The Biggest Loser! Or The Biggest Sham!

Love it or hate it, but the show I love to hate, has everyone talking.

When I meet new people and they find out I’m a personal trainer, every one of them asks the following 2 questions.

Do you work for Fitness First?

What do you think of the biggest loser?

The first one, that’s easy. NO NO NO and NO. Did I mention NO.  But yes I do feel sorry for the poor bastards who do. But that’s a whole other blog

The second question. Well, that’s not so easy. But let me try to explain.

I may be wrong on this, because let’s be honest I would rather work at fitness first than watch an episode of the biggest loser.  But I have a basic understanding of what the show is about. Person x, gets followed around by a camera for 20hrs a day filming them almost kill themselves in order to win prize money. Am I right?

I think the show is doing wonders for the fitness industry and for that, all of the personal trainers, and gym owners have a lot to thank them for. So before I completely write you off, Michelle Bridges and Shannon (um what’s his name). From all of us in the fitness industry a big THANK YOU. Every week without fail these people get on television to be scrutinised and (in some cases) made fun of, all in the name of entertainment

Isn’t it ironic that the show that is trying to stop people from sitting on their fat lazy arses all day means that you have to sit in front of the television to “enjoy”? And didn’t the last episode go for a little over 2 hours. COME ON people your time would have been much better spent if you just got the highlights off the internet the next day learnt a few useful tips and put them into practice the next time you went to the gym.

My biggest concern with the show is that you, the viewer don’t get to see what goes on behind the scenes. All you get is what some produces somewhere deems to make “good television”. What the rest of us should realise is that in the real world, we don’t have 5 hours a day to exercise, we don’t have a team of personal trainers, doctors, psychologists, heart specialists, podiatrists, orthopaedic surgeons and most importantly nutritionalist living with us 24hours a day. What we get is a 2hour window to see people exercise and lose 10-20 kgs a week. No wonder the general public is so confused when it comes to weight loss.

OK sure the show helps people lose a lot of weight which is great, but everyone knows it’s not healthy to lose that much weight that fast. Has anyone seen Sharif (2009 TBL contestant) recently, the man looks like a Shar-Pei.

And that’s just one case. Imagine if all the ex TBL contestants got in a room together. It would look like a giant tub of Play-Doh exploded. These problems can only be fixed with surgery. But if they had been smart and lost it the normal way, their shin would have had a chance to shrink as well and they wouldn’t have these excess skin problems.

And what about the other issues these contestants will have to face when they finally get released back into the wild. They’re at a greater risk of developing eating disorders and exercise addictions. Not to mention the psychological issues associated with such drastic weight loss.

What we are not shown enough of on the show is the contestant’s nutritional programming. The show is misinforming viewers that nutrition is only a small contributing factor in weight loss. But any good personal trainer will tell you that NUTRITION is 80% weight loss. Why do you think programs like Weight Watchers and Lite And Easy have the highest success rate of any weight loss program (this is statistically proven.) The answer is, because it teaches people how to focus on WHAT and HOW MUCH they are putting into their mouth and how to take into account calories, from carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

To lose weight you do need to cut down on your calories and you do need to exercise, but that comes secondary, and is done as a bonus to burn the extra consumed calories. Have you ever noticed that the successful contestants of the show often go on to endorse nutritional programs?

But just cutting calories won’t do it. That can be dangerous. To lose weight properly and to have more chance of sticking to the nutritional changes, a person should be eating the correct amounts of the macro-nutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fat) which should be coming from 2 serves of fruit a day, 5 serves of vegetables, red meat, white meat, legumes, seeds, diary, fish, grains and cereals. It can be confusing but any good personal trainer or nutritionalist can write a nutritional program tailored specifically to you.

Don’t be disillusioned if you thought that you were going to get the same results that the contestants get, but all you got was sweaty bum from sitting on the lounge. Remember weight loss is a long term commitment.

If you need advice and guidance with you eating habits or exercise routine, speak to a professional, that’s why they’re there.

Michael

Fit Fundamentals

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