Could you do The Biggest Loser Program?

[JerseyGirl1969]

Much as I know I shouldn't watch the show, I watched the episode online.

In the bonus videos Jillian shares what she's having the women do. 1200 calories and 4000 burned calories/day. Depending on BMR, that means the women should lose 8lbs a week.

THey judge the calories burned by their Body Bug(g?)s.

Now, I do about 1.5 hours of cardio on non-training days and tend to burn about 1200-1600 calories. I've been eating 1900 calories (BMR). This should result in 2.5lbs lost per week, but hasn't in months. Stall, small moments off plan, whatever.

I have to admit...I'm thinking of trying to cycle my calories and do 1200 calories one week, 1900 the next just to move things. But hell, I don't know that I could burn 4000 calories a day. I'd have to find 5 hours a day to workout....

[Hazelsmrf]

That show is an extreme... it wouldn't make for very good television if they only lost 1 pound a week, but for most people that type of working out just really isn't feasible if you have a job/school etc. Nor do I think anyone should even attempt it alone, it seems like way too much exercise to me, at least they are under constant monitoring by their trainer and doctor.

[andreachurch]

Hi! I admit that I'm like the BIGGEST fan of this show, I TIVO it and sometimes even watch the episodes more than once... it keeps me motivated in a way I think. I'm wondering about the math on that too. Eating 1200 calories a day and burning 4000... my question is just that is that 4000 calories burned all from exercise, like over and above what is burned just from everyday life (breathing, sitting, walking to the fridge...) I wonder because I use fitday everyday and on there it tells you approximately what you burn in a day based on your stats and for me just lifestyle alone it says that I burn about 3000 calories a day (about 1600 basal metabolism and the rest 'lifestyle'. Then any exercise I do I can enter and that's on top of the 3000. I do about 6 or 7 kilometers (miles I dunno) on a fairly good incline and speed everyday (about an hour) and although the treadmill says that's a good 1,000 calories burned, fitday only counts it as about 400. Even so, then I'm supposedly burning 3,400 calories a day. I eat between 1200 and 1400 calories and under 10 carbs per day, strictly on plan with A. Induction without ANY cheats) so just based on the numbers that leaves 2000 burned per day (which based on the notion that 1 pound=3500 cals) should be a loss of around 4 pounds per week. Still I've been lucky if I lose a pound a week, super lucky if I miraculously manage to lose 2, many weeks or even for many weeks in a row I lose absolutely nothing)
You mentioned in the post that the ladies 'should' be losing about 8 pounds per week with those numbers, but they just aren't losing that either. Just goes to show that there is much more to weight loss than simple math. So many people have been really quite hostile towards my WOE and tried to tell me that it has nothing to do with what you eat, it's just a simple equation of calories in vs calories burned... but based on experience I beg to differ.
Anyway, yeah. Love the show, Jillian's awesome

[berries&cream]

I could do it for the money as well as the weight loss. But I wouldn't be motivated enough just by the weight loss.

Actually I don't know if I could do it for the money either. Burning 4k calories a day is just.... OUCH! Would be tough, that much is for sure.

The plan is supposed to provide super quick results for TV, not be the most healthy or sustainable.

There is nothing wrong though with reducing your calories to 1200 a day. This is the flat number recommended by most diet plans, nutritionists etc. And no one will tell you you exercise too much if you are overweight!

So although it isn't ideal, it is far from unhealthy, so if you can eat 1200 cals a day and stick with it, I'd say go for it. Just don't allow it to cause a binge later down the road.

I think they burn 4,000 calories from the exercise alone. That is all they do all day though, with a personal trainer, from dawn til dusk.

[JerseyGirl1969]

Originally Posted by andreachurch

Hi! I admit that I'm like the BIGGEST fan of this show, I TIVO it and sometimes even watch the episodes more than once... it keeps me motivated in a way I think. I'm wondering about the math on that too. Eating 1200 calories a day and burning 4000... my question is just that is that 4000 calories burned all from exercise, like over and above what is burned just from everyday life (breathing, sitting, walking to the fridge...) I wonder because I use fitday everyday and on there it tells you approximately what you burn in a day based on your stats and for me just lifestyle alone it says that I burn about 3000 calories a day (about 1600 basal metabolism and the rest 'lifestyle'. Then any exercise I do I can enter and that's on top of the 3000. I do about 6 or 7 kilometers (miles I dunno) on a fairly good incline and speed everyday (about an hour) and although the treadmill says that's a good 1,000 calories burned, fitday only counts it as about 400. Even so, then I'm supposedly burning 3,400 calories a day. I eat between 1200 and 1400 calories and under 10 carbs per day, strictly on plan with A. Induction without ANY cheats) so just based on the numbers that leaves 2000 burned per day (which based on the notion that 1 pound=3500 cals) should be a loss of around 4 pounds per week. Still I've been lucky if I lose a pound a week, super lucky if I miraculously manage to lose 2, many weeks or even for many weeks in a row I lose absolutely nothing)
You mentioned in the post that the ladies 'should' be losing about 8 pounds per week with those numbers, but they just aren't losing that either. Just goes to show that there is much more to weight loss than simple math. So many people have been really quite hostile towards my WOE and tried to tell me that it has nothing to do with what you eat, it's just a simple equation of calories in vs calories burned... but based on experience I beg to differ.
Anyway, yeah. Love the show, Jillian's awesome

