The Biggest Loser Book

[Uthinkso]

I was over my parents for fathers day and saw this book sitting there, "The Biggest Loser: Diet and Excercise Plan". I shreiked in terror that quickly broke into curiosity. My mother looked at me and said you look so much better and healthier since christmas (what a compliment), you don't need whats in that book. I told her I would be the judge of that, and took to reading the book.

Three days later I have surfaced from my read. I can tell you that these people are losing weight, that much is for sure. They are also increasing their endurance and cardiovascular system. Their daily caloric requirements are way out to lunch though. At my weight (229lb) they reccomend I eat 1400kcal a day and cut that as I get smaller. At my 200lb goal this diet would have me eating 1100kcal. I have 1500kcal down in four meals before I leave work with two meals yet to go.

Now you ask why post this here, in the place where we all know better. I post this to illustrate my point and say thank you. Back in January I was fat, out of shape and desperate for a solution. I would have bought into this crap hook line and sinker, would have lost the weight and then had rippling 12" pythons to show for my hard work. Don't get me wrong I'm still pudgy but have lost four inches off my waste and thirty pounds. I'm making strides and my muscles are not shrinking with the fat which is what I want. To test their program, this week I have followed it to the letter for four days. I have lost eight pounds in four days. Enough is enough for me, I feel like hell and I'm hungry. Though I binged out the last two weeks, so I figured this was just gettign me back to square one. This diet makes you a thin, frail looking zombie. No good at all in humble opinion.

Needless to say I am taking my mother grocery shopping with me this weekend and have printed her a copy of the food list. I'm not a trainer or a dietician, but I want to see my mother heathy and that Biggest Loser diet isn't the key. Thanks IM

 

[MeatZatk]

Good post. Congrats on the weight loss also...not the 8lbs, but the 30lbs.

 

[Uthinkso]

Yeah the 8lbs was to prove to myself that this diet was all wrong. I'm sure I could get WAY down real fast following it, but I'd probably need to be hospitalized when it was all over.

Thank you.

 

[Jodi]

Good job on coming to that realization

 

[soxmuscle]

Job well done.

Congratulations.

 

[Dynghetti]

can u tell me their diet heh

 

[Uthinkso]

can u tell me their diet heh

Not for you, or anyone else that really cares about getting in shape and living a healthy lifestyle.

 

[wrbk319]

I used to weigh 320lbs at 6'1''. I lost 140lbs in a year by doing those retarded diets. Ever since I've gotten into the body building world, I've changed a lot when it comes to nutrition. I've built a great amount of mass under my loose skin, and I'm thankful I have good genetics and youth. If I were older, I would probably have a harder time with my loose skin. I now weigh 195lbs with 9% - 10% bodyfat. I agree with this topic 100%!

 

[rmcfar]

i disagree
drastic times call for drastic measures. when you are 100 pounds overweight and simply living is a major concern i think it makes sense to try and drop down to at least ~20%bf before you start with a real "lifestyle" diet.

 

[tallcall]

i disagree
drastic times call for drastic measures. when you are 100 pounds overweight and simply living is a major concern i think it makes sense to try and drop down to at least ~20%bf before you start with a real "lifestyle" diet.

Maybe I'm an exception, but I was at ~29% body fat when I started my training and nutrition program. I've been doing this for 4 months and am now around 17%.

My parents tried to get me on the Atkins diet not too long ago and said they were going on it. I suggested they don't cut their calories (I suggested an increase because they don't eat much as it stands) and that they consider using the Y or something. I know they won't go to a gym so I suggested a few things I know they can do at home and showed them how to do everything (I think my Mom was surprised to see how much can be done with bodyweight and a treadmill - Squats, Lunges, Calf Raises, the Iron Chair (one of my favorites, ouch), Curls (1 gal water jugs), over head extensions (jugs), a whole lot of abdominal exercises, etc).

I hope I got the point through to them that I was in no way going to take much advice on my diet from any diet book without first knowing the repercussions of changing or stopping the diet. Also I will always check to see where/if it fits into my pre-existing routine (getting enough protein, carbs, fats, etc).

 

[Plateau_Max]

Congrats on the weight loss. And by no means necessary does being 100lbs overweight mean that you should go on stupid crash diets. It's diets like that which starve you to death and don't teach you the right principles that make you come off the whole thing, cheat, become weak, etc. I say learn the right way from the get go.

 

[Uthinkso]

Congrats on the weight loss. And by no means necessary does being 100lbs overweight mean that you should go on stupid crash diets. It's diets like that which starve you to death and don't teach you the right principles that make you come off the whole thing, cheat, become weak, etc. I say learn the right way from the get go.

