So here it goes…the article that could potentially fill my email with hate mail (my face just turned a little red just thinking about it). I watched an episode of The Biggest Loser tonight. For those of you who are not familiar with The Biggest Loser, it is a reality show that takes obese Americans and ‘teaches' them to live a healthy lifestyle by eating well and working out. Every week one individual is voted out as a result of their weight loss or lack there of. I don't know what season it's on but I will be focusing on the episode that aired November 27, 2007. There are 7 contestants left with a sixth about to be sent back into the unforgiving ‘real' world.
I'm writing this article during the dreaded weigh in, where the contestants get weighed and the lowest two get sent below the also dreaded yellow line. They will then be put up for elimination.
I just saw a guy lose 4 pounds in one week and to my surprise he was not happy about it because that might send him below the yellow line. I don't know how long the show has been going on for but he's lost 80 pounds in, I'm assuming, 3 months. That's close to 7 pounds a week lost.
Okay, so here's my thing. I absolutely LOVE seeing these people make great changes in their lives and see how happy they start to become about their brand new body. The workouts are intense (I would say almost over doing it) and their nutrition from what I can tell is clean and low calorie (which might not be so good when they go back to normal living).
These people are making incredible changes, but I think this could be a reason why so many people who start on their own fat loss journey get so frustrated when they aren't making the changes they thought they would initially.
People go on crash diets or some (as I've recently found out, especially young girls) actually fast and consume nothing but diet coke all day. Here's the problem. You're going to lose weight initially but you're actually damaging your metabolic system and once you start actually eating again, which you will do because if you don't you'll die, the weight is going to come back with a vengeance.
(Random observation here, I think every time I see this show Kim the trainer is crying…is it just my luck or does this happen often?)
So point one, EAT if you want to lose weight. Eat smaller meals 5-6 times a day and focus on having protein (it has a greater thermic effect – meaning it burns more calories to digest it) and take away the processed carbs and as much sugar as possible.
All you should be drinking is water too. Sorry. You can have some green tea if you want too.
Here's my observation about the workouts. Boy, they sure look intense. Jillian seems to have her act together…I'd let her train me anyways. The other two, Bob and Kim seem to do a lot of isolation stuff like bicep curls and quad extensions which don't really create an optimal muscle growing potential but that doesn't really matter when you kick the living crap out of the person for an hour on the treadmill.
Now, people might look at all these exercises and say, "I can't jump up and down on a bench 15 times," and you shouldn't if you can't or will hurt yourself. You also shouldn't do full sprints on a treadmill until you're ready. So I think what many people do is say, "Well I can do those arm curls they're doing, and all those machines they use." And that's what they do. They'll go machine to machine for an hour and maybe venture into the free weight area do perform the amazing bicep curls.
So point 2: don't perform isolation movements. Which means, for the most part, stay away from the machines. You can use them, just not so much. Full body movements are your key to fat loss, along with proper intensity.
So deadlifts, squats, pushups, pull-ups, lunges, step ups, dumbbell snatches, clean to press, standing dumbbell press, ‘real' rows, etc.
Now, I understand that you probably won't know all of those exercises but you can always contact me through my sites to ask about them and I'll help you out with them all. That's why it's important to get some help from somebody who actually knows what they're doing to teach you proper deadlifts and squat form. They are two critical exercises in my opinion for success.
It looks like they do interval training with contestants, which is a good thing because interval training creates an after effect on your metabolism (intense resistance training does this too). What I mean is, you are able to burn a lot more calories for a lot longer after your workout is over if you perform an intense interval training session.
So here's point 3: stay away from long, slow cardio sessions for fat loss. It's not optimal and it slowly eats away your muscle tissue if you go for too long. That's not good because the more lean muscle you have, the higher your metabolism will be. The after effect (called EPOC) on your metabolism only lasts for a few minutes after your workout too.
***EPOC – excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. This means your metabolism is higher than it was when you started the workout. You want your EPOC to last as long as possible because that means you will be burning a lot more calories then you were before you started. Doing long, slow cardio has an EPOC effect of only a few minutes. Interval training has an EPOC effect of 3-4 hours and when you combine a full body resistance session with interval training your EPOC can last up to two days. That's pretty incredible***
So do interval training. If you would like to learn the proper way to perform interval training, I give an in-depth example in my 5-day E-course, which you can grab at http://www.bodytransformationcoach.com.
Saying all that, it is a great thing that people can make a true commitment to changing their lives. It's not an easy thing to do and I have all the respect in the world for the contestants.
Just remember that your conditions are not even close to the same as theirs are. I saw a comeback show a few months ago with former contestants and I think all of them put weight back on, some up to 30-40 pounds. It's not easy folks. It takes discipline and a willingness to work hard if you want the long lasting effects.
Your body will change the way you want it too when you're completely ready and willing to make the commitment to change.
Just to rap up this longer than I intended to go rant, I'm not saying that The Biggest Loser sucks and you shouldn't watch it. I'm just saying, don't get frustrated by your results or give up because you didn't lose 15 pounds your first week of training. That's ridiculous.
Go out and work hard by doing the best you can. That means not doing things you know are wrong…like fast food, diet pop, etc. Just don't do them.
You'll get the body you desire if you absolutely want it bad enough. If you actually want it bad enough you'll find the ways to make it happen.
