The Biggest Loser - Results Still Not Typical

I caught an episode of The Biggest Loser the other night. I don’t usually watch the show anymore, but as a dietitian I feel obligated to watch it once in a while. I had to stop watching when it became too much of a ‘game show’...forcing contestants to do things like eating donuts to win the prize of a family visit.

Each time I see this show I’m struck by the incongruities with real life. I learned on a previous episode that contestants are exercising about 6 hours a day. The other night one of the trainers was showing the contrast in a contestants ‘before’ and ‘current’ meals. The ‘before’ contained 1000-2000 calories per meal. The current meals were only about 200-300 calories each, for a total that appeared to be somewhere in the range of 1000 calories a day.

When you get down to 1000 calories per day, it's difficult to meet your body’s needs for other important nutrients (like vitamins & minerals). This is a low calorie level for a sedentary man and it's exceptionally low for someone who's exercising this many hours a day!

So what’s the average person to do? The sensible approach is to use a combination of diet and exercise. You should cut down calories by 500 a day for every pound you want to lose per week (without going lower than 1200 calories). If you’re eating junk food or sweetened drinks, simply eliminating these could be enough. Take a look at your snack labels too…these calories add up fast!

Here are few tips to start on the road to weight loss:

• Replace sweetened beverages with water or sugar free drinks
• Cut out junk foods like chips or cookies (or at least replace them with smaller portions of lower calorie snacks)
• Start controlling your portion sizes (especially anything fried, sauced, or with cheese)

- Renee