Reasons Why I HATE The Big*est Lo*er...

Yup, I said it. I realize this may be one of the most controversial statements I've ever made, but screw it...people need to know that the show is unrealistic. And if you love the show and want to continue loving the show, this is your chance to stop reading. As in now. And if you don't read anything else...at least read Reason #3 and #4.

There are a lot of reasons that I, as a health and wellness professional, can't stand this show...the main one being that I feel like it gives people an unrealistic view of what true weight loss looks like. Clients come to me all of the time and are shocked to realize that I can't promise them a loss of 15 pounds per week...after all, they've seen it happen on the Big*est Lo*er so it has to be true. Right? Wrong. Let me give you just a few of those reasons why I believe this show is unrealistic and then you can make your own determination. We're all, after all, entitled to our opinions.

Reason #1. Pretty much any Certified Personal Trainer and just about any other reputable source for exercise guidelines say that extreme weight loss isn't healthy and doesn't offer a long-term weight loss solution. The Amercian College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) maintains that approximately 1 to 2 pounds per week maximum is a healthy, realistic, sustainable weight loss goal. Any additional weight loss is most likely from losing water weight, lean muscle mass, and risks both the personal safety and wellness of the individual(s) who choose to disregard those suggested guidelines.

Reason #2. Every person alive has a certain number of calories, specific to their own body, that they need to survive optimally (i.e. for lungs, heart and other major organs to function). It's called your Resting Metabolic Rate or RMR. You might have heard it referred to as your BMR (or Basal Metabolic Rate). Older data for this was based upon a mathematical formula. New technology has given us the ability to measure that data using specialized medical equipment. If you want to know more about it, email me...but it's too complicated to get into on here. The quick version is that each and every person is uniquely different, therefore, so are their caloric needs. For instance, I've had clients that are an identical height and weight come to me for an RMR assessment and it turns out that one of them needs 1700 calories (minimum) per day and the other needs only 1100 calories (minimum) per day. Again, it's a unique number that's based upon a person's specific physiology. If you consistently eat under your RMR, you'll actually cause your metabolism to slow down and begin or continue to store fat over time.

Reason #3. To lose 1 pound of fat per week, you have to create a deficit, between diet and exercise, of 3500 calories or 500 calories per day. To lose 2 pounds of fat per week, you have to create a deficit of 7000 (count them, SEVEN THOUSAND) calories over the course of 7 days (or 1000 calories per day) without eating UNDER your RMR aka Resting Metabolic Rate (refer to #2).

Reason #4: Now, knowing that to lose 2 pounds you have to create a deficit of 1000 calories per day, imagine how unrealistic it is that Bob told one of the women on the show last night that she needs to eat 1200 calories per day and burn 6000 calories in one day. I wanted to jump through my television screen and slap him upside the head. Really, Bob? 6000 calories in ONE DAY. Let's just assume that, since the lady on the show is a larger woman, she really does burn 500 calories per hour because carrying around more weight does mean that you expend more calories. Doing the simple math would mean that she would need to work out for 12 hours (at 500 calories per hour) in order to create that kind of caloric deficit. Basically, for someone to lose 12 pounds, like they try to say happens on The Big*est Lo*er in one week, that means that the person has created a deficit of 42,000 calories in 1 week. Or even better 15 pounds equals 52,500. Possible? I think not! And if it does happen, I can assure you - it's not healthy!!!

Reason #5: What normal human being has (1) that kind of time or (2) that kind of will power. Working out for 12 hours per day over several days (or weeks as the show presents) is setting yourself up for over-training, injury, and at the obesity levels of the contestants, even death.

Reason #6: There is NOOOOO WAY that show is taped on the timetable that it tries to say it accomplishes the weight loss for these contestants. There would be too much liability involved to do that...so I guarantee that they have all contestants sign some sort of waiver that promises they won't disclose that kind of information because it would ruin the show's credibility and thus, their fan base.

Reason #7: The kinds of exercises that they have the obese contestants doing are absolutely ridiculous. Their own body weight is enough resistance...so if they just walked on a treadmill or road the exercise bike, they could accomplish the expentiture of calories. At the morbid obesity levels of the contestants, their joints, tendons, ligaments, stabilizer muscles, and secondary muscles are all at risk already by just walking around with so much extra weight on them!!! WHY? Oh WHY? then would they feel the need to have them doing exercises like lunges (SO much pressure on the knees) or (for the love) the Jacob's Ladder Climbing System. Exercise should be about quality movements that improve strength, stability, flexibility and quality of life. Instead, on the show, it's about product placement and because making these contestants sweat and suffer while we sit on the couch eating ice cream makes for entertaining television. Over time - and after significant weight loss - pieces of equipment like Jacob's Ladder absolutely have their place...it breaks up the monotony, fine tunes motor skills, etc...but it's not safe or necessary at weights of 200+ pounds, I promise!

I could go on and on, but I won't because no one is probably even reading now...still, I truly believe health and fitness should be about creating manageable, realistic, obtainable, measureable goals...and I don't find that to be the case - at all - with this show. It's setting normal, overweight American men and women up for failure because when they go into the gym expecting to lose weight and don't see results even remotely similiar to that show, they leave feeling like failures. And because they feel like failures, they don't work out and they eat. It perpetuates the problem. I would personally look anyone in the eye - even Bob & Jillian - and say the same thing...and probably more. So until I'm on that television set and able to see for myself that this weight loss is legitimate and that the timing isn't skewed...I'll keep saying it:

The Big*est Lo*ser is a scam.