Advice from The Biggest Loser trainer is bad?

Well I can try to break this down on the basis of my own personal research and understanding of diet and nutrition:

"I'm not an expert, however, eating big leafy salads such as the Organic Spring Mix from your local grocer is phenomenal. All of your vitamins and nutrients are there. Eat it without dressing or squeeze a lemon or lime over it. Quick and simple. The citrus helps boost metabolism and aides in digestion...the salad will also help you feel full.

Eating things high in fiber will help you feel more full on less calories that much is true, although there are things higher in fiber than lettuce. If you like salad nothing wrong with eating salad but salad is not some magic food for weightloss.

Drink lots of water. Before any meal, drink an entire glass of water.

Agree that staying hydrated is important. The timing doesn't actually matter although I can see a point to spacing it out not trying to drink all your water in one sitting. Coupling it to meal timings might make sense to just keep yourself regular in your intake but not necessary.

Do not eat after 7 pm.

This part is pointless, there is no benefit to not eating after 7pm.

Fill your plate half full of veggies (cooked at home either without butter or eat simply raw) and fist sized portion of fish or chicken.

This is just teaching you portion control and suggesting foods that are low calorie for the amount they will satiate you (lean protein and fiber rich carbs). Nothing wrong with this advice.

Cut out dairy, white junk (white rice, white bread, pasta, sugary cereals, muffins, etc.), soda, alcohol, fast food and all sweets.

This is being suggested because these foods tend to be high calorie relative to how satiating they are. That said there is nothing wrong with them and if you can exercise some basic portion control no reason to cut them completely.

My aunt lost 70 pounds rather quickly by simply eating lean cuisine and drinking only water. She is your size and has the same lifestyle. Walk. Wherever you go, park far and walk. Take the stairs. Stand at your desk when you can - it burns more calories.

I'd agree that getting in some exercise whenever you can even if brief is better than nothing which seems to be all he is saying here.

Do not eat at your desk!

Really where you eat doesn't matter obviously, I'm eating at my desk as I type this. That said I think the idea here is if you eat at your desk you may eat mindlessly and not get the feeling of satiation from an intentional sit-down meal if you just snack. I don't really agree with this though.

Look for and make the opportunity for movement each day, throughout the day!"

Yeah, good advice. Go for a walk now and again. If you have a desk job get up when you can and stroll around the building.

Honestly there is nothing in his advice that will cause you harm if you follow it. I think with the exception of the "don't eat after 7pm" things all these suggestions can help you with a diet even if the reasoning given for them is flawed. The 7pm thing is total B.S. though so ignore that. I'd also ignore the idea that you have to cut out ALL of those "bad" foods he listed, all things in moderation.

While I think some of that advice is absolutely ridiculous, it's not going to harm you, if it is working for you then keep doing it. You don't need approval from the internet.

Thanks for clarification thus far.

Not eating after 7 is somehow controversial and I'm gathering that is simply due to the fact that it is not a realistic long term goal for sustainability.

Here is what Mr. Harper said regarding the thought process on that:

"Go to Bed Hungry
If you skip that midnight snack, your body will “burn fat like crazy,” Harper writes. After five hours without food, you’ll start burning your own fat and sugar."

I had just seen Dr. Oz's episode that mentioned the same scenario - eating small and frequent meals does not allow your body to turn to your fat stores for energy since you're replenishing fuel frequently with the meals or snacks.

Does anyone have thoughts on that as it seemed clear to me?

It is a complete myth, nothing to substantiate it in the literature at all. No study to back this up. Doesn't even make sense. You only have a net fat burn if your body is at a caloric deficit. If you could burn fat simply by not eating for a long period of time regardless of your caloric intake and yet a certain caloric intake was all you needed for nutrition then all the diet guidelines would tell you to eat one meal a day and eat it as fast as you possibly could.

To clarify, the advice I listed is not verbatim and some of it was gathered from other areas - a full glass before meals as well as not eating after 7 was, however.

Not eating "white junk" including diary are things I've read and heard from many when it comes to clean eating for optimum and organic health.

The idea behind eating "clean" is just that if you eat nutrition rich foods you need to eat less calorically to get your nutrition which makes a certain amount of sense for being on a diet. In comparison some of the foods listed (like simple carbs) are generally higher calorie and lower nutrition. That does NOT however mean that you need to avoid them. If you ate perfectly "clean" most likely you would find that you would not be getting enough calories. Seriously try eating nothing but broccoli and chicken breast and see if you can stomach eating enough to hit your goals.

Your calorie goal should be a goal, not something to constantly undershoot, and at somepoint you will need to eat more calorie dense foods to hit it. Why not have that be dairy or bread?

Not eating "white junk" including diary

The number of times you hear something doesn't increase its truth value.

If you cut out dairy, you need to seek alternate sources of calcium and vitamin D or your body will be deficient in those and face the consequences. It's negligent to say "cut out dairy" without pointing to alternate sources of those micronutrients. Most studies show food sources to be superior to fortification/supplements. FYI, it takes four containers of spinach to provide the same amount of calcium in a c up of milk. This isn't so different from going vegetarian--that's doable, but you have to be wary to get adequate protein.

Bob Harper is selling books.......his new Skinny Rules book promotes a very low calorie diet (800 calories for women).

Jillian Micheal's sold weight loss supplements before they got yanked off the shelf...........do I take their advice as gospel? Nope!

They need a gimmick to boost sales......they need to say something "different" to do that.

Instead of following advice from a bunch of different sources and people trying to sell you their books/products, try following this one piece of advice.

1. Log your food.

If you do that you'll know how many calories you're eating and how much protein/fats/carbs you're getting. It's really all you need to do.

+100. I had a cup of milk yesterday from a 2-shot Peet's latte, and I ate a big dinner around 10pm because I was so on-the-go yesterday, and my weight loss is totally on-track.

To clarify, the advice I listed is not verbatim and some of it was gathered from other areas - a full glass before meals as well as not eating after 7 was, however.

Not eating "white junk" including diary are things I've read and heard from many when it comes to clean eating for optimum and organic health.

Instead of following advice from a bunch of different sources and people trying to sell you their books/products, try following this one piece of advice.

1. Log your food.

If you do that you'll know how many calories you're eating and how much protein/fats/carbs you're getting. It's really all you need to do.

The rest, the eating at certain times, don't eat at your desk, avoid foods with this color... that's hokum. The only thing you need to do to be successful is to watch what you eat. Make sure you're getting the right number of calories and hitting your macros.

Throw in some exercise, water, and sleep and you can't lose.

This.

Weight loss and fat loss is as simple as eating less calorically than you expend and finding out where you are at is as simple as accurately logging your intake and calculating your expenditure. That is it....everything else is unnecessary detail giving "hints and tips" for how to achieve that. Fact is you need to just track your calories and macros and find out what works for you for hitting your calorie goal while getting a good balance of macros and all your micros. Everything else is fad designed to sell you something.