Buy Walking VideosThe Biggest Loser: That’s it?!
This week on the Biggest Loser, Mark decided to take it up a notch. He had two weeks of big losses in a row and he was feeling ready to give it his all, so he added an extra hour of exercise a day to his routine. This is in addition to the four hours a day that the rest of his team is doing. He asked his trainer, Jillian, if she was proud of him because he was willing to do five hours a day. She was more worried about him than proud. She was worried that his body might go into shock, slowing his progress instead of speeding it up.
When he got on the scale at the end of the week, he showed a four pound loss. You could see the disappointment on his face. “Four pounds, that’s it?!” After losing seventeen pounds two weeks ago and ten pounds the previous week, he was crushed at losing four pounds.
…insert record scratch noise here…
Four pounds in a week is a FANTASTIC loss, especially since he had such big losses the previous two weeks. Normal people have an adjustment period after losing so much weight. I have to give snaps to Jillian. She told Mark that if he was going to exercise that much, he needed to eat more to compensate. She must have gotten the balance exactly right for him to still have a loss at the scale.
I am continually amazed at how much weight each of these people are losing. Andrea said it perfectly:
“In the real world, a two pound loss is great, but here it just doesn’t cut it.”
When you watch this show, and find a loss of a half a pound on the scale for yourself, don’t get discouraged. When you find yourself lying in bed, thinking about whether you should get up on time to exercise, remember Mark busting his butt on the treadmill for five hours a day. I think I can get up and do forty minutes.
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October 20th, 2005 at 11:19 am
My biggest problem with Biggest Loser is that it does promote this idea that it isn’t a good week unless you’ve lost 12 pounds. I watched the first couple episodes of the first season, and my first thought at these huge losses was, “It’s got to be mostly water weight. What are they going to do when they plateau, or even have a gain?”
And if I could go off to a beautiful house where I didn’t have to work, and could exercise 4+ hours a day if I wanted, I’d lose a ton of weight too!
October 20th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
How can you possibly lose 17, or even 10, pounds in a week? How obese are these people? Do they have edema, such that they’re losing water?
October 21st, 2005 at 6:17 am
The men are all over 200 pounds, some of them are over 300 pounds. The women are between 180 and a little over 200 pounds. The men are averaging 5-10 pound losses each week and the women are averaging 3-5 pound losses each week.
These amazing losses are because their calorie restriction is 1200-1800 calories a day (yes, even for the men!) and they are exercising four hours a day.
Just remember how dedicated they are when you are thinking about skipping your workout or eating an extra treat.
August 19th, 2006 at 8:29 am
Bottom line is that they will not possibly be able to keep the weight off, if your losing 10+ pounds in a week then you will put it on then some after a few months
October 1st, 2007 at 7:39 pm
I think the show is great! Someone told me about the “X 13 rule!” If you weight 150 pounds, you multiply that times 13. Your body needs 1,950 calories a day to maintain that weight. If you weigh 250 pounds and multiply that by 13, your body needs 3,250 calories a day to maintain the weight. This is why men can eat more than women. Sheer numbers! But this is also what is meant by “life style” change. You won’t be able to eat as much as you did before. A women who wants to weigh 120 pounds can only consume 1,560 calories a day. I wish the show would do more in depth explaining and “teaching” about this type of math than being vague about the “How” these poeple really are doing it. Makes sense to me now . . .