</intolerance>

Not sure if any of you watch The Biggest Loser, but it is one of my guilty pleasures. Anyhow, I was watching last weeks show and picked up on their calorie goals.

Apparently, they consume 1900 calories and burn 6000 in a day.

I just thought it was an interesting tidbit.

sinclac

The the Men are 1900 and 8000 the Women are 1200 and 6000 at least that's what it thought i heard.

</intolerance>

I must have heard a combo of the two. Thanks for the correction.

sinclac

As some one who has been counting calories for the last year, when i heard that i about fail over.

I eat 2000 and burn 3000 which = 2lbs a week they must spend every waking hour in the gym.

socalrider

Jillian used to have a radio show here in LA and she said they work out between 4-7 hours per day... Then again you are there 24/7 just to lose weight..

flip18436572

If that is all I had to do, I could lose the weight they are loosing. If I had access to trainers like they have and all of the equipment 24/7 I could do a lot more. But, family and work are something that takes a priority.

Neil_B

That's all they do. And that's the main reason I dislike the program - it implies weight loss is complicated and fat people are victims needing special trainers, interventions, etc. I find the stories on the Clyde/Athena forum much more interesting than The Biggest Loser folks.

JoelS

Agreed!

The other problem with the show/concept is that since they are there just to lose weight, they don't learn how to fit exercise and a good diet into their daily lives. What will happen to them 5 years after the show?

billyymc

Historian, I understand your point, and agree with it to some degree. But I think the program is pretty good from the point of showing that even people with SERIOUS weight problems can get in the gym, can exercise with intensity and surprising endurance. Maybe that has inspired some people who feel they can't, to believe they can. Just like some of the clydes here have inspired people who thought they were too big to ride, to go get a bike and get busy riding.

I hope most people are smart enough to realize that the show participants exercise way more than is possible in "real life" with a job, family, etc. -- and that for most people weight loss will be much more gradual than on the show.

Neil_B

NeilFein knows someone who appeared on the show. Perhaps he can give us an update on the fellow.

RatedZeroHero

yup and if you google them...

almost all with very few exceptions put the weight right back on...

because what they are doing cannot be sustained in real life...

Yahoo just had an article on this...

...

most of em lose the weight anyhow because they did nothing but sit and eat... so even a minor change to their daily routine will cause some weight loss...

I think it was last seasons winner was just drinking energy drinks and slim fast or something for like the last three weeks of the show...

Jynx

I am very curious about this since I watch the show and these people have great success. On the order of 10+ lbs a week.

I hate to state the obvious but how do they get all the contestants to follow this? I mean they must be hungry as hell. I am sure there are days when they can't follow this but I am curious how the food situation is? Can they eat when they want? Or is it like prison settings where they are given meals at certain times and can not eat otherwise. I am also considering cutting my calories much more then I have been (though not this extreme). How are they not passng out from malnutrition?

Neil_B

I think this is comparing apples and oranges with bicycles while assuming the bicycle is a magic weight loss pill. I don't see how having a group of doctors, diateticians, personal trainers, and who knows who else take control of your life for three months teaches the viewer they can take control of their life on their own. In fact, it reinforces "victim" status, which is the last thing a fat person needs to hear. Also, the show isn't about teaching people with serious weight problems they can exercise with intensity.

Comparing the show to the C/A forum fails since C/A isn't about weight loss. If a 500 pounder wants to ride a bike and not lose an ounce that's fine for this forum.

</intolerance>

You can be very full with low calories. You just have to be eating the right kind of food.

Take broccoli for example. A cup of raw broccoli has 30 calories! Now a lot of people don't like the taste of broccoli, neither did I, until I stopped eating all the other processed crap. When I stopped eating the junk, the real food tasted a heck of a lot better.

I really like using broccoli with salsa instead of chips. YUM.

flip18436572

Or you can add a little bit of cheese to some steamed broccoli if you need to add a little bit of different flavor.

billyymc

Your opinion is different than mine. Your takeaway from the show is different than mine as well.

