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"Biggest Loser" or "Biggest Joke"?

By Andrew L Voris

Ok so I understand you may be a big fan of the latest fitness reality craze "Biggest Loser" and I can understand the excitement to see who may get the best results each week but please consider the truth in what you are watching.

Let’s start with the fact that I have been a trainer for over ten years now and I know a thing or two about fitness and weight loss. In fact I own a small studio and a training department in a large health club. Point is I see people from all walks of life trying to lose weight and have personally helped over 2000 people search for the solution. I said that cautiously because I know that not all found it.

Now, let’s cover the things I see positive about the "Biggest Loser".

  1. I admire the "Biggest Loser" trainers for the way they push their clients.

  2. I admire the "Biggest Loser" trainers for the way they communicate with their clients. Jillian tells her clients how it is without holding back. The other day she even admitted that she couldn’t figure it out in regards to why someone wasn’t losing weight when they were busting their butt every day.

  3. I admire the "Biggest Loser" contestant's commitment and desire.

  4. I appreciate the fact that the "Biggest Loser" does illustrate how hard you must work for results.

Let’s look at the "Biggest Loser" in whole though.

Every time I see the "Biggest Loser" the contestants are doing something that can and typically does injure them. Great for ratings though! Take the teeter-totter that hurt the guys knee for instance, I would never have a client that can’t even properly squat safely with his own body weight and have them absorb the shock of a falling teeter-totter. It looked like a “Fear Factor” episode.

Once they had to run DOWN a steep hill and grab a flag and then up to the checkpoint. Have you ever seen or experience running down hill at 300-400lbs.? Needless to say someone fell. Of course we don’t get to see the ramifications of the injuries.

Speaking of not getting to see what really goes on. Ever wonder about how much "Biggest Loser" you don’t see? How long is the show? One hour each week? These people live on "Biggest Loser" campus, eat on "Biggest Loser" campus, exercise on "Biggest Loser" campus, sleep on "Biggest Loser" campus, and anything else they are allowed on "Biggest Loser" campus. Think about what results you might get if you came to stay at my Tri-City Fitness gym for several weeks, never leaving and only ate, drank, moved, and slept when I said and what I said. I bet you’d lose weight!

How realistic is this "Biggest Loser"? Not very in my mind! We do not get to see the real struggle that we all go through in life with weight loss. Like the fact that we don’t just lose a few pounds every week but we yo-yo all the time and just hope that our yo-yo weight gets lower as the weeks go along.

Maybe they could show that after 3-4 days of hard work our bodies need recuperation and regeneration or we will be over training and do damage to our system.

What about cutting calories so low that we are unhealthy or the fact that the majority of the female clients I see have been dieting off and on for years and are eating way to few calories so they do not have enough energy to get through the day let alone go exercise?

I think you get the picture. But I’m not through!

The whole "Biggest Loser" show is judged by % of weight lost each week.

What about body fat % and the increase of lean muscle tissue so as you lose weight you are increasing your ability to burn fat even at rest. When they gain muscle they may gain weight but that is reprimanded.

This is the killer for me. I have to work so hard every day to get my clients away from the scale and in front of the mirror because it’s not in the weight loss alone! Yet that’s what they want you to think! I’d like to see a follow up to each and every person from "Biggest Loser" show and see how he or she is doing now. They may very well be doing great due to the awareness they gained while with the "Biggest Loser" trainers but these aren’t the facts they share with us the viewers.

I understand that sometimes it takes drastic measures and I’d rather someone have a knee sprain from working to hard on a treadmill than a heart attack from being 300lbs. over weight but a set back like a knee sprain will probably end that persons chances of ever getting the weight off. It would take a few weeks or even years for him to move enough without pain to burn any sort of calories.

Please be advised that what you see on the "Biggest Loser" show isn’t exactly realistic and you should seek the advice of a trainer before embarking on a “Biggest Loser” journey of your own!

Yes it’s possible to lose 1-4 lbs each week for a while if you are really heavy but it is also unrealistic to expect this every week. We all need recuperation time whether it is a few days off or a week here and there. Allow for this and you will see better lasting changes. Without it you will probably end up with an injury or burnout and be sidelined and disappointed.

In conclusion, weight loss takes smart planning, hard work, safe instruction and guidance, and effective programming, patience and a strong will. If you are heavy, think how long it took you to get to the point you are or how long you’ve been heavy. Stick to a SMART program and you will eventually be healthy. Just don’t give up.

For the record, I was 270lbs in 1996 before deciding that if I were going to lose weight I needed it to be my job to help others do the same. I still struggle with it today. I’m 230 lbs today and have been down to 186 a few years ago and running marathons. Things like work still get in the way all the time but I fight my way back and this gives me better understanding of the struggles. I can then help others. It’s not easy! Just don’t give up!

About the Author:

Andrew Voris is a NASM certified personal trainer working out of his private office in Glen Ellyn, IL and out of Tri-City Fitness in St. Charles, IL. His websites are www.bodyformpersonaltraining.com & www.tri-cityfitness.com