The 'Biggest Loser''s competitive weight loss approach may be entertaining, but it is certainly not a healthy precedent for weight loss.

The Biggest Loser- A Bad Example For Weight Loss

Over the past several years weight loss themed reality shows like ‘The Biggest Loser’ have become increasingly popular but are such shows really helping promote weight loss and a healthy lifestyle? In the ‘Biggest Loser’ the objective is of course to have the contestants lose as much weight as possible and has made these goals very much a matter of entertaining the public rather than trying to show healthy and realistic methods for long term weight loss that anyone can apply.

Weight Loss Is Only Effective When Done Slowly

The benchmarks are ridiculously unrealistic and for that matter, dangerous. Much is made over the fastest 100 pound weight loss- some poor soul lost that much in seven weeks, whereas in my two decades of helping people lose weight long term it takes at least nine to twelve months to lose that much weight safely and keep it off. The most weight lost in a week on the show was 34 pounds, which while may make for compelling television viewing, sends a really bad message to the public in terms of weight loss as studies have shown that individuals who lose weight quickly run the risk of gallstones, mineral deficiencies, loss of muscle tissue and reduced bone density. The safe rate of one to two pounds of weight loss per week might help someone stay healthy and keep the weight off long term, but it would only get them kicked off the show for not losing weight fast enough.

Competitive Weight Loss Sends A Potentially Harmful Message To The Public

Many of my colleagues in both the personal training, nutrition and medical fields agree that the idea of competitive weight loss is a dangerous one that does little to educate the public on how to lose weight safely and effectively. In my own personal training practice I have always been steadfastly against the use of Before and After photos in my marketing campaigns as it sets the stage for highlighting unrealistic weight loss figures and takes away the importance of the individual focusing on achieving their own goals through lifestyle modification rather than trying to make the numbers on the scale go down.

The Dangers Of Too Much Too Soon

Needless to say there have been hospitalizations on the show- and numerous instances where contestants suffer cramps, exhaustion and stress fractures from the high workloads. This type of programming isn’t inspirational, its voyeuristic- watching someone who is significantly obese try to complete strenuous exercise activities and work out five to six hours a day while following remarkably restrictive diets. It also sets the stage for the idea that to lose weight you need to do extreme things like exercise every day for hours on end while starving yourself while studies are increasingly showing that you can actually make more progress following low volume high intensity training which calls for no more than a half hour of exercise a week.

The Biggest Loser Is An Unrealistic Portrayal Of Weight Loss In Real Life

But there is another side of ‘The Biggest Loser’ that most viewers don’t see. The screening process alone requires that potential contestants camp out for hours on end in line for a chance to audition for the show. Being able to spend eight hours in line for anything is more than most would attempt but it ensures that the contestants, while obese are far more determined than most members of the general population. They are further screened to make sure that there is a ‘Wow factor’ by choosing contestants that are truly obese. It wouldn’t be half as entertaining to watch someone that was 10 or twenty pounds overweight on the show and so they opt for most of the contestants to be severely obese.

Fast Weight Loss Is Seldom Long Lasting & Potentially Dangerous

Research has shown definitively that if you lose weight and then regain it you significantly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Many former Biggest Loser contestants have regained some or all of their weight and it isn’t surprising given the unrealistic amount of exercise and the severity of the diets. No one takes into consideration the fact that these individuals actually made their health problems worse by going through such an extreme weight loss process as entertainment, cleverly packaged to look like it is meant to be some form of public service is the end goal at all cost.

I have seen for myself more and more people feeling like they are failures since their weight loss isn’t as fast or as spectacular as the contestants on the ‘Biggest Loser’ and I have to constantly remind them that weight loss more of a marathon than a sprint and that their modest losses of one to two pounds a week is not only phenomenal but safe, healthy and more likely to be permanent. If you want information on weight loss, you don’t turn on the television in prime time and you have to keep in mind that entertainment is just that no matter how well packaged it is. At the end of the day slow and steady wins the race, without starvation diets and without spending hours every day exercising to exhaustion.

Kevin Richardson is the creator of the Naturally Intense High Intensity 10 Minute Workouts and one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the founder of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here!

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Slow down to lose weight!

Want A Simple Way To Lose Weight- Eat Slowly!

Over my many years of studies in both traditional Easter medicine and traditional Japanese martial arts, the idea of eating your food slowly has been a recurring theme for weight control and optimal health. I think everyone is familiar with how often children are admonished to chew their foods slowly, and now thanks to recent research we know that this age old health tip does indeed have merit.

In a study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, seventeen healthy male adult volunteers were observed to see whether eating the same meal at different speeds would bring about  any differences in hormonal response. For the study, volunteers were given a serving of ice cream and made to eat the same amount at different speeds. Blood samples were taken to measure both insulin and gut hormones and what they found was that the volunteers released more hormones that made them feel full when they ate the ice cream in 30 minutes as opposed to five minutes. The two particular hormones released glucagon-like peptide-1 and peptide YY are key components to signaling feelings of perceived satiety and fullness and thus leads to eating less.

