Biggest loser weight loss...setting people up for failure!

[cawiau]

I love the show, don't get me wrong!
But after watching the first episod twice, I am a bit pissed!

We are talking 20-30 lbs weight loss in 1 week!
Yes they are over 300 lbs and 400 lbs! But damn...20-30 lbs in one week????

Some people will think that is possible to do in real life!
It took me 4 months to lose 50 lbs so far...and they will be hitting those numbers on the show by week 2 at this rate!

How do you feel about it?

[Shatter]

My mate won the Australian "Biggest Loser". You can see his journey here:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=JuROQe0kDT8

He was an absolute freaking machine - I still can't believe the changes in him.

Having said that, I do completely agree. There is no way your body can maintain those kind of changes over a long period of time. I still see Chris occassionally and he has definitely put a lot of weight back on, albeit he is not nearly as bad as he was when he started the competition.

As for the viewers, I've never watched it and thought any of this is possible. I know Chris, for example, ended up getting quite sick and had to increase his calories by the end of the show. However, I do enjoy watching it as a motivational tool. When I see others pushing themselves so hard, it makes me realise how easy I have it.

[kowabungakyle]

yeah it's "reality tv first" making money ratings, and then helping people lose weight second, the healthy way or not.

I'm not surprised at all, I remember I watched an episode once where they were trying to lure the contestants to binge on sweets by making them so easily available on counter tops ect., that was like 4 years ago and haven't watched an episode since.

[mugugaipan]

I read alot about this right after last season. Apparently its not really one week. I don't know the exact numbers cuz they change every season, but if it lasts for 12 weeks our time, they are usually there for lik 16-20 weeks. Thats why some weeks the numbers will be really low and some weeks they will be 20+. After tonights premiere, you gotta assume that this was more than one week, and they did have a lot of water weight and stuff in there too. Also when you are 454 lbs, 30 lbs is alot easier to lose haha.

[Bo DeLone]

I know a lot of the people on the Biggest Loser are very obese and also new to regular exercise so they can lose large amounts of weight quickly.

I don't like that show either. It seems like the workouts arent shown much compared to the time spent on showing drama and feuds between the contestants.

[Hotmoltenlava]

They are literally in the gym between 6-8 hours a day and have a perfect amount of food to lose massive amounts of weight. According to the show in the past, they actually add mass by the time it is over. I have my doubts of that, but the ones that are in at the end don't seem to have any bad effects. If I was to go on the show, I'd drink several gallons of water prior to the first weigh in. I don't see how some of them lose 30 lbs the first week, but I'm guessing it is mostly water weight.

[mpipes]

I'm not surprised at all, I remember I watched an episode once where they were trying to lure the contestants to binge on sweets by making them so easily available on counter tops ect., that was like 4 years ago and haven't watched an episode since.

There's two ways to look at situations like this one.

1. you can get pissed and think that's pretty ****ty of them to put temptations like that out there.. because it is, or...

2. you can realize that's real life. Temptations are going to be at every opportunity unless you just lock yourself in your house all day every day, which isn't realistic either. You can't make everyone everywhere hide all the treats just to suit your diet, you have to learn some self control at some point.


Ain't NOBODY gonna believe they can lose 20-30lbs in one week. You're talking about people who will come up with every last excuse to NOT do what it takes to drop 3-4lbs per week. The work it would take to drop 20 even if a large amount is water, pffft, dude, they're just not going to do it on their own. Doubt they'd find a trainer willing to push them that hard outside of the TV show.

[cawiau]

Also when you are 454 lbs, 30 lbs is alot easier to lose haha.

yes, in a month okay!
But even for two weeks it is a bit extreme!

[100Day]

Well, they workout for HOURS before the weighing just so they sweat alot, so alot of it is water weight.

I agree, its ridiculous

[big78]

all these people never worked out before.. the only thing they lifted was a fat filled burger to throw it down there trap. For somebody that is 400 lbs doing a vigorous workout with good diet will see greater results than somebody who is 200 lbs. (more pounds in a week lost)

[mKor]

Spend 7 hours in the gym every day for 12 weeks (or 16 or 20, however many they're actually there for) and see how much you lose. It sets people up for failure because people can't grasp the work they're putting in, its just way more then most could imagine. However, it is real and healthy. I think I'd go insane at 7 hours a day. I remember watching the finale when one of the girls talking was saying she'd be upset if she found she couldn't go for more than 2 hours and she regularly spent 4 hours a day in there after she left the show. Hardly anyone has that kind of time.

