I am a Biggest Loser addict, I will admit it up front. I'm a health and fitness junkie and I cannot tell you what it is about the show that keeps me coming back week after week, season after season. I would like to think it's because I enjoy watching people discovering a new, healthy life style but my dad has an alternate theory. It goes something like this:
"A producer sat down one day all excited. He had the idea for the next big hit reality television show. 'Get a bunch of over weight people, put them in spandex, then make them run and cry, at the same time if at all possible. America will love it!' There is something clearly wrong with us."
If the problem is not with us, then there is something clearly wrong with the show. I've always been bothered by the obscene amount of weight these contestants lose in a week. I know they throw up that disclaimer that all the contestants are monitored. I know that they are isolated on that ranch with nothing to do but work out probably 8 or more hours a day. I also know there is no way that losing that much weight that quickly is good for them.
Has anyone else noticed how almost all of the previous contestants gain some if not all their weight back? They brought multiple contestants back in season 15 alone to discuss how difficult it is to maintain that weight loss and how unrealistic their environment is at the ranch compared to the real world. Other contestants have come clean on how they would take pills or starve themselves to lose the weight. Somehow, I think the show has gone astray from it's original intent.
Then there is the advertising. I'm aware no television show can exist without sponsors; however, the only sponsor that doesn't make my skin crawl is Brita. Cleaner water, all right I'm on board with that. But Lara bars? Yoplait smoothies? Progresso soup? Subway?
You may be shaking your head at this point. Let me break it down.
1. Larabars. Great for energy and a healthy lifestyle, so the show would have you think. Go ahead, chow down on one of those bad boys...if you want to be in a sugar coma until next Wednesday. The cherry pie variant has 23 grams of sugar. There is a lot of debate on the recommended daily recommended (RDA) allowance for sugar, but in general most sources say around 50g max.
That one Larabar is 46% of your RDA for sugar. You may think you can balance this out with your other meals, but everything has sugar, even in minute amounts, and let me tell you it adds up quickly. I actively try to pay attention to my sugar intake. I do not have a sweet tooth whatsoever and yet I often have a hard time staying below the 50g mark.
My other beef with Larabars? Where's the protein? If you are going to seriously try to sell me something as a health food, it had better bring something to the table. That cherry pie Larabar? 5g of protein. That is pathetic and so not worth my time.
You want a real protein bar sans all the sugar? Check out pure protein soft baked (double chocolate vanilla and double chocolate peanut butter). They have 190 calories, around the same as the cherry pie Larabar, but with 17g of protein and only 5g of sugar.
So many Americans (well probably the entire world honestly) know so little about nutrition. So many of the people I know focus solely on calories and then don't understand why they aren't losing weight.
"But I'm only eating 1200 calories a day!!! Why can't I lose weight?"
Possibly because the 1200 calorie myth is parroted across the web without any research to back up its claim. It is also known as the bare minimum. If you want to learn more about its origins, check out my blog post here.
If you exercise or have an active job/lifestyle you will need a heck of a lot more than 1200 calories. First, you need to calculate your BMR to see how many calories you need just to exist. You can find a calculator here. My BMR is 1491. That is 291 over the very basic minimum everyone talks about.
Once you have your BMR, you need to calculate your daily caloric need based on your activity level. There are some pretty basic equations for this with the Harris-Benedict method:
- If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
- If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
- If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
- If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
- If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
Now let's say I wanted to lose weight, in general you need to burn 3500 calories to lose one lb. Thus, if I merely wanted to do this from diet, I would cut 500 calories per day from food resulting in a total of 1500-1800 calories. This would burn around a pound per week. Of course this is all very basic and there are other factors.
So why am I telling you all this?
Because think how many calories these contestants must be burning and/or not eating to drop 10+ pounds in a week. I don't count the first week on the show as I am a firm believer that a good chunk of that weight loss is water weight. So let's say week two or five or whatever a contestant pulls the coveted double digits. This means they would have burned 35,000 calories more than they consumed. That is insane.
But whatever, there are doctors monitoring their health and meals being planned for them...it's totally ok, right? Sure.
2. Yoplait smoothies. I won't go into the sugar rant again since I just got derailed from Larabars getting all angry about it. At first glance it does not look like the end of the world. It has fruit it in (albeit frozen, but better than no fruit at all) and 10g of sugar (not nearly as bad as the Larabar). However, that is for half a pouch. Show of hands, how many people eat the whole pouch because you can't easily dump out half of it and reseal it for later? That's another thing I see that tricks people.
"But it only has 70 calories!!"
Wrong. One serving is 70 calories, one serving prepared has 110. The whole pouch is 220 calories, which really isn't a lot at all if you are using it as a meal replacement (I personally do not see a smoothie as a meal; I've tried and I am hungry again within the hour). However, that whole pouch has 20g of sugar.