Okay, I'll finish with a ‘thought' for you. I went to the Biggest Loser site and the member forum and I saw a post from somebody joking and asking, ‘is it wrong that I ate Oreos during the show?'. And my response and question to you is this…Is it EVER right to eat Oreos in the first place? You know the answer to that because you're on your way to reaching your fat loss, right?
I'm writing this article during the dreaded weigh in, where the contestants get weighed and the lowest two get sent below the also dreaded yellow line. They will then be put up for elimination.
I just saw a guy lose 4 pounds in one week and to my surprise he was not happy about it because that might send him below the yellow line. I don't know how long the show has been going on for but he's lost 80 pounds in, I'm assuming, 3 months. That's close to 7 pounds a week lost.
Okay, so here's my thing. I absolutely LOVE seeing these people make great changes in their lives and see how happy they start to become about their brand new body. The workouts are intense (I would say almost over doing it) and their nutrition from what I can tell is clean and low calorie (which might not be so good when they go back to normal living).
These people are making incredible changes, but I think this could be a reason why so many people who start on their own fat loss journey get so frustrated when they aren't making the changes they thought they would initially.
People go on crash diets or some (as I've recently found out, especially young girls) actually fast and consume nothing but diet coke all day. Here's the problem. You're going to lose weight initially but you're actually damaging your metabolic system and once you start actually eating again, which you will do because if you don't you'll die, the weight is going to come back with a vengeance.
(Random observation here, I think every time I see this show Kim the trainer is crying…is it just my luck or does this happen often?)
So point one, EAT if you want to lose weight. Eat smaller meals 5-6 times a day and focus on having protein (it has a greater thermic effect – meaning it burns more calories to digest it) and take away the processed carbs and as much sugar as possible.
All you should be drinking is water too. Sorry. You can have some green tea if you want too.
Here's my observation about the workouts. Boy, they sure look intense. Jillian seems to have her act together…I'd let her train me anyways. The other two, Bob and Kim seem to do a lot of isolation stuff like bicep curls and quad extensions which don't really create an optimal muscle growing potential but that doesn't really matter when you kick the living crap out of the person for an hour on the treadmill.
Now, people might look at all these exercises and say, "I can't jump up and down on a bench 15 times," and you shouldn't if you can't or will hurt yourself. You also shouldn't do full sprints on a treadmill until you're ready. So I think what many people do is say, "Well I can do those arm curls they're doing, and all those machines they use." And that's what they do. They'll go machine to machine for an hour and maybe venture into the free weight area do perform the amazing bicep curls.
So point 2: don't perform isolation movements. Which means, for the most part, stay away from the machines. You can use them, just not so much. Full body movements are your key to fat loss, along with proper intensity.
So deadlifts, squats, pushups, pull-ups, lunges, step ups, dumbbell snatches, clean to press, standing dumbbell press, ‘real' rows, etc.
Now, I understand that you probably won't know all of those exercises but you can always contact me through my sites to ask about them and I'll help you out with them all. That's why it's important to get some help from somebody who actually knows what they're doing to teach you proper deadlifts and squat form. They are two critical exercises in my opinion for success.
It looks like they do interval training with contestants, which is a good thing because interval training creates an after effect on your metabolism (intense resistance training does this too). What I mean is, you are able to burn a lot more calories for a lot longer after your workout is over if you perform an intense interval training session.
So here's point 3: stay away from long, slow cardio sessions for fat loss. It's not optimal and it slowly eats away your muscle tissue if you go for too long. That's not good because the more lean muscle you have, the higher your metabolism will be. The after effect (called EPOC) on your metabolism only lasts for a few minutes after your workout too.
***EPOC – excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. This means your metabolism is higher than it was when you started the workout. You want your EPOC to last as long as possible because that means you will be burning a lot more calories then you were before you started. Doing long, slow cardio has an EPOC effect of only a few minutes. Interval training has an EPOC effect of 3-4 hours and when you combine a full body resistance session with interval training your EPOC can last up to two days. That's pretty incredible***
So do interval training. If you would like to learn the proper way to perform interval training, I give an in-depth example in my 5-day E-course, which you can grab at http://www.bodytransformationcoach.com.
Saying all that, it is a great thing that people can make a true commitment to changing their lives. It's not an easy thing to do and I have all the respect in the world for the contestants.
Just remember that your conditions are not even close to the same as theirs are. I saw a comeback show a few months ago with former contestants and I think all of them put weight back on, some up to 30-40 pounds. It's not easy folks. It takes discipline and a willingness to work hard if you want the long lasting effects.
Your body will change the way you want it too when you're completely ready and willing to make the commitment to change.
Just to rap up this longer than I intended to go rant, I'm not saying that The Biggest Loser sucks and you shouldn't watch it. I'm just saying, don't get frustrated by your results or give up because you didn't lose 15 pounds your first week of training. That's ridiculous.
Go out and work hard by doing the best you can. That means not doing things you know are wrong…like fast food, diet pop, etc. Just don't do them.
You'll get the body you desire if you absolutely want it bad enough. If you actually want it bad enough you'll find the ways to make it happen.
Okay, I'll finish with a ‘thought' for you. I went to the Biggest Loser site and the member forum and I saw a post from somebody joking and asking, ‘is it wrong that I ate Oreos during the show?'. And my response and question to you is this…Is it EVER right to eat Oreos in the first place? You know the answer to that because you're on your way to reaching your fat loss, right?
SHARE
