'Survivor' Winner Vulnerably Shares What Happened to Her Body After the Show
Survivor 49winner and Survivor 50 contestant Savannah Louie, 32, opened up to fans about what happened to her body during the show, and the weight gain and inflammation she dealt with for months after.
Louie took to Instagram to share two side-by-side photos of herself, with the one on the left being from two months before she played Survivor for the first time, and two months after being voted out of Survivor 50. "The body on the right is about 30 pounds heavier," she explained. "Both of these bodies are beautiful, but it was wild to see my body change so quickly in such a short time period and feeling like I had no control over what I was consuming."
Related: ‘Survivor 49' Favorite Reveals Grueling Pre-Show Diet and Exercise Routine
While Survivor players infamously lose a lot of weight while surviving on only rice, coconuts, and whatever they can catch in the ocean or win during challenges-earlier seasons even gave the players a mirror before the final tribal and told them how much they lost-Louie says the dramatic weight loss and unusual diet leads to lasting problems back home.
"All that weight loss-it is so temporary," she said. "When you get back around food, you are just insatiable. My body was also really inflamed. Eventually, you do reach a point where you stop craving a whole box of cookies, because that's what I would do-I would literally eat an entire box of cookies in one sitting."
The fan-favorite player admitted that struggling with her weight and food intake was hard for her, which is why she's choosing to open up about her battle now. "I felt really alone and I felt like I was going crazy," she said. "You don't have to play Survivor to have a warped mindset around food. So if there's anyone out there who's feeling maybe the same way, I just hope that they feel less alone."
In the comments, many other Survivor players admitted they went through the same thing. Survivor 44 winner Carolyn Wiger took to the comments to share that she "struggled with this too."
"I'm glad you're sharing this... I couldn't tell when I was actually full so I would just keep eating because I constantly felt like I was starving," she wrote. "It was as if I couldn't stop eating." Wiger and Louie both said that CBS was very supportive as they dealt with the problem, with Wiger saying they got her a nutritionist and Louie working with a therapist.
It isn't just the women who struggled with disordered eating after getting home from the show. Four-time player Benjamin "Coach" Wade, who most recently appeared on Survivor 50, commented, "Post Survivor bod sucks, especially at 54."
"I've got to get a handle of my eating and my exercise," he added. "This time around it's been brutal."
Louie's situation was particularly tough because she went straight from winning Survivor 49 into filming for Survivor 50, so she had very little time to get her diet back in order between them. After 26 days on Survivor 49 from April 20 to May 15, 2025, she started filming for the milestone season on June 5, 2025. Nearly a year later, Louie says that her "weight eventually stabilized" and she "feels like [she 's] at a normal point" now.
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This story was originally published April 17, 2026 at 8:35 AM.