Biggest Loser: How on earth do they do it?

They're on very strict diets and work out in the gym for HOURS each day.

They have doctors on the ranch I believe and also are eating a very strict and more than likely healthy diet. Considering how they ate and exercised before I totally believe it. And all that water.. and I've heard they work out for 8 hours a day.

They work out for 4-6 hours a DAY of high intensity workouts. They are on a very calorie restricted diet. They go against doctors orders, and the trainers still push them. And they dehydrate themselves before weigh ins. You can read articles on former contestants explaining just exactly HOW they lost weight. It's not something I'd wanna do

The more weight you have to lose, the quicker it comes off at first, especially when you're on a strict diet/exercise program like they are (monitored 24/7).
The thing is, it's not really that healthy, since they're pushing their body's to limits and once they've lost the weight they have a lifetime of bad habits to break on their own, they have to try to keep up with a healthier lifestyle or their body's will bounce right back to where they were before, and they have mass amounts of loose skin to contend with.

I don't know about you, but I really do not have the money for cosmetic surgeries, so I'm doing this the old fashioned way: Make a Lifestyle Change, eat healthy, balanced meals several times per day, and exercise at least 6 times per week. I've only lost 20lbs this year, but everyone, including my BIL & Sisters who are all PFT's, think I've lost way more because I've toned and firmed (I can wear mini-skirts again without the cottage cheese hanging off my thighs :laugh: )

Also more than a week passes between episodes. MoRE LIKE 10 - 14 DAYS. iT IS A FACT.

Even for 2 weeks 10 pounds is a lot of weight to lose. This makes me question the 1-2 pound per week suggested weight loss that most experts espouse.

Is it possible a person can lose more than 2 pounds per week safely? I'm talking about after the initial water weight that a dieter typically loses.

A person can lose more than 2 lbs per week; however, not safely. I have lost mass amounts of weight in a very short time before (about 10years ago) and I was not in good shape (I mean health-wise). My eyes were "dead" they didn't shine or sparkle, my skin was bland & sickly looking and my hair was stringy & falling out. Yea, I won't ever go there again!

Even for 2 weeks 10 pounds is a lot of weight to lose. This makes me question the 1-2 pound per week suggested weight loss that most experts espouse.

Is it possible a person can lose more than 2 pounds per week safely? I'm talking about after the initial water weight that a dieter typically loses.

see now i dont see why not, i've only been eating healthy and doing exercise 3 or so times a week max 45 mins a time and have been loosing 3lbs+ a week when i first started i was loosing 5-7lbs per week.

i am definately healthy (more so now)

I've posted this on here before, but I once lost 10 stone (140lbs) in just under six months. I was 'surviving' (it wasn't living) on 600 cals a day and exercising at least 3 hours a day.

I didn't 'educate' myself during this time and I didn't listen to anyone else who thought I was looking worse rather than better, while on some days I was feeling great, on other days I had crippling back pain and felt sick, eventually I got the shakes badly and my flatmate forced me to eat more. Obviously I didn't have any supervision during this time and didn't give myself a foundation for what I did 'after' I reached the weight I was heading for, so it all piled back on.

Later when speaking to a doc I was told I probably had dangerously low blood sugar and was lucky I didn't do permanent damage to my joints or give myself Kidney/liver problems, I literally almost killed myself.

if you watch Biggest loser you'll notice some of the folks there have no end of problems with what they are doing, back and knees being the most obvious. It's really something you shouldn't ever do without a lot of supervision which they have. Plus they have the entire day to focus on diet and exercise, which most normal people don't put in a ranch with nothing to do other than work out and learn about eating right I expect most of us would get similar results.

For comparison, since I'm already pretty down on the scale but still want to lose body fat, I strive for an average of .5 pounds per week. Even if I don't get that, I'm still happy if I lose it the following week.

When I lose more than .5 pound, I usually end up with a loss of energy and lack of desire to workout, in other words, I'm over trained.

We don't have personal trainers one our cases for HOURS, so we do what we can, what we THINK is a good workout. It's like trying to follow a celebrity workout.
Shannon

OMG so true!!! I swear, you don't know how far you can go or what a good work out actually is until you've had a personal trainer on your case! it's one thing I miss is no longer being able to afford a gym membership and personal trainer several times a week!