The Biggest Loser: Healthy?

Shows like this (I just watched a ton of Celebrity Fit Club for my job) aren't great in showing healthy ways to lose weight. What they are good at, however, is increasing the spirit of competition. These are shows first, a health regimen a far distant second and with the tantalizing prizes people compete for, it's not surprising they'll be kicking themselves to get it, whether it's going all out on an exercise or eating nothing but water for a week. It's ratings, and losing double digits every week is SEXY. It gets people all 'oh damn!' and good for the show. What season are we on? 9 or something? It's a damn successful formula.

As for the crying, yeah, they cry a lot. And the producers LOVE IT!

Probably.

Most people that have gotten themselves into a drastic obese situation like on the show, need a good kick in the pants.

Not an expert, but that's only because I haven't started studying for certs yet, but I'll try.

Absolutely not. The crash-diet nature of their workout/diet plans is guaranteed to get people to lose weight fast and obviously keep the show entertaining. Quite a few past participants have either gained the weight back or gained a fair portion of it back, which is pretty much standard when it comes to crash dieting/exercising.

I don't think it would be, but then again I've only seen a couple of episodes. For most people, one or two hours a day is great. Even one hour a day is great, it's just a matter of doing something instead of procrastinating.

Nope, but considering some of the diets they probably have these people on - I'm assuming a protein-sparing modified fast-type diet for most of them since they ideally want them to be able to maintain what lean body mass they have while burning fat - an apple can spike blood sugar and retard fat loss as opposed to just a piece of gum to curb cravings.

Probably, but you also have to take into account that your brain does odd stuff when you go on a crash diet, and I can't imagine what it would be like to have a food addiction or to use food as a coping mechanism and then have to go through something like this. Dieting tweaks your hormones, and obviously being denied comfort foods and so forth WILL do a number on you.

2 pounds a week is the absolute maximum. Granted, the ideal rule of thumb for that is 2 lb. of fat, but you can almost always factor in a degree of water weight being lost as well, so for posterity's sake 2 lb. of weight is probably the best way to phrase it.

ETA: If someone more well-acquainted with the show could post a sample workout and sample diet I could probably pick it apart a little more just for kicks.

You have to pay for that shit in the numerous diet books and DVDs Biggest Loser puts out. There's now even The Biggest Loser Wii Fit "game".

In anycase, the show is designed for abnormally fast weight loss. But the food tips and workouts are generally pretty good. I don't know much about the majority of contestants, but the winners usually keep the weight off because they are the most committed to do so from the get-go. Many of them have also gone on to be motivational speakers and/or personal trainers - so the show really was a total body and mind transformation for them.

Further, we don't see it often, but the trainers also work with contestants to confront whatever demons they have. In my mind, it's the loss of psychological baggage that is most responsible for the long term weight loss, rather than the quick fix. (Though admittedly, its not really a "quick fix. People who make it to the end have been doing intense conditioning for 3 months or more so their behavioral modification has a chance to kick in and can carry over once they leave the show.)

Yeah, from what I remember I saw lots of olympic lifts, plyometrics, medicine ball slams, etc. - stuff that's good for weight loss AND metabolic conditioning. Some of the more gimmicky things like the weighted partner runs and such struck me as dumb, but hey, it's for the show.

People already do this, and they were doing it before "The Biggest Loser". I also highly doubt that it'll spur people to try more dangerous workouts considering that there's a sizable amount of people who are terrified of lifting weights because of some irrational fear of "blowing up like Arnold" and can barely stick to an exercise plan/diet plan for a month or two.

hahahaha

I know this is bumping an ancient thread, but I just found this article on a fitness board and thought I'd share:

http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archiv...os_and_con.php

I just thought of a new show that stars the guy who wrote that review, and coincidentally it shares the name of another series he seems to be very familiar with.

Totally agree with this.

Also, the product placement still kills me. "WHY ARE YOU NOT EATING CHEERIOS THEY ARE HIGH IN FIBER" "HERE USE THIS BRITA FILTER IT FILTERS OUT x AMOUNT OF IMPURITIES".

Guess what, lady, it's still fuckin' cereal and who gives a shit what the filter is as long as the water is clean?

I think it was Celebrity Fit Club or whatever that show was that actually did body fat composition as part of their scores.

I agree as well. Last year, I decided to become more active and I started going to my local rec center where I could work out for free. I'd hit the elliptical, exercise bike, and treadmill on different days. My clothes starting to become looser, so I assumed I was doing the right thing. Then I noticed that I was losing muscle. Even though I was eating three healthy square meals a day, my arms started to get a little skinny and you could feel my ribs more prominently. What was weird about it was that I didn't look like an anorexic chick. If I lifted my shirt, you couldn't see any bones protruding, but I could feel them. My shoulder blades starting sticking out a bit, too. I went to my physician to ask him what was up, and I finally figured out that doing a shitload of cardio alone was making me scrawny, not fit, so I started to include strength training, and made sure that I ate more protein in my diet, and had a good protein drink right after a workout to encourage the growth of lean muscle. I am the queen of the medicine ball now, and I rock the resistance bands, too. My weight on the scale went up, but I'm much more toned now, and I feel so much better. The problem is that a lot of people, women particularly, are slaves to the scale. They judge their success on how low their numbers are (weight, clothing size, etc.), and it is dangerous. Thank God I figured that out before I potentially did serious damage.

ETA: And this wasn't some crazy stunt diet that was making me skinny. I was working out for an hour a day, five days a week, losing 1-2lbs a week, so I thought I was doing the right thing.