The Biggest Loser vs Starvation Mode

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  • laird20k
    laird20k Posts: 96 Member
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    This topic may be eventually be beaten to death by MFP!! haha

    In regards to the Biggest Loser contestants, they are in starvation mode but they can still lose weight because their calorie deficit is so large. They are monitored my physicians and its kind of important that they are in starvation mode for tv purposes. Most people cant lose weight in starvation mode because its not extreme enough. (I don't encouraging starving yourself ever!) If you couldnt lose weight in starvation mode. then anorexic's wouldnt be 70lb! So yes starvation mode does work, you can lose weight but its not healthy at all. And you wouldnt tone anything!! No one wants to be skinny but weak and unhealthy!!
  • DjBliss05
    DjBliss05 Posts: 682
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    This topic may be eventually be beaten to death my MFP!! haha

    In regards to the Biggest Loser contestants, they are in starvation mode but they can still lose weight because their calorie deficit is so large. They are monitored my physicians and its kind of important that they are in starvation mode for tv purposes. Most people cant lose weight in starvation mode because its not extreme enough. (I don't encouraging starving yourself ever!) If you couldnt lose weight in starvation mode anorexic's wouldnt be 70lb! So yes starvation mode does work, you can lose weight but its not healthy at all. And you wouldnt tone anything!! No one wants to be skinny but weak and unhealthy!!

    Exactly! Your body works to hold onto weight when it is in starvation mode, but your body just can't compete with a 5000 calorie deficit. Do it the healthy way and eat your exercise calories! Or don't, but if it doesnt work then you will know why!
  • mrsyac2
    mrsyac2 Posts: 2,784 Member
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    But they aren't eating the exercise calories. That's my point. :)

    before MFP I never heard of eating exercise calories- when I first came to MFP back in May I ate my calories I burned and didn't lose weight now other people eat there calories and lose-- too each is own- They are under the advice of doctors and nutritionist as well as personal trainers who have been doing this for years-- I figure I have my 500 calorie deficit plus the additional deficit I use from my workouts I don't eat mine either I rather just eat the recommended for the day which is just my 500 deficit--
  • Fitness_Chick
    Fitness_Chick Posts: 6,648 Member
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    This topic may be eventually be beaten to death by MFP!! haha

    In regards to the Biggest Loser contestants, they are in starvation mode but they can still lose weight because their calorie deficit is so large. They are monitored my physicians and its kind of important that they are in starvation mode for tv purposes. Most people cant lose weight in starvation mode because its not extreme enough. (I don't encouraging starving yourself ever!) If you couldnt lose weight in starvation mode. then anorexic's wouldnt be 70lb! So yes starvation mode does work, you can lose weight but its not healthy at all. And you wouldnt tone anything!! No one wants to be skinny but weak and unhealthy!!
    :drinker: great points!

    A person that is in extreme anorexic mode looks far from healthy....their bones are weakened and thin, their heart muscle is being eaten away etc. etc.....so sad.

    I do hope many read and reread these links that are posted fairly often so we can realize starving our body to lose lbs. fast is NOT what will make our bodies happy with in the end. Our bodies are very smart...we may be able to fool them for a bit but really I think we're only fooling ourselves... paybacks are a Beeachhh!:huh: :grumble: :noway: :sick: :flowerforyou:
  • monica5237
    monica5237 Posts: 450
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    I found this article::::

    So how is Ryan Benson doing these days?



    A recent article in Time magazine checked in with some of the former “Biggest Loser” winners, including Benson who has gained back roughly 90 pounds after the show was over.

    He claims that as soon as the show was over, he regained “32 pounds in 5 days simply by drinking water.” This is incredible and points to the fact that when any person loses weight rapidly, (faster than 1-2 pounds a week) normally the weight loss is mostly due to water loss.

    The participants of the show are exercising with a trainer between 4-5 hours a day, thus creating a dramatic loss of water. This is combined with 24 hour television coverage of each of the participants, which discourages any “cheating” on the ultra strict diets
  • stephiepoo
    stephiepoo Posts: 81
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    I wanted to win so bad that the last ten days before the final weigh-in I didn’t eat one piece of solid food! If you’ve heard of “The Master Cleanse” that’s what I did. Its basically drinking lemonade made with water, fresh squeezed lemon juice, pure maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. The rules of the show said we couldn’t use any weight-loss drugs, well I didn’t take any drugs, I just starved myself! Twenty-four hours before the final weigh-in I stopped putting ANYTHING in my body, liquid or solid, then I started using some old high school wrestling tricks. I wore a rubber suit while jogging on the treadmill, and then spent a lot of time in the steam room. In the final 24 hours I probably dropped 10-13 lbs in just pure water weight. By the time of the final weigh-in I was peeing blood.”

    Wow that's scary and sickening. I am glad I am doing it the healthy way. :indifferent:
  • NewMK08
    NewMK08 Posts: 399 Member
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    What about the Biggest Loser from last year, Ali? She still looks AMAZING, and it's been...what? 6 months since the show ended?? She's obviously doing something right. She hasn't gained any weight back.
  • songbyrdsweet
    songbyrdsweet Posts: 5,691 Member
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    The biggest problem here is the word BMR. It's been horribly mistreated, so let's rectify that. :wink:

    BMR, or Basal Metabolic Rate, is the number of calories you would burn in a coma. That means no thinking, no sitting, no digesting, just lying unconscious. It is enough to produce sufficient ATP (energy in the body) to prevent organ failure.

