has anyone noticed?
 

that season 2 is witholding diet info?(they make ppl pay to know)

Sheesh, is that what their whole fitness site is about?

i was actually referribg to the bl diet club to access diet info

Yeah, i thought that was rediculous too. Just another way to make money, because you know that suckers will pay for it too. Whatever they are doing, while they are getting results, can't be something you'd want to do long term, in my opinion anyway. It just seems a little wrong that they would take advantage of people by making them pay for everything on their site. They're a little sneaky about it too, i was over there looking at it, and you don't find out you have to pay til you're about half way through signing up for it.

I can't even find the site. I have a fondness for this show, though. :)

go to NBC network's website

Actually, Suzanne posted the link to the trainer's plans from the NBC site:

Biggest Loser Trainer Plans

Suzanne checked out the 'paid' site and the basic skinny is that the diet and exercise plans on the site (and outlined in the PDFs at the link above) is NOT the same as the ones given the contestants - the calories aren't as low and there's a LOT less exercise involved - they also dissuade anyone from trying to lose more than 2 lb a week, which is a GOOD thing - after looking at the calorie counts and exercise levels the contestants are doing, I guess NBC and Rodale (who is running the paid site) doesn't want people dropping dead from eating 1000 calories a day and working out HARD for 3 hours 6 days a week! :lol:

Thanks for the info on finding the site.

I did their free "profile" so I could enter the sweepstakes. It said to lose weight I should eat 1200 cals a day, which is way too low for me but would certainly result in weight loss. If the contestants on that show are only eating 1000 cals a day at the weight they are at, that doesn't seem like a good idea, to me, but no wonder they are getting the massive results.

Still I find it fun to watch. :)

i agree w lizzy...thanks lizzy:)

I probably should've used my calculator before saying 1,000 a day. :duh:

Both trainers are using "calorie cycling" or "zig-zagging" judging from the posted sample menus. The women's range is a low of 964 cal/day to a high of 1263 cal/day, averaging out to 1,137 calories daily. The men's range is a bit higher - the average caloric intake is 1,634 a day (from the daily menus) or 1,285 (from the "Rough Daily Guide" on page 1 of Jillians' PDF).

Still pretty low though, especially considering all the exercise they're doing!

The important thing to keep in mind is that the show is primarily for *entertainment purposes*. Of course it IS motivating and inspiring to see these contestants push themselves and attempt to change their lives - but at least for this season, the contestants all knew what they were getting into; I'm sure they had to sign an ironclad liability release. Also, as I've mentioned, they have onsite, constant medical supervision.

One of the reasons that Suzanne created this subforum was to encourage discussion about HEALTHY weight loss. I'm CERTAIN that there are many, many viewers watching TBL and thinking that *they* can do the same thing on their own and get the same results as the players, but that's just asking for trouble!

Nevertheless, I would hazard to guess that for anyone who is interested in the topics of weight loss and fitness, it's kind of a hard show NOT to watch, and it CAN be inspiring :)

We were watching "Ultimate Goal" and the trainer had the man eating a lot. She said everyone told her he'd not lose, but she said that his body needed the fuel since he was doing intense workouts. Sure enough, he lost a lot.

I believe now that the diet PDFs on the page linked above were the plans they followed last year. I remember them from last year.

I personally think the program they are following on the tv show should be called "how NOT to diet". I really dislike the image the show projects, because it makes the reality of losing 1 or 2 pounds per week appear as a failure instead of success, especially to non-dieters that don't have a clue what safe and realistic weight loss is. They will watch the contestants lose 15 pounds in a week and wonder why the rest of us have weight problems if losing weight is that easy and fast. But that's just my personal opinion, and I'm aware that it's not shared by everyone :lol:

I am trying to get enthused, though. I'd rather not feel so negative about a reality show, lol. Maybe some of your good vibes will rub off on me :)

I agree with your point, Suzanne. I think it's a bad message that the 1-2 pound losses of the women seemed so disappointing (I'm deliriously happy when I lose .5), but then they do stand to win a whole pile of money if they win the contest and well it's a TV show and they have to have a big dramatic thing going on, I guess. :)

Is this *reality*? You get to take 2-10 weeks off from work, stay in a controlled diet-environment and work out 3-5 hours a day with a professional trainer and think of nothing else....

No kids, family, housework, daytoday problems to deal with, no responsibilities of changing the catbox or walking the dog.......you only have to focus on changing your eating habits and improving your body.
Sleep away camp for adults with the embarrassment factor of standing on a scale in your underwear on National TV!

I like the show for reminding me to take care of my body and I admire the people who have the courage to stand on a scale in their underwear. but no thanks.

