Hairy Bikers/Dieters - calorie allowance

chestnutbrown

I guess this is one for the UK members......

Having watched (and been inspired by) the Hairy Dieters programmes lately, I'm still puzzled about the calorie allowance they were given by Professor Roy Taylor at Newcastle University. They were given targets of around 1200 calories per day - this seems pretty low to me in any case but especially so given that their starting weights were around 17 and 19 stone!

All the stuff that I've read on MFP about basal metabolic rate and all the other acronyms that I now can't remember (!!!) but basically amount to the fact that there is a certain calorie level that you should not drop below in order to lose fat without going into starvation mode and metabolising lean muscle. A while back I had my "weight loss calorie allowance" worked out for me based on my weight, age, activity level etc. My basal metabolic rate was 1800 and all the other factors meant that I should be eating 2100/2200 calories per day to lose weight without going into starvation mode.

Obviously this is pretty high compared to the Hairy Dieters' allowances! So who is right? Were they just doing it for a quick weight loss for good TV? or did Prof Taylor have something else in mind? I've contacted him to ask but no response so far - the poor man is probably inundated since the show aired, so it's not surprising really!

Any ideas anyone?

WendyFlynn

Hi

I watched this programme with interest and found it incredible that two strapping 6ft ers were given a calorie allowance of only 1200 calories per day considering their starting weights.

The lads were also incorporating cardio exercise and it was not made clear if they were eating back their burnt calories, I take it that they weren't.

Some of the food tweaks were good which made meals healthier but alot of it was just common sense.

3 stone weight loss in 3 months is certainly do able in those circumstances - quite heavy, minimum calories, not eating back exercise cals, but how sustainable is it for them?

I usually love these two jolly chefs but something really grates on me.....

They were paid to do it! And the accompanying book is a great seller on Kindle, never mind in print! So even more moolah!!!! Call me cynical but if I had thousands of pounds riding on losing weight, I'd blooming well make sure it looks quick and painless too.

Please don't get me wrong, the boys should be proud of themselves, they've put in the hard work and that is fantastic.... but will they keep it up now they don't strictly have to?

NyimaR

I really liked the Hairy dieters series and have bought the book. I suspect that they were on such low calories as they were working on a quick loss in a short time limit and were both very high in body fat. Will it be sustainable at this rate? No. But it might just be that the psychological impact of having lost weight this way may be of benefit to them
And they've focussed on making changes to their cooking that makes that more sustainable - showing how to adapt recipes and not have to feel that you're going without.
More importantly I think it's great to finally have some male role models for weight loss on TV. Real guys who you could be chatting with down the pub and are making dieting more socially acceptable for men. It had, for example, finally got my boyfriend (and me) off our *kitten* trying to loose weight in a sustainable way.

deksgrl

Never seen the show, but people who have a lot of weight to lose can go on a low calorie diet for a time, but it is not recommended long term.

WendyFlynn

"More importantly I think it's great to finally have some male role models for weight loss on TV. Real guys who you could be chatting with down the pub and are making dieting more socially acceptable for men. It had, for example, finally got my boyfriend (and me) off our *kitten* trying to loose weight in a sustainable way."
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This really stood out as a positive to me too, when the 4 men were all sat around (having a picnic?), talking about calories, had me in stitches. If, like yourself and your boyfriend, they have made people talk more and understand what is actually going into the food they eat, then they have earned their fee in my opinion (slightly embarrassed at my post now lol).

Wow, the wonders of the web, it makes you think about things from a different perspective that's for sure!

been285

my doc suggested 1200 to me @ 5'10" 285

WendyFlynn

And what has MFP suggested?

TheRealParisLove

It is probably a good rule of thumb not to use any diet or exercise advice based on a reality tv show. If what you are doing is working for you, keep doing it. If you hit a plateau, that is time to change things up to get back on track again.

sarahcuddle

I've looked at Prof Roy Taylor's information on the web and he's a diabetes expert. There is some evidence that very low calorie diets over a specific time frame can remove people from the risk of diabetes or even make a diabetic be not diabetic any more. The boys were asked to lose 2.5 stone. I'm guessing that they can probably afford to lose even more than that. I have about 3 stone to lose and have hit a plateau eating around 1500 calories/ day. Even before that my weight loss was pretty slow, at less than 1lb a week. I have bought their book for some inspiration and plan to stick to 1200-1300 a day for the next three months or so and see if it works for me.

WaterBunnie

My doctor said that as long as you don't drop below 1000 a day you'll still be getting all the nutrients you need if it's well balanced. I don't think this is great advice to be giving to people of my size who are facing a good 2 years of dieting. This site is working well for me so why do it the harder way and risk giving up through struggling with hunger and weakness?