People also similarly misunderstand other nutrition labels as well. They very rarely pay attention to portion size and even when they do, how many do you think actually stop to make sure they're only getting 2/3 cup of whatever they are eating out of a container with 2.5 servings? Not many is my guess.
So many people get caught up with counting calories and nothing else or strange fad diets requiring you to cut all carbs or all dairy or all something. Pro tip: If the diet calls for extreme measures, it will not work for the long term. If you want to get serious about your health, you need to be serious about your nutrition. Does never eating bread again sound normal to you?
Basically, extreme diets are crap as is only paying attention to calories. At the very least, you need to watch sodium, sugar, and fats (especially what kind of fats, as some are necessary and others not so much). Yes, it is more difficult; however, this is your life. You only get one. Don't throw years of it away because it's easier to ignore the nutrition label.
Now about that sodium...
3. Progresso soup. Low fat, low calories, what's not to love? Sodium. Holy crap, all the sodium. Their light chicken noodle soup? 690mg of sodium in one serving. How many of you only eat half the can? If you're like me 70 calories and half a can of soup does not a meal make. If you slurp down that whole can, you just had 1380mg of sodium. The RDA is 2300mg. In other words, that soup is 60% of your RDA for sodium and, much like sugar, sodium is in everything. The Center for Disease Control reported that Americans over the age of 2 consume on average 3436mg of sodium per day.
Check out that link to see the dangers of excessive sodium intake, then get back to me on if it now annoys you that the Biggest Loser pushes Progresso as healthy.
4. Subway. And Jared. But mostly Subway. I get it, out of most of the fast food options, Subway is probably the healthiest one out there. That by no means makes it healthy. Being the best of the worst is not usually something to brag about.
So what's my beef with their Fresh Fit menu? Once again, sodium. The 6 inch turkey breast (assuming you get it exactly as advertised and don't put any condiments on it) has 670mg of sodium. The Black Forest Ham? 800mg. The Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki? 770mg of sodium and 16g of sugar. And these are just the 6 inch subs. Obviously, this doubles if you got a foot long. I could go on but I think you get the point. Oh wait, did you pick up a bag of Doritos as well (as a treat since you were being so healthy by going to subway)? Add on an additional 180mg of sodium.
5. This is a brand new issue I have with the Biggest Loser. Never in my life have I sat so horrified as I watched the final three reveal themselves.Bobby looked great and David looked fine. There was something a little off about his skin, but that could just be chalked up to massive weight loss in a short period of time. Often times, the skin just doesn't snap back. All the same, he looked a little too thin in the face.However, he looked an absolute vision of robust health compared to Rachel.
Now let's take a closer look at her face
This girl is 24 years old...so why does her skin look so taut and dry? Why has she seemingly aged dramatically? Some are making claims of malnourishment, others defend her saying it is simply because of the dramatic weight loss.
This was how Bob and Jillian reacted to her transformation:
Shock and horror. Bonus, check out Tanya's face in the upper right. Those were pretty much all of my reactions.
Rachel went from class III obesity to underweight. She is 5'4. At 105 that puts her BMI at 18; 18.5 is the bare minimum to be in your healthy weight range. I don't put a ton of stock in BMI since plenty of people can have a really high BMI but be incredibly healthy. BMI cannot distinguish between muscle weight and body fat weight. However, it is clear from just looking at her that something is very wrong.
So where were the doctors who supposedly monitor the contestants? The experts? I'm guessing once the semi-finale is over the contestants go home and the doctors say sayonara.
You can watch her big reveal below.
"Bob and I want to take a moment to congratulate all of the BL contestants on their hard work. We're not comfortable commenting on Rachel’s journey because weren't her trainers and weren't given an opportunity to work with her at any point. Any questions about the contestants on the Biggest Loser should be directed to the show’s producers."
What an utter load of tripe. Not her trainers? I'm sorry, did the contestants not all go back to singles? Were you not all working with each and every one of them? Do you not have eyes? If you even saw her after the semi-finale then you are culpable.
That being said, I don't think they saw her. I think once the semi-finale is over, the final three go home to take a crack at it on their own where they can engage in horrific tactics. Apparently they are allowed to do pretty much anything short of taking drugs. Check out this article for a full report on excessive dehydration, urinating blood, and more.
About Samantha Bookwalter
Google+Samantha Bookwalter is currently Associate Web Content Manager for Health Supplement Wholesalers. She specializes in web editing, copyediting, SEO, HTML, CSS, and other web-related acronyms. Samantha has an affinity for health and fitness; in her free time she enjoys working out with her husband and researching recipes that are not only healthy but delicious too.
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