[thatboijohn]

i agree wit caiwau that is a bit extreme i wish i could lose 30lbs in a week lol. but **** i know there has to be a downside to all of this.

[torn8o]

I have loved and watched the show from season one ... but I totally agree with this and have always said the same thing. Contestants exercise for hours at a time and are super strict with nutrition on the ranch ... then the prize money becomes a force that compels them after they go home, so most of them totally skimp on cals and exercise their brains out before the finale. There have been several articles now that I've read from contestants who stop drinking water and sit in the sauna the week before the finale show. Most of them gain the weight back later too. Ryan (winner from season one) is actually bigger now than he was before he went on the show. Matt (season two) has also gained it back. Some of the runner ups seem to do better ... but it really doesn't teach them a permanent shift in their thinking/approach toward food.

[crupiea]

I have to contend with this everyday because I work as a weight loss consultant.

Then when you ask people if they plan on working out 4-6 hours per day like on TV right away they jump in with the excuses about bad knees, bad back, neck, what have you.

Then I can start to turn them around and talk common sense to them. It aint easy though.

[HITMAN77]

I always wondered how they lost so much weight so fast. I guess they work out 24/7.

[RedRaider85]

I think that it is a good concept to the show but I really don't agree with some of the things that they do. I mean I still think that anyone can make the changes when they have no distractions at the ranch but what happens when they get home??? A few of the winners are back up to the same wieght if not more than when they started!

Another thing I don't like is how you can tell so much of it is staged now. They are totally going for ratings and alot of it is becoming more about the stupid game then informing them on living a healthy lifestyle! And that race last night at the beginning...seriously the Black Team had a huge lead how did the yellow just suddenly catch up....come on!! Most of it is for the ratings. I love watching it but last night I just said forget it halway through and I went to the gym myself....

[gbone74]

I love the show, don't get me wrong!
But after watching the first episod twice, I am a bit pissed!

We are talking 20-30 lbs weight loss in 1 week!
Yes they are over 300 lbs and 400 lbs! But damn...20-30 lbs in one week????

Some people will think that is possible to do in real life!
It took me 4 months to lose 50 lbs so far...and they will be hitting those numbers on the show by week 2 at this rate!

How do you feel about it?

Your results are excellent for the "real world" but Ask yourself a serious question could you have lost more than 50lbs in 4 months could you have done that bit more, ate that bit less, done 1 more rep,1 more mile if there were no barriers to your weight loss,no work, no family commitments and a huge prize at the end Im pretty sure you could.

I love the biggest loser and dont think the results are ridiculous at all,a 400lb guy going full tilt at it with no excuses and training like an animal will drop an incredible amount of weight.I admit the 30lbs a week are from bloating up with water in the first place but after that initial drop the results are incredible but acheivable none the less

When we see olympic athletes running 100m in 10 seconds or long jumping 8m we appreciate the immense work it takes we dont say its silly and unrealistic, 100% effort on weight loss for hours everyday and a huge prize at stake I think the results are about right their is nothing special about these people.As apollo creed once said"Eye of the tiger man,eye of the tiger".

[SocratesTX]

People need to realize that they each have a specific diet that flexes with their workouts, which are most of the day. If you were that overweight, had doctors and trainers on staff 24/7 and were working out for 60% of everyday you would see those kinds of numbers too. Remember, they have nothing else to do while they are there. Also, 20 lbs, of water weight on someone that big in the first week isn't really out of the question.

What's more disturbing to me is that they use actual weight as the determining factor of progress and on top of that they compare women and men equally. If they did an accurate competition and measured bf% and lbm and took into account the relative scale of man vs. woman they wouldn't have any viewers.

[Aussieguy101]

Yeah obviously all conditions are set for maximum weight loss

Even though they aren't training with the intensity of a pro athlete, you do have to be impressed with 6 plus hours of exercise a day for people of that size

that wouldn't be easy

[PopeGregorius]

They are literally in the gym between 6-8 hours a day and have a perfect amount of food to lose massive amounts of weight. According to the show in the past, they actually add mass by the time it is over.

???

They can eat as much or little as they want in the australian version. Some weeks they gain weight and the only way to do that is overeating.
And of course they put on muscle mass.

