95lbs lost and 19lbs of muscle gained in 11 weeks

Even the show admitted that this was extraordinary: they said it was a record, implying that even the men don't gain that much muscle. It would be nice to know how long it actually was. We know that they were home for two weeks, but for the rest of the season, we don't know which weeks were longer nor how much longer.

I don't think it was BS, if you look at Danni, she is the poster child for transformation through muscle. That girl is just a freak of nature, in a beautiful, strong, sexy way.

Meanwhile, I am gaining weight doing an extra hour a day on my vacation, while eating at the same level. I don't for a minute believe it is because is I am putting on that much muscle.

I agree with you and I also don't think it was bull. I wish people could distinguish between the game-show aspects and the actual research behind the show. It is an absolutely phenomenal show in regards to weight loss. The actual science that goes into it is rather astonishing as far as moving fat off of morbidly obese individuals without surgeries or gimmicks (you can, after all, only chalk so much up to water loss--these people are getting in incredible shape in a short period of time). Not to mention that Dr. Huizenga does have an interesting history and really did something remarkable with the contestants. He is an actual doctor, researcher, and professor at UCLA. He himself, as others have mentioned, was shocked at the results and I think instead of laughing it away, we should consider what could have contributed to it. And, at the end of the day, in his own books, where he acknowledges the game show sorts of failures at play, he himself only encourages safe caloric restriction (to be determined with one's own doctors) and that the morbidly obese, instead of cycling through dozens of failed diets, instead focus on becoming athletes (which he believes is the only thing that will allow them to keep the weight off and stay away from yo-yo dieting.) In his own clinical work, he has a 75% success rate for his morbidly obese patients keeping the weight off for 3+ years. That beats pretty much every other option out there.

Additionally, the contestants are all scanned with DEXA scans--which do have respectable accuracy. I mean, a decade ago people wouldn't have believed that they could this consistently do a TV show with this kind of weight loss without drugs or surgery. Why not stretch your minds a bit to try to consider what could have happened with the muscle gain? I've heard some people mention water or bone changes (in other threads), but none of that changes the fact that even if it was 50% off and she gained just shy of 10lbs of muscle, that is still an extraordinary achievement.

No one is saying everyone can do this--just like no one is saying 10-20lb a week losses is something to which we should aspire, but...it can still be a game changer just like their fat loss was by inspiring people to try to gain more muscle and to incorporate, when possible and viable, strength training into fat loss. There honestly haven't been nearly enough studies done on morbidly obese people and strength training to qualify you all writing this off so easily. There is far too much that is still unknown.

I, for one, find this incredibly hopeful. In 4lbs I get my next scan and I am even more eager to see the results and--no matter what they are--am inspired to improve upon them. Greater odds have been beaten. If it weren't for shows like this, I never would have--at 340lbs--even considered doing a 5k. Now, having lost 30lbs in 65 days, I've also done a 5k (and one 7k) every week to two weeks. I am more healthy than I have been in years. There is truly something to be said for inspiration.

The DEXA scan is more accurate; that doesn't mean it's 100%. The heavier (well, thicker) you are, the less accurate it is. And like all BF-measurement systems, it's really least accurate when you try to use it to measure body composition change in an individual over time; DEXA is especially likely to overestimate decreases in body fat.

More on DEXA here: http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=260 - it's part of a really good series on all the different methods of estimating BF%.

It must be the Progresso Chicken Pot Pie 100 calorie soup!