Buy Walking VideosDiet Book Review: The Biggest Loser
I wanted to hate The Biggest Loser. The first few episodes that I watched just made me mad at the show and the sponsors because I was under the impression that this television show was created to make fun of fat people. The more I watched it, however, the more I realized that NBC is trying to create a show that proves that dramatic weight loss can be attained through only diet and exercise. No plastic surgery or diet pills, just inexpensive food and lots of movement.
The problem with a simple program like healthy eating and lots of exercise is that you can map it out in about ten pages. What do you do with the rest of the book?
The Biggest Loser is the companion book to the television show. If you want to lose weight like the contestants did on television, the program is all mapped out for you here. How many calories you should eat and which exercises you should do. It’s a total of 184 pages, which is mostly inspirational talk and glossy before and after pictures of the contestants of the two seasons of the Biggest Loser.
What’s good about this book:
I really like the diet plan. It’s a little low on the calories, but if you want to lose weight as dramatically as the contestants did on the show, that’s how low you’ll have to go. The exercises are demonstrated with big pictures explaining the movement in detail. I love Chapter 5: Winning Strategies. It’s a whole chapter of encouraging words and ideas formatted in a visually appealing manner. I would have loved Chapter 5 to be on a poster that I could hang on my wall instead of in the book. It’s that inspiring and packed full of ideas.
What’s not so good about the book:
Chapter 2: Getting Started concentrates on your motivation for losing weight. That is a really important factor in weight loss. Most people don’t succeed unless they have a clear motivation and goal in mind. They start the chapter off with scare tactics, though, mentioning all the diseases that being overweight aggravates. They are very clear to say that excess weight is ASSOCIATED with these diseases instead of saying that it causes them, but still I was disappointed that they started off with the scare tactics.
They were very good about clarifying that you shouldn’t put your life on hold until you lose weight. If your goal is to have better relationships, that involves a lot more than slimming down. Their advice:
“Becoming socially more active or improving intimacy with your spouse should not be delayed until your goal weight is reached. Work on these things now.”
Should I buy this book?
There is nothing here that you won’t find on the Internet. If you are looking for a diet plan, there are enough out there for free. If you were inspired by the television show, however, this book will be a way to keep up the inspiration between seasons. With lots of before and after pictures and scenes from the challenges on the show, it’s very motivating and could be a good addition to your bookshelf.
Previous: Diet Book Review: The Flavor Point Diet
Next: Diet Book Review: Winning By Losing
March 7th, 2006 at 6:47 am
It’s kind of ironic that the book says, “They were very good about clarifying that you shouldn’t put your life on hold until you lose weight,” when the whole show is based on people going off to live on a ranch away from their normal life for 6 weeks.
As I’ve always said, if I had nothing else to do than work out for hours every day, and concentrate on eating right, I’d be at the perfect weight for my height too!
March 7th, 2006 at 8:55 am
I am at my perfect weight for my height. How did I get there, by putting my life on hold with the help of my family and working out for 1-2 hours everyday afterwork. It was hard on all of us for over a year but I went from a size 28 to a size 10. It was important for me to work out everyday for the amount of weight that I needed to lose because I didn’t want the sagging skin effect that comes after losing a great deal of weight which would then be just another problem to deal with. Eating right was not my first issue. Working out everyday was my goal (I started out only being able to walk for 7 mins and worked upto 2 hours of exercising in the gym). I now love working out 3-5 days a week (walking, jogging, biking, treadmill) and can’t wait to jog again this summer out doors with the sun making love to my skin. Social skills, I didn’t have them before I lost the weight, so I don’t have them now but it is easier because sad to say that people approach me now at a smaller size for conversation. “You shouldn’t put your life on hold until you finish losing weight” I learned this years ago but still find myself at times wanting to put my life on hold to lose five pounds that I gain on and off. Last, I found that losing the weight was the easy part but my thoughts on food, bingeing, comfort support food, etc. is something I may have to deal with for the rest of my life. Best of Luck.
February 29th, 2008 at 9:47 am
While I love the thought of being able to put my life on hold to lose weight and get fit, in reality if taking that kind of time for myself was possible (or likely) I wouldn’t have gained weight in the first place!