I think there are probably many very heavy people who believe they can't exercise hard enough or long enough to make a differnece in their fitness. I think this show clearly shows them that they can, that it's possible. Whether they will or not, depends on their motivation.

And, I wasn't comparing the show to C&A in regard to weight loss. I was more comparing it in with regard to giving inspiration and motivation that something can be done if a person wants to do it. Take PeterC for instance. He came her wondering if it was even possible for him to ride a bike at his size, with his current medical conditions. Had he not gotten some confirmation and support here in C&A, he might not be buying a bike right now!

</intolerance>

I originally posted this because many people say you can't eat so few calories and burn a lot of calories and still lose weight. They claim your body will go into starvation mode and you won't lose.

While working out 7 hours a day certainly isn't realistic in the real world, keeping your calorie intake low and burning as many calories as you can in the time you have is realistic.

Neil_B

Buying a bike isn't the same as riding it. We've seen more than one poster buy a bike and keep it carefully hanging in their garage. Also, I doubt the comments of anonymous strangers on a message board are a good comparison to being locked up with trainers, therapists, doctors, dieticians, etc, at a boot camp.

snowman40

I thought the point of the show was to get really big people to show them (and everyone at home) that they just have to change their diet and exercise and that it can and will come off.

Not for me, I find myself eating whatever I have in the fridge if I watch it.....

JoelS

I'd really like to see a version of the show that lets people incorporate the weight loss through diet changes and exercise into their normal everyday lives. Sure, it'll take a lot longer, but it could all be filmed a year in advance and cut up into a regular season.

I think this approach would be much more beneficial for the viewer at home as it shows that you can do it mixed in with your life as opposed to in this special situation.

lambo_vt

At a point this becomes true. When someone very overweight first starts, he can run a surprising deficit and lose a significant amount of weight. As you get down to where you're talking about a 200 lb, 20% bodyfat man trying to reach 185, that's not as easy, and "starvation" diets won't do much good.

Running a significant calorie deficit for an extended period is also a really good way to end up "skinny fat" with poor muscle tone.

superdex

[someone who's watched the show for a few seasons] the core lesson is that they can include daily exercise and good meal choices into their lives.

and they talk over and over and over again that it's not complicated. Exercise daily. Eat right. Period. what's complicated in that?

oh, I also understand they train with the trainers only an hour a day, the rest is up to them....

superdex

Between the last day on The Ranch and the finale is six-eight weeks at home, on their own. If they didn't learn anything, it shows....

superdex

have you actually watched the show? More than ten-minutes worth?

MikeM21

Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing. I don't think everyone replying to this thread has a good grasp of what Biggest Loser is all about.

I personally watch it every week and find it both inspirational and entertaining. Nutritionally educational too, though they could do a better job at this. I was a nutrition science major and I'd like to have them explain the science a little more thouroughly and accurately, but overall I love the show. Never do they portray that what they are doing is "complicated" or magical in some way. Quite the opposite. They show that for anyone willing to make the changes and do the work, that a healthy lifestyle is possible.

OP, the numbers they throw out for calories burnt in a day include the contestants basal metabolic rate - BMR (I'm assuming here, but that's what most plans are based on). BMR is different for everyone and can change. If your BMR is normally at, say 3000 kcal per day, if you suddenly start an intense exercise program your body will switch to what some call survival mode and your BMR will go waaay down. This obviously slows weight loss as the fewer calories are burned per day. I think a lot of us have experienced this effect personally.

Once your body adapts to the exercise regimen BMR will tend to increase towards your "normal" number again and if you maintain the exercise intensity you can get back to dropping serious poundage.

So in summary class; while weight loss boils down to simple math - calories in vs. calories burnt, the science behind the numbers is complex and varies from person to person. And Biggest Loser is my favorite show