    TDEE, or Total Daily Energy Expenditure, is the number of calories you burn while not in a coma. It includes waking up, walking around, going to work, eating, digesting, talking, cooking, etc. It ALSO INCLUDES EXERCISE.

    So, when MFP asks for your activity level, they are multiplying your estimate BMR by and activity factor and producing your TDEE, NOT YOUR BMR.

    For instance:
    My BMR is 1,265.
    My TDEE without exercise is 1,700 calories.
    My TDEE with exercise is 2,300 calories.
    I eat 1700-1800 calories. That is less than my TDEE, but NOT less than my BMR.

    MFP just needs to change the terminology so we can end this confusion.

    The BL folks are so heavy that they have very high BMR's. With the exercise added, their TDEE's can reach incredible levels. When your TDEE is 6,000 calories, you can eat 2,000 and lose a lb a day. The rest is water weight.
  • Anna_Banana
    Anna_Banana Posts: 2,939 Member
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    No, no, no, you've got it confused. The exercise calories don't count as food you eat. Your base calories do. The reason this site self-adjusts to add your exercise calories as base calories is to keep you at the level of weight-loss that you told it you want. If you want to lose more, don't eat your exercise calories. I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but when you eat 1200 calories, whether or not you work some of it off, the information about eating dangerously low levels of calories on your home page goes away.

    The only reason that it goes away is because you are over 1200 calories. It has nothing to do with anything else. Just because the warning doesn' t pop up, doesn't mean that it is okay.

    You should eat your exercise calories or at least a large portion of them. If your body is receiving (calories you ate - exercise calories) less than 1200 calories a day you do risk a danger of starvation mode. Now this doesn't happen if you do it one or two days, but over a continued time.

    Now about the Biggest Loser People. Refer to what Song said.
  • ChubbyBunny
    ChubbyBunny Posts: 3,523 Member
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    I think the big question is how willing are people to live the lives created from this show.
    As mentioned Ali is still in shape, but she is also probably pretty determined to stay that way. Last I knew, she didn't have kids....so LATER her ability to maintain the regimine may change.
    Same goes for all the others. It's the determination to keep it up.

    I personally, would never be willing to live that life. Even if it meant losing my weight quickly. Let's face it... I am not heavy enough to be kept around long enough to lose it. I'd be voted off the first day.

    Also, I am sorry but I disagree about the media not having an impact on the way people think and act. The lines between reality and fantasy have been blurred for decades. It doesn't matter if it's smart or not, it happens. I teach kids who's reality IS what the media puts out because they aren't living in the first place. Meaning, my students live for tv, movies, games, magazines, ads, etc... they LIVE for it.... What they read, see, hear...they filter into their lives.

    Sorry for my rant as well, but the door swings both ways. It's not just a cop out to realize the power media can play in peoples lives and that it is manipulated for positive and negative uses.
  • kerrilucko
    kerrilucko Posts: 3,852 Member
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    I tried to get our own WL to pitch a show about people losing weight the healthy way and all the trails we go through to do this. I would much rather watch someone at a plateau figuring out how to break it or someone that has to go out to eat every meal while on a business trip, than a bunch of people in a fake setting with someone that feeds them and exercises them like work horses.

    That said, I do find myself drawn into the show.

    There are 2 Canadian shows on Television similar to this! On 1 a personal trainer takes on someone, they set a reasonable goal and have weighins over a 6 month period. it's called X-Weighted for anyone interested, they play it on a few stations... Slice and BBC I think. The other one is called Taking it off and it follows a group of 8 people from across the couontry trying to lose weight in their daily lives. It's also on Slice.
  • shorerider
    shorerider Posts: 3,817 Member
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    Also, I am sorry but I disagree about the media not having an impact on the way people think and act. The lines between reality and fantasy have been blurred for decades. It doesn't matter if it's smart or not, it happens. I teach kids who's reality IS what the media puts out because they aren't living in the first place. Meaning, my students live for tv, movies, games, magazines, ads, etc... they LIVE for it.... What they read, see, hear...they filter into their lives.

    Sorry for my rant as well, but the door swings both ways. It's not just a cop out to realize the power media can play in peoples lives and that it is manipulated for positive and negative uses.

    The media has a HUGE impact in this society--if that wasn't the case, then kids wouldn't recognize Ronald McDonald more than any other figure; women's self-image issues wouldn't exist; and people wouldn't be flocking onto sites like this wanting to know why they can't lose 10 pounds a week like "they saw on TV."

    I agree--the media has a very scary influence in our world.
  • PSUgrl921
    PSUgrl921 Posts: 368 Member
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    I didn't make it through all the posts but I have to weigh in at least a little bit on this. First of all, they are under the supervision of doctors, trainers, nutritionists, etc. Therefore, even though they may not be getting all the calories they need they are getting all the NUTRIENTS they need. I would think that if you can do this you should be ok, because it takes fat to burn fat, as well as many other cofactors and coenzymes. So, if you have someone telling you what to eat, or you know how to get all your vitamins, minerals, etc. I feel like you can go a little bit under in your calories. However, 1200 is low to start with so they might tell you to eat a little more.
  • shorerider
    shorerider Posts: 3,817 Member
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    You need to read the previous posts--they are not closely supervised and at least two of the former contestants admitted to eating and/or drinking nothing for days. Obviously, that is not getting the proper nutrients. It would not be no where near as popular a show if they lost 1 or 2 pounds a week, despite that being a healthy rate of loss.

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