The Biggest Loser

I wanted to post this because it seems like I'm reading daily about someone being disappointed that they haven't lost as much as the BL contestants.  Think about this.

To lose 5 pounds of stored FAT in a one week period, you need to have expended or reduced your calories by a total of 17,500.  That's about 37 hours of non-stop high impact aerobics for a 35 year old woman who is 5'4" and weighs 150 while she is eating a 1900 calorie a day diet.  So is it reasonable of you to think you can achieve such high fat loss?

When a person goes on a low calorie diet, their metabolism lowers as well because the body gets used to being starved and adjusts to needing less calories.  So when the ideal weight is achieved quickly, and the person starts eating more, the weight comes back because the metabolism has slowed down in order to keep you alive.

When a person goes on a low calorie diet incorporated with exercise - yes, the metabolism will increase initially, but unless more calories are added to replenish the loss of protein from the muscles, the metabolism will do exactly the same thing and the person will plateau until they can reverse the metabolism, which is very difficult at this point.  By the way, protein in the muscle carries about 4 times it's weight in water, thus the term "water weight loss".  If the person was 'lucky' enough to get to their goal, they will also gain the weight back on a normal diet.

So if you think about it, going on a low calorie diet will surely result in gaining back the weight or just plateau-ing out.  Keeping calories low with exercise will have the same effect.  Feeding your body with proper calories and staying active through cardio and weights will assure a slow steady weight loss and you'll keep it off because you will have trained your metabolism to be speedy and functional.

I know that the BL contestants have extreme diets and high levels of exercise but the goal is a speedy loss.  Let's remember, it is a television show with producers making money off ratings.  I still love the show because it motivates me.  But I cannot compare myself because it is impossible and unfair to me and it will result in me failing.

Rain

 

Excellent explaination. 

This should make my talk of deficits more clear to everyone.

My total weight loss:

 

My Challenge Weight Loss

Rain just used those numbers to show what a specific person would have to do to lose like the biggest losers. 

By the BL formula you should be eating about 1600 calories per day.  If you cut too many calories, your metabolism will decrease.

Personally I work with deficits.  I try to get my deficit to between 2 1/2 and 3 pounds a week based on the 3,500 calorie pound.

My total weight loss:

 

My Challenge Weight Loss