The NBC show “Biggest Loser” has been running steadily for seventeen years and spawned multiple spin-offs around the world. But just how well have the contestants faired after the show?
Danny Cahill, the Season 8 Winner, Lost 239 lbs.
Dr. Kevin Hall of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has monitored the participants from season 8 for five years and has published his findings in the latest edition of Obesity.
“13 of the 14 individuals regained some weight back and four gained back what they lost plus more.”
Why? Because the crash dieters dropped their resting metabolism below average and it has stayed there years after appearing on the program.
The lower than average metabolism makes it that much harder for the person to keep the weight off than someone who hasn’t crash dieted.
As a chunky fella myself, I can attest to this. I don’t crash diet, but eat sensibly and work out both with cardio and weights. (Although not the extent of Bad Brad or others on this site). I lose weight slowly, but if I drop down on exercise I can gain 5 pounds back in a week.
Contestants on the Biggest Loser, while appearing on the show, have personal trainers, dieticians, and a lot of support. But the show is essentially their job, and when the show is over, they go back to normal life. And for most people, normal life cannot accomodate 4 or 5 hours at the gym every day – it’s hard enough to work, have a family and still find the time to spend at least an hour a day at the gym.
I broke 150 once. Now I am back to my normal 140. Had to wear a belt today to keep my 30’s from falling off. 140 is my normal weight. It is hard for me to understand folks that can’t lose weight because I have trouble gaining it.
Surprise, you aren’t personally responsible for being obese. Even if there is a few hundred calorie reduction after losing weight how does that explain keeping weight off for years (before regaining) or gaing 100+ lbs?!
You need to eat 3,500 calories to gain a pound. It is science. A concept libs love to bastardize.
Easier explanation, they lost a lot of weight on a game show to win money and eventually went back to old habits.
Or we suddenly had an evolutionary change overnight because I don’t recall the world being full of fat fucks growing up in the 80s.
You have to not gain it in the first place. I guess. I mean, that’s how I did it. I’m not trying to be funny.
I’m like Slenderman. I broke 155 once… and I’m here to tell you it was awful. I was eating 6 meals a day and lifting 7 days a week. I felt awful. And it wasn’t the lifting… it was the eating like a fucking animal. Gorging.
Michelle Obama is a fat f¥ck AND the world’s biggest loser. Sorry to get political.
I lost 185 pounds overnight.
I broke up with a freeloading jerk I found on Zoosk..
Don’t really care..I lift heavy.
For f*k sakes.. It’s got nothing to do with exercise. Everything to do with food. Period.
You don’t gain weight back because your metabolism slows down. That is beyond idiotic and show zero, repeat zero real understanding.
It slows down because you are healthier. There is so much misinformation it is practically upside down. Yet it is so simple really.
If you maintain a reasonable diet- that is essentially- low carb, low fat, high lean protein you will lose and then you will stay there. Period.
You don’t have to do one f’ing stitch of exercise to achieve it either. In fact it’s a hindrance in the process of losing fat.
The mainstream :”understanding” is that to lose weight and get into shape you have to pound yourself in the gym, cardio, etc. That is completely wrong. It’s all the food.
I’ve been pretty serious low carb, high sat. fat, moderate protein for about 10 years. I have a bike i ride occasionally for fun but I have never exercised in the slightest. Got a bloodwork spreadsheet going back to when i started this. Had bloodwork done about a month ago and my indicators are still excellent, compared to the nightmare they were when I was in my thirties. Everything that’s bad has been trending downward and everything good has been trending up. Right now my weights holding at about 155, which may sound like a stick until you realize I weighed 118 when I graduated high school and was 5’11. So at 47, I’ll take it.
CICO is false, btw. When I go all out, I can lose body fat by practically doubling my caloric intake of saturated fat while virtually eliminating carbs.
Lazlo was skinny until I hit fifty.
Then with BP meds and getting a job at a desk it did me in.
I still do everything the same but I cannot seem to lose the extra weight.
