Hi all! Forgive me if this has been asked and answered, but: How do these people keep putting up huge numbers per week?! I mean I understand the concept that a medically obese person that has not exercised or watch what has gone into their bodies suddenly get thrown into a huge exercise program and healthy eating, that for the first few weeks weight will drop off them.
BUT, 12 weeks has gone by, shows pretty much over, other than the finale, which by the way, I am soooo excited about! Anyway, I digress, how do they keep losing 3,5,7,10lbs??!! I am mystified. I mean if 3500 calories over and above whatever they take in, I am assuming 12-1500 cals a day, how many hours must they exercise a day? I dont get it! Anyone know wassup?

You know, I love the Biggest Loser. But the other week that Matt dropped 26 pounds in one week! I was like what the heck?? What could you possibily do to lose 26 pounds in one week? Safely non the less!?? It's great motivation! Just wish that it was realistic for 26 freaking pounds! Ha.

GO Matt!

-Christine

My guess is that Matt played food games. I bet he cut his calories the following week to starvation level and worked out like a demon. Remember that all of the contestants were working out at least 3 hours a day seven days a week. They had nothing to do but lose weight. Men have more muscle which burns more calories and that is why they always lose more than the women. It isn't fair. I am currently on a medically supervised fast. The first week I lost 12 lbs but the average loss is 2-4 lbs. a week with a couple of 6 lb weeks. I'm not exercising, but if I were the numbers would be bigger.

You know Rosetta, I'm concerned about Matt's food games--I think it could do some long term damage to his metabolism, not to mention his heart and other vital organs.....

I wish I knew how they did it as well...I could be to goal in five months!

Matt gained 12 pounds the week before by binging before the weigh-in (because he had immunity). Not all of that weight was true "weight" but the weight of the food and water itself. If he drank a quart of water before the weigh-in that would account for two whole pounds that would "dissappear" within hours. So he didn't really lose 26 lbs in one week, he lost 26 lbs in two weeks. Still high, but still possible.

Also, they're working out like maniacs. One hour with the trainers and more on their own. I wonder how many of them will end up having gallstones or hair loss. This really is fear factor or survivor. They're not losing the weight the best way, they're losing it the most entertaining way.

I do watch the show, and find it motivating, but it is definitely a "do not try this at home" show. I know that if I tried to do that with all of my health problems I would be in the hospital within a couple weeks (and I'm probably overestimating my abilities).

What Colleen says is pretty spot on - the contestants have been devoting ALL of their time to diet and exercise so they are *bound* to lose more than your typical person who is in the 'real world'.

The show can be VERY motivating and encouraging, but the absolute worst thing that one can do is compare yourself with the contestants! (actually, I would say that applies in 'real life weight loss' as well...PLEASE don't compare your progress with others - if you're staying on your nutrition and exercise plan, your body will stay on its OWN schedule...I know several folks who have had weight-loss surgery, lost a lot of weight the first few weeks, then (even though they stayed on their prescribed plan!) PLATEAUED for WEEKS on end. Your body could care less about how someone else is losing weight - it's going to go on its OWN schedule whether you want it to or not. Sometimes a person might be plateauing because he or she is eating more than they THINK they are (this is why, especially in the weight-loss phase, it's so critical to weigh, measure, and journal your food intake, as well as your exercise intensity and duration). (yup, I've seen the bazillion posts about folks thinking they're not losing weight because they're "not eating enough" and putting themselves into "starvation mode" but I personally think that's HIGHLY exaggerated...check out this thread in Maintainers for more info)

It doesn't really have anything to do with 'fairness' per se...it's just the way that men and women are made, ya know? As Cathryn said a few episodes ago (when the men's and women's teams were broken up into boy-girl pairs): "Suck it Up!" Again, it's that COMPARISION thing. Women were made to retain fat easier than men for a REASON - to give birth and nurture their young. (And keep in mind that it goes both ways - oftentimes (especially when they get older) men not only LOSE weight faster than women but they can GAIN it in the blink of an eye - recall Matt's 12-pound gain a few weeks back...

If you can still find it (check your library) you might want to read the article in the November issue of O (the Oprah Magazine) regarding the show on that very topic (titled "It's Not Fair!"). You might find it eye opening...

And just look at our final three contestants - Suzy has lost less weight than Matt, but she's much closer to her goal weight than he is - I would say she's maybe 20 pounds away from goal, while Matt is closer to 40 or 50. So percentagewise, it all evens up in the long run.

I agree with the Matt playing food games thing. He did admit to "knowing some games" based on his wrestling career. and if you know wrestling at all, they CAN be really bad and on the top of the list as far as male Eating Disorders. That aside, I guess Im thinking more of the girls. I understand how weightloss works with guys v girls and all that, but really. I mean even Andrea who was the slowest of them all did at least 2-3lbs every week, right? So are we agreeing that we all know for sure that its like 3-4-5hrs+ of working out everyday and like 1200 cals? God I would be the hospital for sure! If I even take in a few less cals and run hard, guaranteed I'm sick within a couple of days, with a cold or a flu of somesort. I wasnt looking for "diet tips" so much as just amazed at how they could keep doing it week after week!
Rosettastone, did the Dr. make the call on your "fast?" If so hows it going?!

It's pretty normal for bodybuilders to do these kind of 'tricks'. I don't think Matt was sitting on his butt eating brownies or anything - he just eased back a bit, and probably drank a ton of water, and ate a BIT more - maybe added more sodium to his diet (which would cause him to retain water) but in doing so, he actually gave his body a break for a few days, which most likely gave him the strength to really push it the last couple of episodes...he was REALLY booking it up that wall yesterday (both times!).