I guess the Hairy Bikers are pretty sedentary between filming sessions, they would have to be to survive on 1200 a day. My b/f uses this site and is a similar starting weight to them but gets the same as I do 1650 per day.

Are the recipes any good? Worth buying the book? The Book People have it at a really good price at the moment.

NyimaR

I forgot to say earlier - the masala chicken is awesome and the meat and potatoe pies are to die for (less impressed by the lasagne). Recipes are both at www.bbc.co.uk/hairydieters if you want to try without forking out for the book!

sarahcuddle

Tonight I cooked a The Spanish Style Chicken Bake out of the book which was really yummy, all the family liked it and it was only 370cals per portion

theinsanityofme

my doc suggested 1200 to me @ 5'10" 285

I'm so pleased to hear that. I'm just shorter then you, and weigh 285. MFP wanted to put me on 1700cal/day, but I thought this was too much, so have put myself on 1200. Glad I'm not too far off then.

MessyLittlePanda

I thought this was crackers to be honest. Of course, they'll lose weight doing 12-1300 cals a day, they are probably netting less than that if they are doing exercise as well. But it's a crash diet, it's not a diet you could keep up for the rest of your life. What are they gonna do once the weight is gone? Up the calories and put it back on probably. Because your metabolism slows down.

Not saying 1200 cals isn't right for anyone, but actually the bracket of people that it is right for is fairly small. Diabetics, people with thyroid issues, the immobile, when you can't exercise or don't want to exercise, or if you have PCOS. But for the majority it's too low and not sustainable in the longer term. If your goal is drop weight fast, like they're doing (cos it makes good TV) then fine, but there could be a whole load of issues in the longer term keeping it off and becoming a yo-yo dieter.

SairahRose

I believe they were following the rules that restricting calories to the minimum is fine for the short term - which is what they did in order to significantly reduce the risks of the diseases they were likely to get. After the 3 months was up, they've lost the weight.. but they'll have hit the plateau, and will have to increase the calories by a couple of hundred every month to keep up the losses until they reach their ideal.

I actually don't see anything wrong with this at all. Although I am assuming that post-programme that's what they'll be doing. If you stick to a 1200 and it works, good for you, if you have to eat more for that to work, that's just as great.

SairahRose

I always cook my take-outs like that.. although I just use soy sauce and pineapple juice for the sweet and sour - I don't NEED it to be a pink sauce for it to taste good :P

chestnutbrown

I totally agree that it's great to see some male role models for weight loss and the "Hairies" do it in such an engaging and humorous way that it's bound to make people feel more comfortable about trying it. I just worry that if they're encouraging people to embark on very low calorie diets that are focussed on short term high weight loss but aren't meant to be sustained, but don't actually explain that, they could be setting people up for disappointment. If I hear anything back from Prof. Taylor, I'll post it on here.

There are about 14 of the Hairies' recipes on the bbc website - if you search on "Hairy Bikers" all their recipes come up and the Dieter ones are labelled as Hairy Dieter recipes. I've tried quite a few of them so far and have been really impressed. The only change I made was the cheese sauce for the lasagne - they used milk and cornflour - I used a recipe I found on the internet which is essentially pureed onion and garlic with mustard, a little cayenne, small amount of strong cheese and some low fat greek yogurt. Don't know how it compares calorie wise with the Hairies sauce, but it's delicious! The onions give it good body and a lovely sweetness that complements the cheese and indeed the lasagne!

NyimaR

The white sauce was what I found let down the HD's recipe, so I'll give your method a shot next time!
The programme was very keen to show them visiting doctors and at one stage when their weightloss doctor suggested that their blood pressure had reduced there was a real emphasis placed on seeing their GP first, which I thought was great. So I think that might have mitigated some of the effect of the "if they do 1200, I'll do 1200". But then I'm not sure that if people went to their GPs, how many would recieve accurate advice on healthy sustainable weightloss - GPs have a hell of a lot of other stuff to remember after all!

chestnutbrown

I don't think most GPs are at all up on helping people with weight loss or even really know much about the ins and outs of it. Granted they are generalists with a lot of other stuff to do, as you say NyimaR, but given how much most of them bang on about losing weight (I get told to lose weight every time I go, no matter what I go for!), they're not actually that great at helping their patients to lose it! Too busy or not enough budget maybe - who knows?

I asked my GP for help losing weight, all they could offer me was a discount on Tesco Diets or regular visits to the nurse to be weighed! No nutritional advice, no advice on calculating calorie intake and no access to any kind of counselling (I asked for weight loss counselling as my main problem is emotional eating - they couldn't offer me anything!).

