Is that how Biggest Losers do it?

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  • LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo
    LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo Posts: 3,634 Member
    First of all remember that these contestants are morbidly or severely obese & have a lot of weight to lose which is why they can handle large deficits & always coming up with double digit losses every week. However as one gets smaller, it becomes more difficult to lose a big amount of weight & also in handling large deficits.

    Unless you have the similar body size, it isn't wise to compare yourself to them.

    I also agree that they purposely doing some dehydration a day before the weigh in & that isn't healthy at all. The first season winner said it in his myspace blog & he gained almost everything he had lost right after that season.
  • dajero1
    dajero1 Posts: 75 Member
    NOOO don't do this. I did something similar.. on accident. I thought I was eating more than I was. I would lose like 10 pounds, gain 13. And I wasn't changing everything, working out every day. I was obsessive about it. I went and saw a dietician and I was barely breaking 900 calories a day, plus I was burning at least 700 at the gym everyday. I felt super tired and sick all the time. She told me my body was in starvation mode, and it would take at least 2-3 months to get my body back on track and those 2-3 months my body would still turn everything I ate into fat because I tricked my body into thinking I was starving and that it needed to store food. Just don't do it...

    Okay, okay, I won't. Thanks for caring.
  • w8sarge
    w8sarge Posts: 4,101 Member
    I don't think it's a good idea. A lot of us here on MFP have tried all sorts of drastic diets over the years only to put the weight (and more) back on. Don't submit to the tyranny of the scale or think you should be losing several pounds a week.It doesn't work for permanent weight loss, cuz that torture only makes you want to escape it!! After the "diet" has worked you feel like rewarding yourself for all the suffering you endured!! Vicious cycle starts again.

    Try instead to take the long view, making small but steady improvements to your food choices and exercise habits that you can maintain and enjoy for the rest of your life. You'll be healthier and happier, I bet.
  • Kybelle132
    Kybelle132 Posts: 71 Member
    You know what I really HATE this thread.. THEY ARE NOT SEVERELY OBESE!!. Some people are 180 and 240.. Watch the show before you judge it!!

    And the guidelines says in this forum. DO NOT DO WHAT MAGAZINES OR TV SHOWS DO! it is not healthy!!


    Most of them ARE severley obese...I am obese and I only weigh 160 at 5'2...the contestants get larger and larger ebery season....

    And nooo dont net under 1200 cals...your body wont like it very much......which means if you only want to eat 1200 cals a day....dont excercise...your body needs 1200 cals just to fuction not to mention the cals you will burn doing normal day to day things which will put you at a deficet to lose weight.
  • Kybelle132
    Kybelle132 Posts: 71 Member
    They never really mention how many cals the contestants are eating in a day either.....Who knows maybe they are eating enough to sustain those workouts??
  • ajfc1971
    ajfc1971 Posts: 258 Member
    I think if we all had access to a 24 hrs gym, just having to lookafter yourself, only the correct food in the fridge and cupboards this diet sorry heathly lifestyle lark would be a doddle. For all the rest of us it just hard work and persperation.!!!!!

    I need to be locked up in the biggest loser house for a bit lol x
  • grinch031
    grinch031 Posts: 1,679
    They never really mention how many cals the contestants are eating in a day either.....Who knows maybe they are eating enough to sustain those workouts??

    I think they eat between 1200-1600 calories a day, depending on their size. So they are on huge calorie deficits. I would bet since they are working out 16 hours a day, the workouts are not as intense is they make them seem. Nobody could be going at full blast for 6 hours a day for several weeks at a time. Certainly not a couch potato who has only been physically active for a couple weeks.
  • grinch031
    grinch031 Posts: 1,679
    If you are severely obese, I don't think its problematic to be on a huge calorie deficit for rapid fat loss. Its when you start approaching leanness when you need to start thinking about a more long term maintenance plan so that you aren't burning too much muscle mass or being overcome by hunger.
  • dajero1
    dajero1 Posts: 75 Member
    bump
  • Healthy_Melva
    Healthy_Melva Posts: 91 Member
    The people on Biggest Loser are usually severely obese. Those huge weight loss numbers are not just fat loss, it's mostly water weight. It's not healthy to eat 1200 cal/day and burn it off because at that number you are already in a deficit.

    Guess I need to understand the term deficit more. Got some studying to do. Thanks all

    the concept of the built in deficit at 1200 calories a day is that it takes about 1500-2500 for most people's bodies to sustain basic functions (like breathing, heart rate) and then a few hundred extra for just walking around or sitting at a desk. For me, for example, that means that it takes 2300 calories a day just to keep my body at its current weight. I eat at 1650 a day, and exercise as well. This means that i'm at 500+ calories deficit (1 pound a week) in eating, and a little extra in exercise if I do not eat those calories back. Remember - it takes 3500 calories = 1 pound. So, 500 calorie deficit under your BMR (basal metabolic rate)/TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), depending on how you calculate it, will result i 1 pound each week lost. By netting 0 calories a day, you're actually putting your body in a position where it will start cannibalizing itself and eating muscle to maintain function.

    This is really good advice. There are several thread on MFP that discuss whether or not to eat back your exercise calories. It seems that those who eat back 1/2 of their exercise calories lose their desired amount of weight per week, have good stamina, and feel they are changing to a sustainable lifestyle.
  • Eupho
    Eupho Posts: 201 Member
    I was a big fan of one of the series of BL .. Overtime I managed to find and add MOST of that series (the 'Losers') on Facebook.

    and hand on my heart.. almost EVERY one of them is right back where they started when we first 'met' them .. soo soo sad!!

    (and disheartening!)

    As others have already said.. I think we could ALL lose like that.. but the difference is learning.. and knowing how to maintain.. and knowing its an almost constant thing.. not a thing to dive ALL in for 3 mths just to 'get there' .. it IS the staying there isn't it.
  • scmcgee
    scmcgee Posts: 165
    They never really mention how many cals the contestants are eating in a day either.....Who knows maybe they are eating enough to sustain those workouts??

    They don't.....I have a friend who was on The Biggest Loser 3 years ago and she said they would dehydrate themelves prior to weigh-ins. They go into starvation mode, she did not get enough nutrients and lost a lot of her hair and her body was not in a healthy state at the final weigh-in. But they are there to win the money.

    Today, she has kept the weight off and she looks great, but she has maintain the healthy lifestyle and continued to excersise and eat clean. She looks a lot better today than she did at the time of the weigh in 3 years ago with about 15 more pounds on her than at that time.
  • KnittingSoo
    KnittingSoo Posts: 42 Member
    I have no idea what the real stats are on BL contestants who regain weight -- but the reality is that the stats in the 'real world' (right here on MFP, Weight Watchers, Dukan, Atkins....) of people who regain their weight are pretty dismal. Studies/research quote 80 - 90% of dieters regain all or MORE of what they lost. I expect that BL isn't far from that.

    Don't kid yourself that your way of losing (whatever your way might be) guarantees long term success.
  • carld256
    carld256 Posts: 855 Member
    For all the naysaying, I'd still rather be 200 pounds trying to keep the weight off, which, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, I'm sure I could do, than be 500 pounds and looking at 2 or 3 years of diet and exercise to get down to a healthy weight.

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