Several Studies Confirm That Eating Slowly Decreases Caloric Intake & Risk Of Being Overweight

Several other studies back this claim, including a very large scale survey published in the British Medical Journal. For this survey 3287 adults (1122 men, 2165 women) ages ranging from 3 to 69 years old participated in reports on cardiovascular risk from 2003 to 2006. The results found that those who self reported consuming their foods quickly and eating until they were full had three times the likelihood of being overweight when compared with others that ate at slower paces. Another randomized study of 30 women published in the American Dietetic Association found that participants reported greater feelings of satisfaction and consumed less calories when they ate at a slower pace compared to when they ate quickly.

Our Fast Food Mentality May Be Doing Us More Harm Than We Know

The ancient wisdom of eating slowly and enjoying your foods can indeed help you eat less and thus should be considered a simple and effective method of weight control but it also raises some questions about common practices that might be contributing factors to our obesity epidemic. Given the ever increasing numbers of children that are overweight in the United States and the small alotment of time given to children for lunch breaks in public schools one cannot help but wonder just detrimental this practice is to the health of our children. For adults the idea of eating on the run and for that matter the whole idea of fast food and rapid eating may be more of a problem than we think. So eat slowly and enjoy your meals!

Related Articles:

Controlling Your Eating Habits

Best Way To Lose Weight- Eat A Healthy Breakfast!

NYC Personal Trainer Kevin Richardson is the most sought after personal trainers in New York City, a lifetime drug free bodybuilding champion and the founder of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™. His high intensity 10 minute workouts have been helping people get better results in less time for the past 19 years! Get a copy of his free weight loss e-book here!

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Not eating a healthy breakfast is a overlooked contributing factor to obesity.

Best Way To Lose Weight? Eat A Healthy Breakfast

If you were to ask for my professional opinion of what is the single most effective strategy for long term weight loss I would say with no hesitation that it would be to always eat a healthy breakfast. We have all heard since we were kids that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, however despite studies showing its importance in ensuring a longer lifespan and its role in appetite control and optimal performance; it is still the meal most often neglected. A survey of 1000 adults conducted  by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) found that while 90% of Americans are aware that having breakfast is important for health and peak function, a little less than half of them admitted to eating breakfast every day. We can also see from the many studies done on the significant decrease in academic performance by schoolchildren that do not eat breakfast that not only is a good breakfast vital for ideal brain function, but sadly that many adults here in the United States simply don’t appreciate the importance of breakfast for their families.

Want To Stop Your Cravings- Eat A Healthy Breakfast

In the grip of today’s hectic lifestyles, breakfast in general has been relegated to an ‘on-the-run’ meal in the best of cases and a skipped meal in the worst of them. It’s my belief that this trend is an overlooked contributing factor to the pandemic of obesity in this country. Over the past two decades working as personal trainer helping people lose weight and get into shape, I have always found that people who skip breakfast or have a cursory meal consisting of a quick donut or a bagel with some coffee, tended to be the ones who had a very difficult time not consuming large amounts of junk food in the later part of the day. Going over my training notes over the past 5 years, I can also point out that 100% of those who reported their junk food urges as being uncontrollable did not eat a proper breakfast- this from a sampling of well over 200 individuals of varying ages and fitness levels.

A Healthy Breakfast Is An Easy And Inexpensive Way To Control Your Weight

As simple as it may seem, one of the easiest ways to really take control not only your midsection, but also your appetite is to simply eat a healthy breakfast, and then follow through by eating balanced meals throughout the day. The better your breakfast is, the easier it will be for you to continue eating well throughout the day. It has never been my practice to stand idly by while others struggle and so about two years ago I wrote and published a free e-book on my website, The Naturally Intense™ Breakfast Guide- Keys To Long Term Weight Management. It took me just about a night to put it together, and having seen how much of an impact it has had, I don’t regret a minute of sleep that I lost that night. With almost three thousand copies downloaded from people all over the world, I constantly get emails saying how much better they feel and how much weight they have lost after following the guidelines outlined in the book. It’s a quick read and there are no supplements to buy or specialized meals to purchase- just rudimentary information that I have gleaned over the years that you can use to lose weight and keep it off.  

Get A Free Copy Of The Naturally Intense Breakfast Guide- Keys To Long Term Weight Loss

I invite you to download a free copy and share it with your friends, and please feel free to write me if it helps you in your own quest for a better quality of health and fitness. I am always happy to hear from everyone.

Download your copy here

Kevin Richardson is the founder of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™ and one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City. Learn more about Kevin and his revolutionary high intensity 10 minute workouts at his official website at www.naturallyintense.net

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The end of the year is upon us, and I thought, what better way to recap all the great health and fitness related articles covered in the blog this year than by having a bit of a quiz. I invite everyone to take the fitness test and see just how much you know about health and fitness.

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Guilt over eating the wrong foods only makes you more likely to keep eating them!

Is It Beneficial To Beat Yourself Up After Eating Junk Foods?

