Biggest Loser - Season 1

Not only are hubby and I watching the current Biggest Loser - Season 10 which just started last week.  We are also going through all of the other seasons. =)

We just stated and we are in Episode 3 of Season 1.  So if you never watched they had the two teams with Bob and Jillian but they were called the Eat More and Eat Less teams.

In Week 1 they all had great losses, but Jillian's team definitely did more and more intense workouts than Bob's team.  The most that was lost was 20+ lbs in the first week.  In Week 2 they had from +3 to -7 I think was the most - but most were at 0, 1, 2lb losses across both teams.

In Week 3 Jillian talks to her team about how they are all going to plateau.  How their bodies are going into
shut down mode and how her team needs to EAT MORE CALORIES.  By increasing their calories they will trick their system into releasing the lbs, while still being fueled to get through the workouts. 

So right there the whole Eat More/Eat Less teams are abandoned, they have 12, 13lb losses in week 3 and her team moves on to the next week losing more weight than the Blue Team (Bob's team).  Then Bob's team eliminates one of the strongest players that they have.  They fear that each week that Jillian's team is just going to pick them off one by one.  In the end, they are right.  That was 2005.

So what does this tell us?  The restricted diet plans really don't work when you are as heavy as those contestants.  They take your calories down to a critical level that not only shuts down your system from releasing stored fat (no weight loss), fail to fuel your body so you can do the workouts (no fitness, cravings, mood swings, sleeplessness, etc.) but all of this can also have horrible after effects on all of your internal organs.  They feel the starvation mode and they kick in to hold on to every ounce of fat that you have in you.  This just doesn't work.

One of the other things that I loved about Season  1 is that it is a new show, so the contestants don't know what to expect.  They are all sitting around talking and stating how "If Fat people know how to do anything.. it's diet!"  "Oh yeah, I have lost 400lbs easily... I know how to diet."

I believe, that if fat people knew how to diet, they wouldn't be fat.  We THINK that we know how to diet because we have done it dozens if not more times before.  However, you are on a show called "The Biggest Loser" - you aren't exactly showing your successes here as a dieter. =)

Of course, as we have learned over 10 seasons of The Biggest Loser - we don't know how to diet.  We just don't.  The media, the diet industry, the food industry, the school system has taught us WRONG AND MISLEADING INFORMATION about our bodies and how to lose weight and be healthy for the long term.  Instead their methods focus on the short term for the weight loss in your bank account, and to keep you coming back when you resume your regularly scheduled life and put the weight back on so then you return to them b/c you were so successful before.  It must be you and your lack of willpower that is the problem. 

That's bullshit.

Find a healthy alternative for your life.  Make little changes that you can do every day and feel that you can make part of your routine.  Learn about your body and how it works and what food does inside of you once it is past the back of your teeth.

You don't need to know how to diet.  You need to learn how to live a healthy lifestyle. =)