Ding..ding..ding!!!

Its a mind job waiting to happen. After starving yourself, if you go on a normal healthy diet and food plan you will probably gain weight to some small degree. Then taper and get after your goals, but results will be slower moving and not as drastic. This will be enough to detur (sp) most newbys and them right back to fat land.

 

[rmcfar]

i think obesity and morbid obesity require different angles of attack. if a person has a few months to a few years to dedicate to proper weightloss and dieting then it is absolutely the better way to go. But when someone may not be living in a few months i think the major concern is to drop as much weight as fast as possible, and then integrate a healthy living diet.
my 2c

 

[plewser2006]

in my opinion... which is in no means a professional opinion

cut out sugars and starchy carbs
and just excersise in any way

and a healthier body will come in time

thats pretty much a guidline for people who dont want to completely change their lifestyle


however...
if someone is truely dedicated and interested in health, there is no single thread that could explain everything

 

[plewser2006]

damn good post though

 

[NeilPearson]

i think obesity and morbid obesity require different angles of attack. if a person has a few months to a few years to dedicate to proper weightloss and dieting then it is absolutely the better way to go. But when someone may not be living in a few months i think the major concern is to drop as much weight as fast as possible, and then integrate a healthy living diet.
my 2c

If someone is morbidly obese and they adopt a healthy diet, they are going to lose weight really fast (much more than 2 pounds a week) at first anyway.

Losing too fast can be dangerous too. I believe proper nutrition is a good idea no matter how overweight you are.

 

[plewser2006]

i think we can all agree that a healthy diet is healthy no matter who you are...


now the healthy diet that works for the individual... we may not all agree on

 

[rmcfar]

Losing too fast can be dangerous too. I believe proper nutrition is a good idea no matter how overweight you are.

Very good point. I do agree with proper intake of vitamins and minerals and so forth.

i just watched the show "big medicine" on TLC, which follows the treatment of the morbidly obese. At the particular hospital they use to treat the patients they do not restrict what the people eat, they just suggest a healthy diet and exercise plan. And on every single episode they show a patient that has taken the freedom of choice and abused it by gaining another 200+ pounds. This is where i personally see the situation as a disease or an addiction rather then, an unhealthy living style. This is why i think a drastic restriction of the diet is so necessary, they simply cannot make the proper choices.

i totally hijacked this thread and i apologize. It's just a topic that isnt discussed very often yet 60 million americans are obese, and 9 million are morbidly obese.

 

[tallcall]

Very good point. I do agree with proper intake of vitamins and minerals and so forth.

i just watched the show "big medicine" on TLC, which follows the treatment of the morbidly obese. At the particular hospital they use to treat the patients they do not restrict what the people eat, they just suggest a healthy diet and exercise plan. And on every single episode they show a patient that has taken the freedom of choice and abused it by gaining another 200+ pounds. This is where i personally see the situation as a disease or an addiction rather then, an unhealthy living style. This is why i think a drastic restriction of the diet is so necessary, they simply cannot make the proper choices.

i totally hijacked this thread and i apologize. It's just a topic that isnt discussed very often yet 60 million americans are obese, and 9 million are morbidly obese.

This is definitely a topic that needs to be discussed!

 

[DanK]

A lot of people who are extremely overweight are doing some things that are obviously bad, one of the girls at my office I'm sure is over 300 and possibly pushing 400 but that's hard to say, she's huge, and I'm really bad at guessing peoples weights since my own weight has generally been far higher than someone else similar in size to myself. She cooks at home about uh... never, simply cooking her own meals would make a huge difference. She's never expressed any interest whatsoever in losing weight to me, but I'd love to help her, losing weight takes a lot of dedication and no one else can ever decide for you and expect it to work, the people on those shows that are so obese they can't even get out of bed, I can't imagine how hard it would be to reduce that kind of weight.

Good work on the weight loss Uthinkso, I finally got back under my pre-labor day weight and hit a new low.

 

[Plateau_Max]

It certainly is an addiction, a very difficult one to break. I'll go to the grocery store and the obese people there always have the same mountain of junk food in their carts. What this says to me is both that they don't care, and on a certain level they don't have the will power to break their addiction to eating terrible food and not exercising. If you're going out to the store and willfully spending money you've earned on junk food when the next aisle over there is healthy food... it's addiction mixed with weak will power, for sure.

Healthy clean food is not more expensive than junk food depending on what you buy (unless you're buying organic, that's expensive) and in some cases like eating fast food every day, you're actually spending more than if you were to buy clean food and prepare it for yourself.

