First of all, I’m interested to hear people’s opinions and comments on this so read and post away.
I think the show is interesting, but just like anything else on TV, it is overly dramatic. Not to mention the fact that some people lose a significant amount of weight in a week and are disappointed. The last one I saw, a guy lost 4 lbs that week and got booted off and was incredible dejected. Probably not sending the right message.
I’m also incredibly skeptical of these people’s weight loss. Some are losing 15 lbs. a week. The guy that lost 4 lbs. would have to have created a calorie deficit of 14,000 calories (3500 in 1 pound of fat). That is 14,000 in deficit of what he was already eating. The guy who lost 15 would had to have created a deficit of 52,500 calories. Let’s assume that they are working on a 7 day week and so we divide that number by 7 and he would need a 7500 calorie deficit to lost that much. Considering the average person needs somewhere between 2000-3000 cals/day, there is no way he could have been in deficit that much. He should probably be eating that many calories over TWO days. There’s no way he could cut back that much. He would be in negative calorie territory.
So I suspect that something is being fudged here or that they maybe losing that much weight, but that it is not coming from fat tissue. I fear it may come from lean tissue, specifically muscle tissue, which will lower their metabolisms as a result and they may be worse off than if they had done nothing at all by the end of the show. This is the classic problem with yo-yo dieting. It is terribly hard to keep it off and they usually gain it back plus some because their metabolism is lower than before. The human body can only metabolize a few OUNCES of pure fat per day. Everything on the show is based on weight and no effort is made at other simple tests that would be more indicative of good progress.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not downplaying their effort (it’s a lot of it) or success, but losing 4 lbs. in a week is a lot from my experience and education and yet, people watching may get the wrong idea that that is a total failure of an effort when, in fact, if it is all fat, is a HUGE success. Could there be a better way? Like I said a minute ago, it is a lot of effort and I think they are just beating them into the ground with endless activity to try to get weight off them. There is a new article in the latest Women’s Health (No, I don’t read it, a client pointed it out) talking about people working with unqualified trainers and a woman actually dying from a single bout because of Rhabdomyolysis. You muscle tissue will break down the proteins will damage your kidneys and you can die. This just happened to a Navy service member and, although he didn’t die, he was disabled, possibly permanently, and he is suing the popular exercise program called CROSSFIT. These are unlikely, but real threats to a person’s health and it would be ironic to be pushed into that while trying to do something supposedly healthful for you.
Do you think the trainers overwork the participants on the show?
Do you think they are losing more than just body fat?
Do you think it could potentially be dangerous?
Post your comments and let us know your thoughts.
First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, I need to say that I’ve never watched an entire episode of the Biggest Loser. I’ve only seen bits of it and know the premise of the show. From what I understand people lose weight very quickly (which I would think is a health risk) and under circumstances that aren’t realistic. Also, does the show deal with the bigger picture of dieting and weight/food issues? I’m a therapist and I see a lot of people in my practice that have issues with weight/food/body image/disordered eating. And what I’ve come to realize is that if someone is struggling with these issues, utlimately it’s not about food, dieting, etc. It’s about the reasons that they use food and dieting the way that they do. I’ve found this to be true of every client that I’ve worked with about these types of issues. Obsessing about food and weight is a coping strategy to avoid dealing with things that are going on in their life. And it’s almost always a coping strategy that has been with the person for most of their life so ulimately, what they’re trying to avoid is things from their past. It’s often a coping strategy that works well when we’re a child–it gives us a way to not deal with the reality of what’s happening. The problem is, we take those coping strategies into adulthood and they get in the way of us leading healthy lives. So usually what I find with my clients is that the way to deal with the eating issues is to deal with the things in their lives they’ve avoided or hidden from. And by doing that we’re taking care of the food issues because eventually they’ll no longer need that coping strategy. That’s not to say that a focus on food and weight, eating in healthy ways, etc. aren’t a part of the work, they are–but in my opinion they’re only part of the work not the focus of the work. So I suppose the ideal scenario would be to deal with the things from your story along with consulting with nutritionists and folks like Chris and his team. Does the process of the Biggest Loser lay the foundation for folks to deal with these deeper issues so that the truly can experience freedom in this area of their lives? A loss of pounds doesn’t necessarily lead to that freedom.
Yes, Beth and I have talked fairly in depth about this before. I think on the show they see and recognize these mental issues, but I don’t think they are addressed thoroughly. Great response, Beth!