As a health and wellness educator with 25 years experience, I am ever diligent about staying abreast of the latest exercises, diets and gimmicks advertised regarding weight loss. I know how the human body works and its limitations. I am always suspect of any program, product or gadget that advocates quick weight loss. One of the most watched and highly publicized programs today that touts and celebrates quick weight loss is the TV show, The Biggest Loser. I firmly believe that this program does more harm than good to the masses who watch in desperation each week to see who loses the most weight in the fastest time.
Whenever you come across any program that emphasizes quick weight loss a big red flag should come up in your brain. Don’t fall victim to this scheme. You will do more harm than good to your body if you follow this philosophy.
According to Cannon and Einzig, authors of Dieting Makes You Fat, “...rapid weight lost on a diet is of glycogen.” Glycogen is stored energy from carbohydrates and the body’s immediately available form of energy on a restricted diet is not fat. To encourage and reward people for quick weight loss is not recommended and is counterproductive. The loss of lean muscle tissue, water and some fat is the end result. Further, your metabolism slows because the body’s furnace, muscle tissue is lost. Hence, the more a person diets, the more muscle is lost, and the slower the metabolism becomes. Once the diet has ended and the person resumes even modest amounts of food, the human body will gain weight quickly in an attempt to regain the weight lost. Muscle tissue can only be gained by performing resistance exercises with free weights, machines, bands, tubing even your bodyweight. Failure to perform strength training exercises a minimum of two times a week will result in the regaining of fat only after a restrictive diet.
Another aspect of TV shows encouraging quick weight loss that is bothersome to watch is the fact that participants are made to perform dangerous exercises. Despite the fact that trainers and medical professionals oversee the Biggest Loser camp, because of their excessive weight, participants are prone to stress fractures, lower back injury and more. I have watched a few episodes where obese participants weighing upwards of 400 lbs. were made to carry large boulders and made to run up and down an unpaved gravel road. Firstly, for each step each participant takes, three times their body weight is pounded on that ankle and foot. Further, obese individuals don’t burn fat exclusively when they exercise even if the exercise is aerobic. Gradual cardiovascular exercise is necessary to burn fat in obese individuals because they have lost their fat burning enzymes. According to Covert Bailey, author of The New Fit or Fat, “…the fat person who exercises heavily is unable to burn the fat he’s trying to get rid of and then makes more fat right after exercise.” Intense fast cardiovascular exercise stimulates hunger in obese individuals because they burn glycogen and very little fat. Their bodies signal hunger to replace the lost energy in their muscles. Carbohydrates are preferred to satisfy this hunger. However, this carbohydrates immediately gets stored as fat. One of the signs then that a person is getting fitter aerobically is to notice the absence of hunger after an aerobic exercise. Obese persons must work out gradually and slowly to allow their bodies to rebuild fat burning enzymes they've lost.
Lastly, in the Biggest Loser TV show, I feel so badly as I watch the participants and audience reward and encourage large weight loss in just a one week’s time. The human body should only lose roughly one to two pounds per week. This is preferred. Large amounts of weight lost in a short amount of time is not fat, as I have mentioned earlier in this article.
So the next time you sit and watch a TV show about weight loss, remember the information I’ve shared with you about how the human body works and the difference between fat loss and muscle tissue loss. TV shows should reward the person who loses 1 to 2 pounds per week. But of course, that wouldn’t be as exciting to viewers. By the way, your heart is a muscle too. Weight lost quickly is of muscles all over the body, even the heart.
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