[Trinity87]

Who likes the show Biggest Loser? I know I do.. it's so inspirational, motivational and seeing people lose so much weight within just a short time! Bob and Jillian are so cool. But it seemed a little different when Kim took over. I am actually a huge Jillian fan.

[Cheryl14]

Hi Trinity!

Welcome to 3FC!

I'm a big fan of the show, too! Bob's my man! Jillian and Kim make me CRAZY! I need a kinder and gentler approach like Bob uses. He works everyone hard, but he really gets it about the emotional side of things!

Kim, I felt ,really misread her team. Remember the episode where she was all over them and all they really needed was to TALK about their feelings? She really missed the mark, I think, and had to TRY to make up for lost ground for the rest of the season!

Jillian is a tough girl who has had a past. Her DVDs aren't as tough as she lets them on to be. I think she has many resolved issues in her life! I recently watched a Tyra show where Tyra had several diet gurus on. The Fat Smash Diet guy was the best with the greatest amount of weight lost in his team. He used a "Bob" approach of really BEING THERE for his team and HEARING them instead of just talking AT them. Jillian's team fell flat on their faces, and one girl outright QUIT! Jillian wasn't even calling her team BY THEIR NAMES and hadn't met with them. She wanted them to contact her BY E-MAIL! Come on! What's THAT about?

I wouldn't have gotten along with Jillian, and I probably would have knocked Kim on her a$$ when she would come at me like she did those people!

I often wonder, though, about the HUGE weight losses on the show. Are they actually saying that in ONE WEEK a person can LOSE 12-20 POUNDS of FAT? I often wonder about the pounds. I also wonder about the intense exercise on bodies that have spent whole DAYS on the couch eating Doritos!!!

Anyway, I have watched all the shows from all the seasons and really love watching. I've even gotten my 95-year-old mom watching the show!

What are YOUR thoughts on the trainers, the participants, and their weight loss techniques?

Oh, and didn't it look like old Matt was gaining much of his weight BACK?!!!

Cheryl

[Glory87]

I do love the show, but I worry it gives the average person an unrealistic expectation of fast fast fast weight loss.

[Serena87]

Hey Guys,

I like The Biggest Loser as well. I have never missed a season. I've seen all of the American version and all of season 1 of the Australian version. In fact Season 1 of the Australian version is starting tonight.

So about the trainers. Jillian is a very different person when you see her on the Australian version. You see a side to her than you never see in the American version. You see her sitting down with the contestants and trying to solve why they are here in the first place, you see her hugging them when they stop the workout and start crying. You actually really see her emotional side. As for the American version, I find they only show her 5-10 minutes within that hour. The Australian version, they show the show Sunday-Friday for 1 hour so you really get to see a lot more of her personality.

However, I'm sorry but it's kind of getting late over here. I'll tell you my view about Bob and Kim tomorrow. It was nice meeting you guys.

[chick_in_the_hat]

Hey - there's a whole forum dedicated to BL - come join us!

Trinity - Jillian has a weekly radio show in Los Angeles...go to the website for KFI AM 640. Click on press pass and select KFi on demand. It makes you sign up - but I haven't gotten extra spam that I know of from it. (I always uncheck the boxes that say I want them to send me emails). Once you are registered you will see a download button - I save the file to my desktop. Then I can listen whenever I want. (you can listen from the site as well...but it didn't work as well for me.)

Also check out an old thread where Jillian herself posted answers to questions from 3FCer's. Questions for Jillian Michaels re: Winning by Losing

[willmakeit]

I do not believe in Bootcamps (of any kind) as a way of loosing weight! Its not intended to lose weight in a slow and healthy fashion, neither will it install lifestyle changes on a longtern basis...(its just another form ("exercise form") of the 3 day hollywood diet or 5 day only tomato diet...

It may work only and only if they do the exact same stuff ALL THEIR LIFE which I dont think is practical. I'm sure they have all contestants sign waivers becoz, such strenous exercise concentrated in such a small time period and loosing weight so fast is detrimental for their health.

[chick_in_the_hat]

While I agree with the fact that the rate people lose weight on the show is not a realistic expectation for 99% of people trying to lose weight and keep it off, watching is insiprational. There are lessons to be learned from the show, even if I think there should be a lot more discussion of how to eat healthy and more info on the workouts. I detest the blatant hawking of products all thru, but I still love watching. If it is the only place people get nutritional info and the idea that exercising really works? Better than nothing. And better than diet pill ads...the more people are reminded to eat right and exercise the better off we are.

I got a lot more useful info out of Jillian's book "Winning by Losing" too.

[nybor7]

I have loved the show form the first episode.
I waver on how I really feel about the tactics used for the contestants to lose all that weight so quickly. Doing lunges, leapfrogs and squats after no movement for however many years is dangerous. We've seen the contestants sidelined with braces on their knees.
I am a massage therapist and surg tech, I have seen my share of Ortho injuries. Aside from the bones and muscles how about the vascular and cardio ramifications of jumping into a turbo charged exercose program after being sedentary. They are all followed by a Dr. on the show.
It did get me thinking though, wonder if insurance companies would ever think of shelling out the dough for a person to either go to a "BL camp" or be followed by a BL type team. It surely would cost less than WL surgery.
I often said when Oprah loses weight after a gain, "I could do that too, if I had Bob waking me up dragging me out by me hair to go running, and a chef to prepare all of my healthy properly proportioned meals for me".
I have come to the conclusion(IMO) that a person CAN(physically possible) lose 5-10 pounds for so many weeks, it can happen we have seen it.
The guidelines of 2-3 have been set so people don't rebound. Any one of "us" not being followed by a nutritionist, trainer and a slew of Drs would attain that kind of weight loss with crash dieting or over exercising. We would get frustrated by any plateau and then crash while our weight just packs back on.
The slow and steady route is the easiest and most sensible one. It's just frustrating.
Although I am thrilled with the participants results on the show I worry what the injuries will be a year form now. The patient might just favor those risks with the risks of staying overweight.

Robyn