Not *just* from this show but Webster's will probably have to update their definition of reality pretty soon. :rofl:

IMO...it beats watching Danny Bonaduce shoot up steroids on VH1. :rolleyes:

(I don't make a habit of watching "reality" shows but my favorite so far is still Frontier House which ran a couple years ago on PBS - THOSE people took SIX MONTHS off work to participate and lost a BUNCH of weight...although that wasn't the show's intended purpose! ;) )

Danny Bonaduce is a jackass....personally I don't really CARE if he sits on a curb and pretends he's a troubled *yoot* (Joe Pece did it much better in My Cousin Vinny, maybe Danny should get a clue).

i predict they will scrap that hideous show....

Is *reality* sticking your tongue in a chocolate fondue fountain on national TV so millions of people can go "EUOWWWWW, gross!"?

Judging from the article in People Mag last week and the commercials I've seen for "Breaking Bonaduce", I can only hope you're right.

(I didn't mention the Chris Knight (Peter Brady) reality show on right now, but at least Chris has held up (both physically and mentally) a LOT better than Danny who IMO should have a giant L tattooed on his forehead at this point. What a train wreck... aiyiyiyi!

Besides, I thought that Peter was by far the cutest Brady - yes I am old enough to remember when the show first aired! Who can forget ABC on Friday nights - Partridge Family, Bradys, Nanny and the Professor, and the Odd Couple?)

How much you wanna bet that Ms. Fondue Tongue positively CRINGED when she watched that scene when it aired 2 weeks ago...she was probably caught in the moment - I'll bet that there were other contestants doing stuff just as ridiculously embarrassing and she was the one who got 'caught on film'.

Do you think they were told they must eat to the point of being in pain? i just can't fathom not one thought "hmmm...$250,000 if i lose the most weight...maybe i should start a day before every one else"

I liked Frontier House also. It also had a "weight loss" story if I recall ... one of the men lost a lot of weight and they called in a 21-century doc to check him out and he was whining that the show was starving him and he was ill from all the hardship but the doc said, uh, you are HEALTHY now and were overweight before. In the months following the return to civilization, he put all his pudginess back on again.

I was thinking that, too. And IMO that's another bad message they're giving people who are trying to lose weight ... that sometimes you are wildly "off" the diet and sometimes you are "on" the diet.

That was that Clune guy - the family that cheated by sneaking off to visit the 21st Century neighbors and trade with them, watch TV, etc; the daughters smuggled in mascara (!!) and they also scrounged around in a junkyard and snuck a boxspring into their cabin, which the judges found on the 'day of reckoning', as the evaluation pointed out.

Of course, they denied doing anything against the rules...

Oh, yes, the Clunes! Now I remember the bedsprings and them also breaking the rules and trading with the modern neighbors. Thanks for posting the link, I hadn't actually read the evaluations, had just watched the show when it was on and I was home.

I had thought it was funny how the girls ran around in their underwear also (per evaluation) ... no female in 1800s Montana would have done that.

I loved Frontier house, 1900's house, colonial house, manor house....good stuff. You appreciate how much life is the same as well as how much it's different. A whole new perspective - time travel...

Yes, that was a version of reality tv that at least had some value to it, in my opinion. It's really hard for me to watch any reality tv. I somehow get sucked into the biggest loser though. I did like the body challenge much better, but i no longer have that channel. it just keeps getting more depraved though, hopefully the trend will be over soon.

(though I will secretly watch Nanny 911 and Celebrity Fithouse when no one is looking *LOL*)

I've never seen Frontier House or those others mentioned...(which station please)?

As for Peter Brady.....sigh, he is also the new spokesman for that NEW and IMPROVED (now in the sexy black canvas) AB-LOUNGE ULTIMATE.....OY VEY!

(Mrs. Jim I LOVED Nanny and the Professor! and I was convinced that my mother and Felix Unger were somehow related)

Frontier house, 1900s house, manor house, colonial house were all on PBS, Marblefly! Also there was one, also on PBS, that had people living in an English forest as a bronze age tribe ... guessing about the time period, not sure, someone else maybe knows ... it was extremely good, the best one I've seen.

I've secretly watched Big Brother and also one where high school classes reunited and lived in a house, as well as the nanny show when they called it something else ... as well as Survivor, as well as some horrible one with celebrities in a rain forest ... ok, I've watched LOTS of reality shows that WEREN'T history projects like the ones on PBS, but usually I keep it a secret. :lol:

Hopefully they play that one here...that sounds great!

Thanks for the info....I usually run right over PBS.....I'll have to check it out, I think I have 2-3 PBS stations in the plethera of stations I pay through the nose for.....

It ain't all Sesame Street... :lol: There's also Mystery, Are You Being Served and Keeping Up Appearances...I watch way too much TV even tho I don't have cable... :o