It seems like the Government and the nhs spend a lot of time talking about the fact that there's an obesity crisis, but don't seem to have the time/money to help people get it sorted (at least not at the less extreme end of the scale - I was told that my bmi was too low to qualify me for gastric band surgery - even though I hadn't actually asked for that in the first place!!! I just wanted some help to lose the weight myself without resorting to surgery!).

I'm ranting now, so will shut up!

chestnutbrown

Here's the link to the cheese sauce recipe - it's a Mac N Cheese recipe, but I just used the sauce part!

http://doubletroublekitchenedition.blogspot.com/2012/01/mac-and-cheese-lite.html

lynz4589

I watched the show and loved it, infact Im going out at lunch to get their book (always looking new ideas for meals and theirs were spot on!) Its also got me really interested in analising whats in my food and finding ways of making it better!

As for their cals, I was reccommended to start at 1200 for the first few months to kick start everything and it worked for me, Im now up to 1300 but providing you are wise with what you cook its fairly easy goal to stick to I think, Ive so far being doing this for about a year (had to take a break in routine due to knee injury) and even now you find even more ways to cut out cals without feeling deprived of anything!

AnneC77

I am so glad that I saw this cause I literally just asked my friends. 1200 cals a day seems really low and so now I am wondering if I should put my cals to 1200, instead of the 1600 MFP says. Help!


Oh I love The Hairy Bikers and their book is awesome! Spanish Chicken = OMG! Have tried a few of their recipes and no complaints yet!

As for the comment about doing this for money, mmm maybe but so what. If they help people to get up and look at themselves, then it is all worth it. From what I heard, they wanted to lose weight and were then approached to do this. I guess noone will ever know for sure but like I said, does it really matter?

bluefox9er

I'm guessing that this harsh calorie allowance was for rapid and quick weight loss for the sake of time, as this is a TV show and they need to show results fast.

I would be absolutely STUNNED if either of these 2 remotely maintain the weight they lose.

juncture

I enjoyed the series but yes I was thinking that the 1200 calories a day was very low, however you have to remember that they were under medical supervision (they saw a doctor and a dietitian amongst possibly other medical professionals) which most of us aren't.


I haven't got round to checking out their recipes but will have to give them a try sometime

kazhowe

bump

SairahRose

I'd seriously start at 1200 until you plateau, or don't see any losses. Then up the cals by 100/150 a week until you see the results that work for you.. until the next plateau.
If you end up still losing on 2100.. then good for you

Lionidle

I bought the book yesterday after watching the show. The show inspired me, especially the need for exercise.

Lionidle

Also going to stick with MFP recommendations for a few weeks and then try the 1200 calorie option. I did the Cambridge diet before and was on 500 calories a day and although i starved quite a bit i did end up losing 3 stone.aaaaaaand put it back on again.

NyimaR

Also going to stick with MFP recommendations for a few weeks and then try the 1200 calorie option. I did the Cambridge diet before and was on 500 calories a day and although i starved quite a bit i did end up losing 3 stone.aaaaaaand put it back on again.

If the MFP reccomendations are working for you over the next few weeks I'd suggest sticking with them rather than dropping them any lower. If it ain't broke...

chestnutbrown

"I'd seriously start at 1200 until you plateau, or don't see any losses. Then up the cals by 100/150 a week until you see the results that work for you.. until the next plateau.
If you end up still losing on 2100.. then good for you "


Thanks SairahRose, I might try it, but I think I'd struggle to stick to it. When I first joined MFP, I used their recommendations which put my goal at about 1400 cals per day and I really struggled with that one!

I am cutting down my portion sizes and working hard on making everything low fat, but it's hard, I get so hungry! Plus emotional/boredom eating (Paul McKenna I can make you thin is helping with that though) I eat pretty healthily (always room for improvement though!), so I guess I just need to gradually make the amounts smaller and smaller (how depressing - I love food!). Ho hum, no pain no gain!

I'm losing about 1lb a week at the moment as long as I stick to it fairly well, so maybe I could speed that up a bit with a few more improvements. I don't do much exercise at present and am restricted with what I can do due to an ankle injury, but I'm looking at ways to improve that too!

MrsSWW

I've watched the series and bought the book... and am working my way through the recipes, which sound and so far taste really good.

1200 does sound rather low for men of their size, but they were doing it with advice from professionals who had assessed them individually, rather than MFP which offers generic weight loss advice. There was a great emphasis on the health aspect of weight loss (both mental and physical) as well as the balance of the meals, such as bulking recipes up with veg rather than eating too many carbs. If you have the opportunity to see either your GP, or preferably nutritionist, I'm sure they'll happily advise you on the numbers you need on a daily basis.

As for the effect on other family members, I made the masala chicken and MrWW promptly read the book - and that's something that would NEVER have happened with a 'diet' book before. Gets a thumbs up from me