I think it's just from exercise. 4,000 burned x 7 days =8 lbs/week.

[JerseyGirl1969]

Originally Posted by berries&cream

I could do it for the money as well as the weight loss. But I wouldn't be motivated enough just by the weight loss.

Actually I don't know if I could do it for the money either. Burning 4k calories a day is just.... OUCH! Would be tough, that much is for sure.

The plan is supposed to provide super quick results for TV, not be the most healthy or sustainable.

There is nothing wrong though with reducing your calories to 1200 a day. This is the flat number recommended by most diet plans, nutritionists etc. And no one will tell you you exercise too much if you are overweight!

So although it isn't ideal, it is far from unhealthy, so if you can eat 1200 cals a day and stick with it, I'd say go for it. Just don't allow it to cause a binge later down the road.

I think they burn 4,000 calories from the exercise alone. That is all they do all day though, with a personal trainer, from dawn til dusk.

1200 is not the recommended calories for all women...calories are based on size and BMR usually

[JerseyGirl1969]

As for the exercise...I don't need a trainer to do that for the whole day...as I have my trainer and have learned so much from her. But physically? 5 hours a day= hell. Here it is, I did 1.5 hours and I feel tired and achy....

[homestretch]

I love the show but would not do any of what they do. I think overtraining is dangerous and unhealthy. Oh and all those carbs they eat....no way!

As far as your stall, have you thought about cylcling your calories every other day? I am a HUGE believer in keeping your body guessing. Our bodies become so efficient at burning calories when we eat the same number of calories every day that I believe you have to shake things up to keep losing.

[LoraJR72]

I think the show is way too extreme for your average Joe or Jillian. All of them will lose weight. Anyone would at that level. Most of them will gain some, if not all the weight that was lost, months down the road if they go back to their old eating and exercise habits.

[FloridaShell]

I love the show, but wouldn't want to be a contestant!

[dointhis4me]

Originally Posted by FloridaShell

I love the show, but wouldn't want to be a contestant!

Me too, mostly because I woundn't want to have to wear spandex, a sports bra, and get weighed in front of millions

[JerseyGirl1969]

For those reasons, I wouldn't either.

[Sarajewel]

I watch it but I have big concerns about overtraining, and the completlty unrealistic-for-the-average-bear weight loss numbers. I don't think weight loss is as simple as calories in, calories out. My experience is that exercise has not been the critical factor in my weight loss - diet has been (but granted - I don't exercise 4 hours a day). Aerobic exercise just ramps up my appetite, weight lifting has helped with definition but not speed of loss. But they cant do an hour show based on what people eat...

[LoraJR72]

I don't think a nationwide/international audience needs to see me looking and sweating like a mule! Its bad enough at the gym now!

[berries&cream]

Originally Posted by JerseyGirl1969

1200 is not the recommended calories for all women...calories are based on size and BMR usually

Don't think you read me right, I meant when they give a flat one size fits all number, that's the one I give.

Many calculate calories by the BMR, but I think even more diets just give this one number. Nutrisystem is one that pretty much has that as the standard number, unless you weigh over 250 pounds, and then they only increase your calories by something like 200 for the next 100 pounds. That seems to be the calorie amount most "one size fits all" diets go for, and it seems to me most of the commercial diets are "one size fits all".

[JerseyGirl1969]

Maybe since N/s changed. When I did it in the early 90s, I started at 275 and was at 2000 calories and at 259 was still eating 2000 calories....

I've only ever heard the 1200 from women who are already small, either near goal or very petite.... And I've been dieting for 30 years ((shrug)).

Most of my adult life it's been based on BMR....

[TaDa!]

I would freak out with that kind of food deprivation (lowfat ... bleh) AND overtraining. I could do one or the other, but not both at the same time. In other words, I could overtrain with a more reasonable food intake (say 1800), or I could eat less, like 1200 and do a more normal exercise regime ...

