Biggest Loser question

afred29

How and heck do they lose so much weight every week? Is there some secret I don't know of? What type of exercises and eating regime do they do?

Steph_Anie

they spend hours and hours and hours in the gym... that is their job while they are there. I found this on their site--

"people in the show are in a fantasy, unrealistic environment where everything is optimized for weight loss." He notes that everything from working with a trainer to having absolutely nothing else to do makes it possible for contestants to completely reconfigure their diet and exercise routine.

Dansinger says that "50 to 60 percent of [contestants’] weight-loss success comes from dietary change." They're used to consuming around 3000 calories a day, but on the show consume about 1500 calories a day. As he says, "few people are really in a position to cut their calories by 1500 a day, but that's what these people are able to do." He says there's "nothing controversial" about the diet, nor are the contestants given pills or other shortcuts.

The other 40 to 50 percent of weight loss comes from the three hours of exercise the contestants do every day: an hour of strength training and two hours of cardio. That helps them burn an additional 1200 to 1500 calories, Dansinger says. "It's hard to do by yourself, but on the show it's easy to do," he said. "When people allow themselves to be put in that kind of environment ... when you pull out all the barriers to weight loss, that's when the weight loss can come very quickly."

jr1985

There is also a lot of behind the scenes stuff too that we don't see, like all the doctors, massage therapists, etc. aside from the working out until you die for 8 hours a day, and the weighing and measuring to a tee everything that they eat. A body bugg or other heart rate monitor based calorie calculator is also very helpful in knowing specifically how many calories they burned throughout their day, quality of sleep, etc.

lutkica01

yah it's a 24 hour monitoring for them and it's all they do. everyone could do it if we only gave it 24 hours a day like that and it's really not realistic

DrBorkBork

Because their full time "job" is to work their butts off (literally) EVERY day. Also it has been said that they don't necessarily weigh in every week. The weigh ins we see can often be a week & a half to two week span. Still pretty impressive losses, but also dangerous in my books.

Pange33

They're able to lose so much because their entire lives are completely devoted to working out and eating right on the ranch. They don't do anything else while they're there, and they have all the tools they need and the motivation from their teammates and Bob and Jillian. Of course the work is all their own, and it's extremly difficult, but they are living in the most ideal of circumstances, they don't have the responsibility of having a job, kids, spouse, etc, it's all brushed aside from the moment they step foot on the ranch. If everyone has/had these awesome circumstances, there probably wouldn't be a weight issue worldwide.

Aside from that, it's very inspriring what those contestants accomplish, and I love to see the "where are they now" episodes where you see that they have brought everything they learned into their real lives, and practiced it. It's nice to see how they maintained it and everything. But, I just love that show, I think it's great. But it's not necesarily the best or healthiest way to lose weight. And it's certainly not realistic for those of us not living on the ranch. But it is definitely possible and attainable to lose large amounts of weight by sticking to the principles that contestants learn on the show. That's my two cents, hope it's nice for someone