If anyone here has not watched the documentary called "supersize me" I HIGHLY recommend it. It shows that the "junk food is good" idea is pounded into our heads as young children our whole lives. Commercials showing how great all the candy and soda is, parents giving us junk food as a reward for a good deed, school providing nothing but frozen pre-made CRAP and lining the hallways with vending machines... the list goes on.

The part of the documentary I liked best was when it showed a correctional school that served nothing but healthy food and proved that it not only made the students 10X healthier but it was improving their attitude problems on a very high and noticable level. They weren't spending any more money on food than the other schools either.

It has occured to me I could talk for days about this subject.

 

[tallcall]

Thats exactly what we need, someone to talk for days on a very serious topic. EVERYONE where I work (a TV news station) is about 100 pounds overweight, with the exception of the on air people, most of the people who work the assignment desk, and some technicians/engineers (me). Many of us pushed for weeks for the company to at least include "healthier" options in the vending machines. We got granola bars, some snackwell bars, WATER, and some tea (not too bad, but still loaded with a lot of crap). Oh well, at least I can pick up a granola bar (Nature Valley, or something) and a bottle of water (just 75 cents, pretty good) if I forgot to bring my own food in, or if I'm being told to stay a "few" hours late.

I hate to think that some of those overweight people really want to lose the fat, but are being constantly given crap to choose from. Where's the yogurt, oatmeal, or the FRUIT AND VEGGIES?? Nowhere.

I think that good, healthy choices are only the beginning. People must be educated, and must want do something. I think it would be great if the employee gym membership discount should be extended to the off air people as well (currently only the on air people get discounted memberships), it may encourage some people to get some help.

And yes, I saw "Supersize Me" and I loved it. Luckily my parents never had me eating fast food very much, maybe on certain occasions - too far from home and needed something kind of fast - but never, ever, ever, ever, on the level of the people in this film! I still can't stand to let other people prepare my meals without me at least being there in the room, let alone some anonymous McDonald's employee!

 

[Uthinkso]

When I got back into this lifestyle I said that I wanted to be 200lbs roughly and fit. I've bounced up and down, lost and gained but all the while I have been trying different things and learning what works for my body. Also too I have learned what it is to be healthy and live a good life. Even if I never see my abs, but lose fat and size for that matter, but I am healthy. That is what matters to me.

For example right now I see that my diet is way high in carbs and that it has been for some time. That is what I am working on now, getting carbs down and still maintaining a good diet. It is very managable and at times fun to eat new things and eat healthy.

TO me the biggest loser diet, takes a page from the world of anorexia. Starve yourself and deprive yourself of needed nutrients and calories.

 

[DanK]

I haven't read the biggest loser book, and generally I don't have a lot of respect for the "science" of reality tv shows, but I will say that I'm a big believer in fresh raw veggies, fruits, and nuts, and that I think that you can significantly reduce your calories if you are eating large amounts of those foods without suffering any negatives from starvation.

When it comes to cost of eating, I can eat healthy and cheap for under $2 a meal, for around $3 a meal I can eat fresh raw veggies, unsalted nuts and fruits, I tend to make things like chili or chicken stew in bulk and I'll take that to work for food, and eat fairly healthy food for $2 a meal approximately... or at around $3 - 5 I can start hitting the cheap restaurants (taco bell is both fairly cheap and other than sodium isn't extremely bad depending on what you get) and then it starts getting really expensive.

I buy my work lunches for $6 for a week of food, but it's pretty easy to spend $50 a week if you eat out every meal or more. Frozen mixed veggies are dirt cheap and banana's (one of my favorite fruits) happen to be ridiculously cheap too, but most people would probably tend to hit the pasta and potato's before hitting the healthy foods in the same price range, I think most of america needs to get re-aquainted with their veggies.

 

[Uthinkso]

I agree Dan, fruits and veggies (frozen or fresh) are a huge part. One of the first things I was told when I came back here was to make it an effort to have three servings of fruit or veggies a day. I eat them with every meal except breakfast now, and that really depends on the day. My mushroom and broccoli egg beaters omlette is pretty damn yummy

 

[BoneCrusher]

I agree Dan, fruits and veggies (frozen or fresh) are a huge part. One of the first things I was told when I came back here was to make it an effort to have three servings of fruit or veggies a day. I eat them with every meal except breakfast now, and that really depends on the day. My mushroom and broccoli egg beaters omlette is pretty damn yummy

I use real eggs (I know you are on a mission and need to use egg beaters ... killer efforts too btw ) with zucchini, orange bell pepper, mushrooms, yellow squash and tomatoes. I lightly cook the veggies in olive oil then toss in the eggs. Sooooo tasty

 

[Gazhole]

Great post Uthinkso