worked as hard as we possibly can to achieve a team objective.&amp;quot; Ruben explained that he knows how these things work - having seen two full seasons of the show before going on it himself. &amp;quot;What happens is certain people&amp;#039;s bodies respond differently to the training at certain periods,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;The first week I was there I lost 21lbs, and then 10lbs, and then 3lbs.&amp;quot; He doesn&amp;#039;t think he&amp;#039;s the only contestant who&amp;#039;ll struggle, either. &amp;quot;The workouts never changed - everything was pretty much the same,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s just the way your body tends to respond to that. And you&amp;#039;ll see that with several of the contestants as the season progresses. The hard work never stops.&amp;quot; 3. But Ruben is pleased with his weight loss in his final week - even if he got eliminated. He doesn&amp;#039;t think it was &amp;quot;bad luck&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;I lost five pounds in a week and that wouldn&amp;#039;t have happened if I wasn&amp;#039;t on the ranch,&amp;quot; Ruben said. &amp;quot;I was excited about losing eight pounds in one week, so for me it was a win-win across the board.&amp;quot; 4. Ruben didn&amp;#039;t go on the show because his weight has affected his music career. &amp;quot;As far as music is concerned, you can sing or you can&amp;#039;t,&amp;quot; he explained. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s just what that is.&amp;quot;   5. But he did go on because he was worried about his health - which is now under control. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve been a big guy for as long as I can remember,&amp;quot; Ruben said. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve always been comfortable with the person that I am.&amp;quot; But he changed his perspective, saying: &amp;quot;I think what really was the wake-up call for me, especially with me being the age that I am, is the potential for certain types of health risks that run in my family. And coming to the ranch and having that physical from Dr H and getting the results of my test that said I was diabetic was most definitely shocking for me. All the things I said I didn&amp;#039;t want to happen had happened because I wasn&amp;#039;t taking care. I worked so hard on my career to get to a place where I could sustain my life with music and I neglected to take care of the person that actually sings the songs. So coming to the ranch was an opportunity for me to really start taking care of myself so that I can be able to do what I love to do longer.&amp;quot; But he said he &amp;quot;most definitely&amp;quot; has his diabetes under control: &amp;quot;You have to stay on top of it.&amp;quot; 6. Ruben didn&amp;#039;t get any special treatment because he&amp;#039;s famous - but he wishes he did! &amp;quot;I mean, honestly, some days I kind of wished they&amp;#039;d treated me differently!&amp;quot; Ruben joked. &amp;quot;Maybe the workouts would have been a little easier!&amp;quot; Unfortunately for him, everybody at the ranch was &amp;quot;on an equal playing field&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;Nobody gets any special treatment at all,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;Of course, you&amp;#039;ve got people buying groceries for you and driving you places, but that&amp;#039;s just because you&amp;#039;re on a show. Other than that it&amp;#039;s pretty much the same across the board. Everybody gets pretty much the same.&amp;quot; 7. Ruben found it easy to stay happy... so it&amp;#039;s not much of a surprise that he made some friends! &amp;quot;I was pretty upbeat and positive there,&amp;quot; Ruben said. &amp;quot;I think the most difficult thing on the ranch is just being away from family. Either you have a problem with attitude or you don&amp;#039;t. Some people are just not nice and I&amp;#039;m not one of those people, so it was cool for me.&amp;quot; In the end, his optimistic outlook helped him forge a &amp;quot;really swift connection&amp;quot; with Holley, Craig, and &amp;quot;everybody on the red team&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;We all were pretty cool with one another,&amp;quot; Ruben added.  8. Losing weight has led Ruben to one very specific plane-related achievement. Ruben revealed that he&amp;#039;s feeling &amp;quot;great&amp;quot; after his weight loss, though he admitted that since he didn&amp;#039;t feel sick beforehand, it&amp;#039;s hard to notice the difference day to day. Still, working out is &amp;quot;a lot easier&amp;quot; for him now and there&amp;#039;s one thing that has made him very happy lately. &amp;quot;I fly a lot, so a big victory for me recently is no more seatbelt extensions!&amp;quot; he laughed. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s great.&amp;quot; 9. Ruben is pleased that Dolvett chose him for his team. He is less pleased about the dreaded Dungeon. Ruben said that under the &amp;quot;right circumstances&amp;quot;, he believes anyone can work with any trainer. &amp;quot;But there&amp;#039;s a reason why Dolvett chose me - that I was strong-willed and had what it takes to train with him,&amp;quot; he added. &amp;quot;His workouts are... I just have to say they&amp;#039;re pretty insane, and I possessed the mental toughness to get through them, so I&amp;#039;m glad that he chose me for his team.&amp;quot; As we all saw, though, Ruben was left feeling sick and faint after this week&amp;#039;s workouts. Well, there&amp;#039;s a reason for that. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s generally what happens when you work out in 105 degree weather for three hours!&amp;quot; he laughed. &amp;quot;It was crazy heat and it was just ridiculous! We probably shouldn&amp;#039;t even have been working outside that day, but Dolvett loves his dungeon!&amp;quot; 10. Ruben is making sure that he fits in his workout in his busy schedule... even if it makes him sleepy! &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m tired again because I had to get up in the morning at 6 o&amp;#039;clock and work out so that I could be finished in time to be here,&amp;quot; he admitted. &amp;quot;I have to make sure that I&amp;#039;m always caught up on my schedule and what&amp;#039;s going on and fit it in around what I have to do. I have to take care of business, and also as soon as I finish this, I have rehearsals. There&amp;#039;s no time to sit around.&amp;quot; But it&amp;#039;s worth it, though, because Ruben has a goal for life. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve never seen what my physical best is,&amp;quot; he admitted. &amp;quot;That is my goal for the next however many years it takes me to get there, to be at my physical best. That&amp;#039;s it.&amp;quot; 11. Don&amp;#039;t worry - Ruben&amp;#039;s getting back to music! &amp;quot;Prior to coming on the ranch I signed a new record deal with David Foster and I&amp;#039;ll be releasing my new album in February on Verve Universal,&amp;quot; he revealed. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s pretty much what I&amp;#039;m doing now and was doing before the show. I just had to take a break for myself.&amp;quot; But are Biggest Loser fans going to get a sneak preview? Maybe at, say, the finale? &amp;quot;Viewers may have to watch the Biggest Loser finale to find out!&amp;quot; Ruben teased. &amp;quot;I would love that.&amp;quot; The Biggest Loser airs on NBC. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-biggest-loser/interviews/a529657/biggest-loser-ruben-studdard-on-weight-seatbelt-extensions-more/>