This morning I had the pleasure of being interviewed on air by Mark Parton on radio 2CC down in Canberra on my thoughts on the Biggest Loser and why I don’t agree with the concept being a positive step to help people achieve weight loss success and the body that they deserve.
I know that a lot of trainers, and a lot of my clients love this show – hey my fiancé even loves it, but I just can’t get my head around it.
Whenever I come home and Bron is watching the show I feel like throwing the remote control at the TV the whole time!
Anyway, Mark and I spoke about a couple of areas but the main issue that Mark and I agreed on was that The Biggest Loser is an unrealistic way to portray training for fat loss results.
Even these celebrity personal trainers on the show should know that the best weight loss workouts for someone who is really obese and hasn’t exercised in years does not involve interval training routines like they do on the show.
I am the biggest fan of interval training routines that is out there and my Aussie Fatblast Success System is based around these said principles and routines.
However, if someone is as de-conditioned as the contestants on The Biggest Loser are wouldn’t it be smarter to encourage them to start of exercising lightly and gradually build up to bigger and better things over the course of the program rather than getting them to sprint around a horse racing track for the sake of good TV?
They must have to sign a pretty decent waiver at the start of filming because they are just asking for a serious injury or heart attack from putting the people through this type of torture. The times that I have been able to catch it each year there always seems to be at least one person each series who is out of action through some type of overuse injury. Coincidence? I think not.
The other point I’d like to raise is that busy people like you and me don’t have the time to train for hours a day like the contestants do. Don’t forget they are doing this type of prolonged training in a closed environment too.
What happens when they are back to the real world and have the stresses of family life and work life?
Back to old habits it goes.
The mental side of things is something that really needs to be addressed first and foremost with the type of people that are on The Biggest Loser. Years and years of neglect and talking down to oneself cannot be undone from a simple pep talk from a trainer in tight singlet.
And dangling food challenges and tempting people to gorge themselves on the same fast foods that got them in the position that they are now is surely not a good thing either for their mental wellbeing.
The Biggest Loser comes across to me as car crash TV. People find it hard to look away because someone out there is worse off then them.
I could go on all day about the negative effects that this show has but my final argument against The Biggest Loser being a positive role in obese people’s weight loss success is that there has never been a 12 month reunion in the whole lifetime of the show.
Why? Because the majority of contestants will go back to their old life and put on the weight and then some.
This would be far less likely to happen if people were told the real truth about fat loss and incorporating a healthy eating plan as well as weight loss workouts into everyday life.
Fat loss doesn’t have to be about long, boring workouts. Great fat loss results can be found in only 20 minutes or less with each workout in my Aussie Fatblast Success System – which provides fat loss for busy professionals in a way never seen before.
I seriously wish these people the best of luck on the show and really wish they can all achieve the fat loss results that they deserve and be able to finally feel good about themselves again.
I just wish that they would seek a healthier way of doing so. Unfortunately, The Biggest Loser is just using them for TV ratings.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Daniel,
I hear ya man! I actually had a client today tell me during a VERY intense round of exercises that she saw a couple of the exercises we were doing on the Biggest Loser the night before. My first question was, “why the f*$# would a 400 pound person do this exercise…that’s just being idiotic.”
I wrote a big article on this last year sometime and while I agree with the fact that some people get motivated to get in better shape themselves, I’d like to slap ‘em when they don’t understand why they haven’t lost 10 pounds in the first couple weeks.
I haven’t watched the show in A LONG time for the simple reason I was tired of wanting to smash my face into a brick wall
…no, but seriously, it really bugged me.
Anyways, just my thoughts…
Dan Grant
http://www.gymsuperstar.com
Right on Dan,
losing fat the right way for someone who is that de-conditioned would not make for exciting tv would it?
thanks for commenting, looks like you’re doing great guns since Baseball season finished
I’ll tell you what. It’s a line I use in all of my talks.
Spectacular achievement precedes only unspectacular preperation.
Real, long term success is FULL of unspectacular preperation. The day in and day out battle to exercise, keep your nutrition right, stay positve, etc…
It’s the opposite of the Biggest Loser. If you want a trainer you’re paying for one. If you want to eat right, it’s literally up to you to get it done and make it happen. There’s not people around you 24/7 doing the same thing you’re doing.
Some people aren’t going to support you. Some people will try and shove some desert down your throat. Some people just aren’t going to care that you hit a bump. Some people are going to keep naggin’ you to come out for drinks and stop being a ‘loser’.
Saying no, and staying true to your goals is extremely tough and sometimes very lonely.
But when you reach your long term goal and know you can keep it off then that’s a REAL spectacular acievement. One that you can be truly proud of for the rest of your life.
Daniel, ya man, baseball was great, i’m so glad I made the comeback. i’m now retired again though
.
You look like you’re kicking some serious ass too, eh?
Dan Grant
http://www.gymsuperstar.com
Champ, i’m going to borrow that speech if that’s cool – fully referenced of course! That is powerful. Things are going good mate. Life seems to be going great for both of us. 2009 is only going to get better!
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No worries buddy.
Glad you liked it
Hi There! I wrote a big article on this last year sometime and while I agree with the fact that some people get motivated to get in better shape themselves, I’d like to slap them When they don’t understand why they haven’t lost 10 pounds in the first couple weeks. I haven’t watched the show in A long time for the simple reason I was tired of wanting to smash my face into a brick wall
I feel exactly the same way!
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