I think it is a very impractical thing for anyone to do on their own ... isolated at some spa somewhere with nothing else to worry about, except to focus on the one single goal, it obviously can be done - and yeah, I could do it too ... but is it the best method for longterm weightloss ? I don't know.

My goal has always been to maintain a major weightloss for life ... when you keep that in mind, the path to weightloss becomes more about finding a liveable way of life for the longterm so you don't freak out and pitch yourself off the wagon ...

In your place, Laura, I'd just lower my intake slightly to like 1750 calories maybe and see what happens .. You are losing inches, gaining muscle, so the "stall" may not be as bad as it seems on the scale ...

[JerseyGirl1969]

I'm stubborn, I probably won't listen, LOL...

Ack, who knows, I may strive for 1200 and actually hit 1700 : ) Ya know how it goes.

Love the new pic.

[SweetAsSplenda]

I've heard the 1200 number too but as the magical "number you should not go below." I'm sure its different for everyone, based on BMR. Some people may need more. I've always made sure I don't go below that number...I can't sleep at night if I do.

As far as the Biggest Loser, the Body Buggs don't tell the whole story. Yeah they *should* be losing 8 lbs a week but then why do they sometimes only lose 1 or 2. I think it's because they're not fueling themselves enough. Some of those women are 300-plus pounds. How can they subsist on only 1200 calories a day, when they're working out that hard? I believe their bodies go into starvation mode, hence why they put up big numbers at first and then lose progressively less and less.

I would never be on the Biggest Loser, what if my body got used to 5 hours/ day, then how would I do that when I got home? I guess if you don't have school, work or kids then maybe. But how realistic is that?

[TaDa!]

Thanks JG ..

You know, even at close to goal weight, I lost weight just fine on 1800 calories ... I think it is important, especially for those of us who do train hard and carry muscle, to eat enough to keep the fires burning. At goal now, I am 128 and averaging 2100 calories AND I apparently am still losing weight and still trying to figure out how much less to exercise and how much more to eat, but I have cut out some exercise and I think my maintenance calories could be like 2300-2400 calories a day. You are taller as far as I remember and would have a higher goal weight, hence even highr maintenance calories and well, I just don't think you need to go too low for success ...

I know the lure of trying to force weightloss by doing better and being better all the time ... less and less calories, carbs, more exercise, etc etc. it is very hard to step back and look at the bigger picture, but you really are doing just fine. I think if you keep plugging along, the scale weight will follow too. I think it would be a mistake to get extreme in either thing ..

Pauline

[berries&cream]

It is interesting that people are told never to lose more than 2 pounds a week, but somehow for people who are on The Biggest Loser or who get the gastric bypass surgery its okay.

I also don't understand how a VLCD (very low calorie diet) can be SO bad when gastric bypass surgery has you eating such very small amounts... does that seem odd to anyone else too? Why not just offer people the gastric bypass diet without the gastric bypass if they could stick to it. It's like the diet is off limits until you've been cut open and dissected.

They tell us to lose weight slowly, but when people do these extreme things to lose it overnight they are held up as heroes.

[dointhis4me]

I *believe* I read somewhere that a week on the show isn't a week IRL.

[luckylychee]

I would love to say I could do it, but I just don't know!! I tried one of of Jillian's work outs on exercisetv a while back, I couldn't even make it past 15 minutes of all the jumping and the lifting. I had to quit.

[FloridaShell]

Originally Posted by dointhis4me

Me too, mostly because I woundn't want to have to wear spandex, a sports bra, and get weighed in front of millions

That's it Holly! I wouldn't want millions of people to see me in next to nothing, eww..yuck!!

[JerseyGirl1969]

Originally Posted by berries&cream

It is interesting that people are told never to lose more than 2 pounds a week, but somehow for people who are on The Biggest Loser or who get the gastric bypass surgery its okay.

I also don't understand how a VLCD (very low calorie diet) can be SO bad when gastric bypass surgery has you eating such very small amounts... does that seem odd to anyone else too? Why not just offer people the gastric bypass diet without the gastric bypass if they could stick to it. It's like the diet is off limits until you've been cut open and dissected.

They tell us to lose weight slowly, but when people do these extreme things to lose it overnight they are held up as heroes.

I know, I know.

As for the WLS patients, they usually can't stick to a VLCD and need the physical reinforcement. However, their VLCD and any VLCD can definitely damage the metabolism, which is why they often regain. (and why I'm wondering about just cycling low).

[afuentes]

I am a huge fan of the show! Love it. Wouldn't want to do all of that exercise though.