The Biggest Loser (Season 2, Week 4)
The Biggest Loser went to Las Vegas this week, which was supposed to be the ultimate in temptation. I'm not sure how many days they stayed in Vegas, but I don't think it was the whole week. The real test would be to leave them on their own, with their families/friends. But they're still learning and losing weight, so maybe that's not the point of the show. But, temptation is nothing compared to a goal.
Anyways, these people did an amazing job of losing weight again. I think they averaged losing over 2.5% of their body weight. Most amazing was the 43 year old doctor who lost 14 lbs (340 to 326 lbs). That's like 4% of his body weight. It's also 2 lbs a day, or running a 7000 calorie/day deficit. To put that into perspective, Tour de France riders might burn 9000 calories on the toughest race stages climbing the Alps.
Ok, I have to admit I believe in the < 1%/week weightloss myth. Everyone seems to say rapid weightloss isn't healthy. I'm losing about .65%/week, and I'm working out 5-6 days a week, doing both hard cardio and strength. But, I just found a Jillian Michaels interview where she says there's nothing wrong with rapid weightloss through exercise. Of course, she's promoting a book, but the results on the show are making a believer out of me. Jillian Michaels' story itself is inspirational. She tells you about her own turn-around in an interview on iVillage.
I'm trying to formulate a workout plan to lose like 2kg in a week. If I come up with one, I'll try it here.
posted by stephenhow @ 8:35 AM
2 Comments:
The biggest problems with such rapid and dramatic weight loss is first and foremost almost no one keeps it off for the long term. Sure, some do but it's been shown time and time again that a huge majority do not.
Secondly, when you drop such rapid weight some comes from fat loss, some from water but worst of all you begin to break down muscle protein which means you burn off vital muscle tissue.
Another reason it is not recommended is due to the fact that it can be detrimental to your health, particularly your heart. Many studies have shown such dramtic, fast weight loss, and even more so the gain back or "yo-yo" effect increases the chances of shortening life span.
That said, when people weigh 300 to over 400 pounds then yes, I would say more than 2 pounds of weight loss per week would be acceptable and almsot recommendable. The main thing to watch will be how long they keep it off and if they are actually able to keep it off.
What you have going for you is that you continue to lose steadily, are not suffering and killing yourself and you have gotten to the point where you can pretty much continue to actually live like you are now for the rest of your life (of course with expected drops and rises in your workout frequency and intensity).
There are a few people out there who can drop weight drastically and keep it off. To them I say great, but time and experience has taught us that it's very mcuh the exception and not the rule.
By the way, keep up the great work!
Thanks Randy. Such rapid weight loss really isn't worth the effort to me. I might go for 2-a-day workouts, but that's just seperating cardio from strength, as we've discussed. I'm pretty happy with my results. My goal is definitely within sight. And I've learned a lot along the way.
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