Angus the Dog has upped the cardio with his desires to crap some distance from his house.
I used to have harsh opinions for those with extra weight, but what a curse to have.
Time to go walk Angus, and read Turbo’s post again.
some of you people are real nice, i must say…..
but still, i wouldn’t wish my weight problems on you……well, maybe for a month or two, just to let you know what it’s like to wake up and find out the evil dwarves have spread another couple inches of lard on you while you slept…..then i’d let you go back to normal….
it would be nice if i could be NORMAL too…….
Grool speaks truth but its so hard to swim upstream against family, cost and self. Every blasted thing seems to come wrapped in white flour and or sugar. Proper food is expensive and take constant attention and then family members won’t eat it!!!!
It ain’t easy but it can be done.
what was the main culprit? thats right gorging on food, that was their biggest problem…..the only way to gain the weight is by eating more than you can burn off,and the body stores the rest as fat. all these work out nazis do is get rid of the weight by almost killing the people but don’t fix the problem and all it does is come back. how many people do you know or hear of that are as healthy as can be and run miles everyday only for them to die at an early age of a heart attack essentially by overworking their bodies?
for two years, i wrote down every f-ing thing i ate……1/2 cantalope for breakfast – 40 calories……1 cup fried cabbage for lunch – less than 20 calories…..one four ounce salad for dinner, with dressing…..WOW, almost 200 calories!!!….damn, i was eating like a pig, wasn’t i?????
i repeat…..I DID THIS FOR TWO FREAKING YEARS…..
meanwhile, because i was serious about losing weight, i did 45-90 minutes a day of “bodies in motion” with gilad…and then, since i was serious about building muscles, i did 45-90 minutes of weight lifting……
i was able to spend all this time working out because i was a stay-at-home mom, and could watch my kids at the same time as i did all this other stuff….
and after all this, miracle of miracles, i still managed to GAIN WEIGHT…..
all yall who think calories in/calories out is some kind of magic scientific formula that will work for EVERYONE are ijets…….
all yall who think every “fatty f*ck” out there is a pig who just can’t stop eating need to live MY LIFE for a couple months…..
i went on the juice diet…..the first week, i lost ten pounds….the next week i lost five pounds….the next week i stayed the same….the fourth week, i gained ten pounds….
so, whichever ijet it was that says your metabolism doesn’t “reset” when you starve yourself…..well, you’re just an ijet….
i was a homeless starving person in my youth…..my body learned how to live on NOTHING…..now, i can’t eat enough to maintain my basic bodily needs “minimum daily requirements” – without gaining weight…….what do you think i should do? subsist on vitamin supplements, and stop eating altogether?
lets hear you say it again….”IT’S SCIENCE!!”
chuck,
No, that’s not how it works. If you live in Northern Cali hit me up.
brad…..
if you actually read my whole comment, and still think you have an answer for me, i would love to hear it……but i’m not gonna go to california….lol……so just post it here……
i am sooooo tired of being labelled “fat and lazy” when in fact, i am just fat….i am soooo tired of ijits who think i’m fat because i EAT SOOOOO MUCH, when in fact, if i were on a medical “starvation diet,” i would have to triple my caloric intake……my own doctor of forty years doesn’t believe me…..because i don’t fit the mold…..
i carry around in my purse, evidence that my NORMAL body temperature is 97.1 degrees, so that, when i go to the emergency room, i might have half a chance of convincing them that i have a fever..
doctors and medical professionals of every sort just KNOW so much better than us stupid PATIENTS…….
i’m just venting here……there’s only so much a person can take, without venting….there were way too many people on this thread blaming fat people for eating too much….i hardly eat at all……but they would look at me, and say i eat too much……
if you have something to offer besides “EAT LESS AND EXERCISE MORE”….well, i’m not even sure i would still be interested, at this late date…..i’m old and tired and ready to sleep……
Dear Chuck…if you come back…try eating small meals of not lean meat and non starchy veg. It works for me when I do it and I am like youl