How to lose weight like the Biggest Loser
The Biggest Loser is a reality TV show featuring a competition to see which of the 14 overweight participants can lose the most weight. Matt Hoover, winner of this season’s show lost as much as 26 pounds in a single week, and at the end lost a total of 157 pounds, ending up at 182 pounds, through a combination of diet and exercise. Another contestant lost even more weight (185 pounds), but from a much higher starting weight.
MSNBC features a couple of articles profiling the contestants and answering some questions about their diet and exercise routines. Although the changes are spectacular, the approach used was basic: to adjust their food intake to a healthy, balanced level, to increase their exercise activity, and develop healthier daily routines. However, this is easier said than done.
Dr. Michael Dansinger, a consultant on “The Biggest Loser 2″ and a physician at Tufts New England Medical Center, observes that the show participants are in an environment where everything is optimized for weight loss. Most people do not have the luxury of dedicated personal trainers and full time management of their food and exercise programs.
Dansinger says that “50 to 60 percent of [contestants’] weight-loss success comes from dietary change.” They’re used to consuming around 3000 calories a day, but on the show consume about 1500 calories a day. As he says, “few people are really in a position to cut their calories by 1500 a day, but that’s what these people are able to do.” He says there’s “nothing controversial” about the diet, nor are the contestants given pills or other shortcuts.
The other 40 to 50 percent of weight loss comes from the three hours of exercise the contestants do every day: an hour of strength training and two hours of cardio. That helps them burn an additional 1200 to 1500 calories, Dansinger says. “It’s hard to do by yourself, but on the show it’s easy to do,” he said. “When people allow themselves to be put in that kind of environment … when you pull out all the barriers to weight loss, that’s when the weight loss can come very quickly.”
Too bad it’s not as easy as writing about it.
Links:
- Lovable ‘Losers’ (MSNBC 12/7/2005)
- How does ‘Loser’ cast drop so much weight? (MSNBC Ask The Reality TV Experts 11/29/2005)
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