Guilt \ˈgilt\: noun
1 : the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty; broadly : guilty conduct
2 a : the state of one who has committed an offense especially consciously b : feelings of culpability especially for imagined offenses, sin or from a sense of inadequacy : self-reproach
3 : a feeling of culpability for offenses

Guilt. In many ways food has become the new sin the Western world, one that justifies self torment and lowers self esteem everyday. You have that extra slice of chocolate cake, the glass of wine at the company party or the applepie at the family holiday dinner and in the moment there is no mistake that you do enjoy it. Sometimes rich and fatty foods can be almost sinful for lack of a better word, but you feel absolutelyterrible afterwards, and you really wish that you had not eaten the foods that you had. The guilt for some can be overwhelming, but the question remains, are these feelings of guilt really helpful? The answer is a resounding no! In fact what we know of human behavious is that the more you beat yourself up about eating something that you feel that you shouldn’t have the more likely you are to keep eating it! Interesting cycle, and one that has helped most of us stay locked in a constant and unsuccessful struggle to improve our eating habits.

Understanding Our Patterns Of Food Consumption

The first step to understanding the harm that guilt inflicts upon us when we associate it with food is to understand our patterns with regard to food consumption. Know thy enemy and know thyself and in a thousand battles you will never be in peril. These words written by a Chinese sage thousands of years ago apply just as much to war as it does to behavior modification as it is only through an intimate understanding of ourselves that change can be effected. Most simply make the resolution one day that they will no longer eat unhealthy foods and as valiant as this may be it is almost always unsuccessful. If it were that easy then weight management would not even be an issue and as most can attest this simply isn’t the case.

It Is A Mistake To Believe That Our Slips Are Caused By Lack of Willpower

To change the way we eat requires something far more than a resolution or diet, there must instead be an unrelenting commitment to a very real change in lifestyle. For this to happen we have to divorce ourselves from the destructive perspective that somehow there must be some form of atonement for any failures that occur while we are on the path of change . It is human nature to believe that when a ‘wrong’ is committed, that some form of guilt is required, usually  followed by some form of penance as well. The problem is that when the ‘wrongdoing’ comes from eating something that we believe we shouldn’t nothing positive comes from it and it can be the starting point for lifelong eating disorders as one of our most basic acts as human beings is defiled by what we perceive as a lack of willpower.

Over the course of my career as a personal trainer I have seen so many men and women suffer tremendously from this way of thinking and the sad part is that society itself plays a large part in reinforcing feelings of guilt and failure in those that are struggling to control their weight. When people stray from their perceived perfect eating plan by eating something that falls into the category of forbidden, they tend to fall into a downward spiral of self hatred and disgust. This self inflicted form of  flagellation is followed by a resolve to either exercise more, diet harder or employ some extreme method to compensate for the ‘damage’ done by their indulgence. Sadly this is an all too familiar refrain for most people today.

 
Guilt Has No Place In A Healthy Mind and a Healthy Body

 
Physiologically speaking, there isn’t anything that can be done to compensate for a slip in one’s diet. Nothing at all. What is done is done and any attempts to try to undo the past are wasted exercises in magical thinking.  You eat something and there is nothing that you can do to reverse the fact- the universe does not have a rewind button and so we must simply move on. By wallowing in guilt we only bring ourselves closer to the likelihood of developing an eating disorders or at the very least lose some of our self respect. None of this has anything to do with the intended goal of living better and healthier lives in healthier bodies. Instead the slips must be looked upon as what they are; learning experiences that teach us more about ourselves since every slip holds the information necessary to help avoid their continued reoccurrence. With this attitude in mind, guilt no longer has a place in our relationship with food.

Guilt Makes You More Likely To Keep Eating The Wrong Foods 

If you decide that you are no longer going to eat unhealthy foods, your new attitude only serves to supplement your original behavior where eating unhealthy foods were acceptable. Behavioral psychology reinforces what  many of us have learned through objective observations;. namely that the very habits that we seek to change resurface because they are not fully forgotten. New and old ways of thinking co-exist as opposing impulses that will always be in competition unless steps are taken to disarm undesirable attitudes. Simply put, the more you beat yourself over the head about eating that piece of cheesecake, the more you help yourself recall the image of you eating it and the harder you are making it for yourself to forget about eating cheesecake.

What needs to happen is a gradual shift in eating patterns over time where new foods replace old foods. In time the new foods stay at our primary level of consciousness and the desire for the old ones simply fades away. This leads to a true definition of health; one where we want the foods that are good for us as opposed to avoiding bad foods because we know they are bad for us. Disarming those attitudes requires a fundamental change in perspective, a change that comes only with time and patience. It is only when you are able to enjoy foods that are good for you that you will be able to break the cycle. In the meantime, do your best not to eat the wrong foods, but if you do just keep going and don’t look back! Have a wonderful and guilt free holiday season!

NYC Personal Trainer Kevin Richardson is the most sought after personal trainers in New York City, a lifetime drug free bodybuilding champion and the founder of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™. His high intensity 10 minute workouts have been helping people get better results in less time for the past 19 years! Get a copy of his free weight loss e-book here!

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