From what I've read, it was 3 hours a day of workouts - each contestant was on a personalized diet regimen (plus, for Andrea, those brownies!) and I would bet that the trainers zig-zagged their calories so they weren't eating exactly the same number of calories every single day.

Also - not only did the contestants have a 'rest day' each week, but they weren't working at a job during the time at the ranch or have any daily chores as far as I can see - even if they worked out 5 hours a day, that still leaves them 19 hours of the rest of the day with really nothing more to do that relax and recover from their workouts.

Kind of reminds me when I went to 'fat camp' at the age of 16 - it was 8 weeks long and our basic day was as follows:

7:00 am - a hour long aerobics class OR jogging around the campus OR bicycling around the campus (which was big and hilly!).
8:15 am - breakfast
The rest of the morning until lunch was broken up into hour-long 'periods' where we would be in some sort of physical activity (i.e. aerobics, volleyball, running, tennis, weightlifting, racquetball, etc) except for 3 periods a week devoted to nutrition class.
Lunch was around noon, followed by an hour 'rest period' (usually used to read or write letters from home, that sort of thing)
Then we'd have 2 or 3 more hours of exercise, including pool aerobics. Dinner was usually around 6. There were OPTIONAL exercise classes but also activities like arts & crafts, drama, dances, etc that were done in the evening. There was one TV set and we were only allowed to watch it for about 2 hours between 8 and 10 pm. I'm sure we didn't work out as INTENSELY as the BL teams but we were only KIDS and we weren't competing with each other either.

Also...my parents were both raised on farms and had to do hard manual labor most of the day when they weren't in school - my Dad especially since my grandfather was a farmer by trade so their livelihood depended on it (my mom's father was a coal miner so they HAD an income, but still depended on their farm produce for much of their food!). Dad grew up in the 1930's and 40's and they didn't have a lot of mechanized equipment - most of the work was done by hand (and until the very late 1940's or early 50's that included fetching water from the pump back of the house since they had no indoor plumbing...if you want to know what 'hard work' REALLY means, try and use an old fashioned hand pump and buckets to fetch enough water to bathe in, cook with or do laundry...whew!)

Wish that all of us could make time for 3 hours of workout a day!
Wouldn't life be easy if we didn't have to work for a living!
Go Matt Go!
-Christine

With his intentional gain (which was probably mostly water- 1 gallon of water weighs 8 pounds), it was more like he lost 14 pounds over the 2 weeks. 7 pounds a week is still a lot, but it does bring it down to more imaginanal numbers & in line with his other loses towards the end. With the women, I'm assuming TOM didn't affect them as much, since they were eating healthy, drinking tons of water & exercising so much...their bodies could have been in so much shock that they didn't get a visit from Aunt Flo. I know when they did a weight loss thing at one of my old jobs, they did give women 1 pass week per month to account for it- which a few of the guys didn't like, but most understood why.

I know the contestants worked out a lot, but you still have to wonder how healthy over all the pace they lost weight is long term. It does seem like they are definantly pushing it- I really wish they could address some of the 'how'd they do that' type stuff...even if they just gave us a couple 1 hours shows to let us see what happended behind the scenes. I also wonder how well they will do after the focus is off, which really isn't until after the final show next week. I do admitt I would love to lose weight that quickly...but I know my metabolism is soooo screwed up from the GI problem I have that I will never be able to lose that rapidly without my body thinking its gone into starvation mode again

At least several of last year's contestants (the ones that have popped up this season) have done EXTREMELY well in maintaining their losses - particularly Gary (my fave from last season!), Drea, and Aaron. (I understand that at least several of last season's 'graduates' will be making appearances in the finale next week...THAT will add interest!)

I've always maintained that there are NO secrets in weight loss (see my own post on My Big Weight Loss Secret). It really comes down to education, planning, application, and PERSISTENCE - making those permanent healthy lifestyle changes, ya know? I would bet that NBC and the producers decided that an hour of "how they did it" would probably not get high ratings...I suspect the reason for that is that SO many viewers probably suspect that there IS some big secret behind their big weight losses - after all that's how all those diet pill, book, and gadget marketers are able to get people to pick up the phone and spend money on their "miracle" products - by convincing people that they know the BIG secret to easy weight loss. Like a magician, to keep the public intrigued, the producers IMO have kept the 'back stage details' in the background...KWIM?

As you stated, even Matt's 'tricks' aren't exactly big secrets - I'm pretty sure he just took in a few more calories (but not a LOT more), rested, and water loaded (with probably some extra sodium) the week he had immunity - which was really smart of him - and then went back to normal the following week (but with probably a lot more energy for the few days' extra rest...again I have to make the racehorse analogy - even a champion racehorse must have a break from training every so often...I would say that Seth and Suzy did the same thing (although didn't take it as 'extreme' as Matt did) when they got immunity - at least they water loaded a little bit.

And who is to say that the trainers didn't advise the players who won immunity to take advantage of the situation? As I recall (I would have to check for sure...) whenever a player won immunity in the Challenges, he or she had a low weight loss that week (or even a gain, as in Matt's case, anyway).

I am glad I'm not the only one wondering about these losses and being flabbergasted when I see them. 10 pounds gone week after week. It just doesn't even seem possible, but it's happening.

I heard a fast loss equals a tons of excess skin. I noticed the contestants look much better after they're kicked off and you see them much later. They seem more toned.