[gixxer0.6g]

That first weight loss is mostly water and other **** stuffed in their toxic bodies.

15 lbs of water and crap
5 lbs of fat and other

[gixxer0.6g]

???

They can eat as much or little as they want. And of course they put on muscle mass.

I really don't think they put on a lot of mass. It's pretty hard to do so when you're in such a calorie deficit. Most likely they'll burn up a lot of their original muscle mass.

[PopeGregorius]

I really don't think they put on a lot of mass. It's pretty hard to do so when you're in such a calorie deficit. Most likely they'll burn up a lot of their original muscle mass.

If you are severely obese, eat 200g protein a day, and exercise 6 hours a day you will add muscle mass. You just oxidise fat stores.

[torn8o]

A few of them add noticeable mass, though ... been pretty impressed with some. The fella from Miami last year became flat out built during the show. Also the twins from New York ... both of them added mass. Marty from KC was another one who added lots of lean mass during the process. When he was done he looked like a body builder ... plus, he has stayed healthy after the show (hometown hero).

[Manyforms]

I was having this argument with my girlfriend last night as she would be like "that's amazing", remembering when I was over 300 and with just increasing my water intake and cutting out sodas I could literally piss out 10-12 lbs a week without exercising or moving a muscle.

Not to subtract from these people in any way. Regardless of the system used to get it off, for now that 35 lbs less on their knee and hip joints. Don't forget that the calories burned per exercise ratio is ridiculous for some of these people. In the case of the 430 lb guy. Here's his results for 30 mins of exercise at his weight for various exercise:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/calo...alsBurned+DESC

even 30 mins at 5mph (a guestimate since the clips showed jogging) is 819 calories burned. No idea what kind of severe deficit he's in. I'm sure if its for ratings they are starving the guy out at like the 1200 range.


The first calc I was able to google pegged his extreme fat loss maint at 3440 for the amount of exercise he's getting daily under their trainers. With those assumptions he's already accounted for almost a lb a day and that assumes 2 workouts a day. They are probably getting moved closer to 5-6.

Definitely not arguing with Cawiau here at all. If anything this supports that they are using a way extreme system, I'd say doing it healthy this guy should be averaging 2lbs a day for his opening week if he doing something he could maintain through the years.

Those numbers almost seem like they dehydrated him before the weigh in to show those numbers.

[TheManofSteel]

It's basically they're job to lose weight on the show, they don't do anything else for 24 hours a day... work out and eat low calorie meals, and sleep / recuperate from the workouts... that's why they take them out of the real world so they can make such "loses"

Don't also forgot, it's one extreme to another... like a previous poster said, you're going from no working out and probably ingesting like 5k calories of pure crap a day to eating extremely healthy and working out so intensely that people are throwing up and passing out...

it's just supposed to show people that whatever you set your mind to you can do

Sidenote #1: This was the 1st year that I thought they skewed their numbers, we have no idea how it's edited and whether those are actually scales they are standing on! It's TV people!!

[Manyforms]

Sidenote #1: This was the 1st year that I thought they skewed their numbers, we have no idea how it's edited and whether those are actually scales they are standing on! It's TV people!!

Yeah. They at least knew who was going to place where. It seemed to be team that takes first, alternate team, team that takes first, alternate team, right down to the last team which . . .took first. Good call on the made for tv scales too. From memory they seemed all over the place from like 14 lbs heavier to 30 lbs lighter as they were "calculating"

[gbone74]

Good call on the made for tv scales too. From memory they seemed all over the place from like 14 lbs heavier to 30 lbs lighter as they were "calculating"

They are actually weighed in at the docs in the morning the TV scale is just for show

[lyrics312]

You take someone who has never exercised and weighs that kind of weight, then you subject them to 6 hours of exercise a day with a specific diet while monitored by doctors, and it does seem possible.

It's not realistic to do it on your own at home, but I do think it's possible, and it serves as a good motivational tool for those watching it.

[fitopia]

I'm not a regular watcher but I tuned last night. True, it's all for show, but:

1) this is one of 2 reality shows (Dr Drew's is the other) that are literally saving lives - 454lbs at age 19 and not expected to live past 30. Between them they were said to be on 45 px meds.

2) other morbidly obese people with a sense of hopelessness or considering gastric bypass will see it can be done, despite the editing and whatever else we expect from a reality show, the final results are not fake!