Aussie reality star’s shocking body transformation

“Don’t try this at home”: Startling before-and-after photos show just how much of a toll a gruelling Aussie reality show took on this contestant.

Australian Survivor contestant Sam Gash has shared startling before-and-after photos showing the toll her 40 days in the Queensland outback took on her body.

Sam, who was ousted from the game in last Monday’s episode, revealed that she lost 13 per cent of her body weight during her near-six weeks in the game.

Sam went from an already tiny 49.5kg down to 43.2kg during her time on Survivor, suffering a run of bad luck when it came to winning all-important reward challenges, where contestants can receive some much-needed calories.

Sam Gash, before and after Survivor.

Sam revealed that during her 40 days in Survivor, all she ate outside of the usual rice and beans given to contestants to keep them alive was one croissant, one hot dog, some vegemite toast, one merge feast and two pieces of KFC popcorn chicken that her husband Mark Wales had managed to smuggle her from a reward he experienced in the fame.

And she was also keen to stress that she wasn’t celebrating her weight loss, which came with some brutal side effects including hair loss, describing the ordeal as “rough and real” and advising her followers not to try it at home.

“I’m not celebrating this weight loss. It is part and parcel of the game of Survivor. One that I willingly choice to do. The toll – physically (& mentally), is clearly evident with this,” she wrote.

Sam was responsible for one of this season’s most nail-biting moments when she collapsed in the heat during a gruelling endurance challenge, falling into host Jonathan LaPaglia’s arms before losing consciousness altogether and needing medical attention.

Sam’s been eliminated, but her husband Mark is still in the game – with two immunity idols.

Speaking to news.com.au after her elimination this week, she confessed she wished she’d tried to put a little bit more weight on before entering the game to keep her physically stronger.

“I was physically deteriorating quite a lot at that point in the game,” she said. “Obviously I wasn’t winning challenges to get (food) rewards … I was just purely going on grit and being able to bear pain in that challenge, and then I (collapsed) … I truly don’t remember what happened.”

And the tough times didn’t finish for Sam when she was eliminated, either – she received the “harshest ever” treatment from the previously eliminated contestants back at jury villa, who initially iced her out because of the part she’d played in eliminating them from the game.

“It wasn’t great – I’ve been told it’s the harshest jury villa that’s been done,” Sam told news.com.au of the deeply uncomfortable footage, available to watch in full on TenPlay.

“You’re sleep-deprived, you’re emotional, you haven’t eaten, and … it’s a lot. I was holding back tears.”

Originally published as Aussie reality star’s shocking body transformation