Biggest Loser 24 Hour Luxury

Episode 7.10 – Aired 3/10/2009

I normally wouldn’t write about The Biggest Loser in this blog as I prefer to keep my content strictly related to weight loss, however this week’s reward really illustrated some of the pitfalls we face when changing to a more healthy lifestyle. In case you’re concerned about it, this post does contain spoilers so if you prefer not to read them please bookmark this post and come back and read it after you’ve seen the show.

In case you’ve somehow managed to miss one of the biggest shows in prime time for the past 7 seasons, the brief synopsis of this reality tv show is that there are two teams of people competing to see who can lose the most weight. Each team has a trainer and lives in a restricted environment where they workout for 8 hours a day and have a very structured routine including a structured diet.  Each episode spans the course of one week, during which time there is a competition where one team wins a reward or advantage in the game. At the end of each episode there is a weigh in of all contestants, and the team with the lowest percentage of weight loss must vote off one of the team members.

In today’s episode the black team won a reward called Twenty-Four Hours of Luxury. This reward granted the winning team 24 hours on the beach at a spa resort where they could eat a nice dinner. As you would imagine a reward that allows people who have been dieting for 10 weeks to eat whatever they want for a day can never be good. This reward was especially bad for many of the contestants, some of which actually gained weight. The weigh in results made me remember just how hard I have to work to lose weight, and emphasized just how bad even one meal out can be.

No one really ate anything out of the ordinary for a nice dinner out. Felipe had the most unhealthy meal out of everyone on the black team which consisted of 3 mini hamburgers, 2 chicken fingers, some french fries, and a few drinks. While this might be pushing it a little for a normal dinner out, if you replace the chicken fingers with an appetizer and the fries with a desert you would get about my normal dinner out at The Cheesecake Factory.

When it came time for weigh in the Black Team did much worse than usual. The one exception to that was Mike, who still lost 9 pounds despite the lack of exercise and nice dinner. Mike wasn’t able to consume alcohol since he is under 21, so at about 200 calories a drink he undoubtedly helped himself out there when many other contestants drank 3 to 5 glasses.

Biggest Loser 3/10/2009 Weigh-In

After seeing how some members of the Black Team were able to still lose weight, while others gained weight it seems certain that our biology plays a large part in what we can eat. The most important part of any diet is knowing yourself, and customizing that diet to your lifestyle. It is also important to remember that these people have had 10 weeks to adjust to their new lifestyle of constant exercise and low calorie – high protein foods. One of the most important things I will take away from this episode of Biggest Loser Couples is that we need to mix up our routine occasionally so our body doesn’t become complacent.

When you first start losing weight it can be very difficult to start seeing a difference in your weight. It usually takes the body a couple of weeks to get used to the new active lifestyle. Once the body gets used to this lower calorie and higher fitness routine it begins to expect it more frequently.  Soon your body has a new routine and if you eat more or exercise less for a week you can actually gain weight even though you’re living much healthier than you did prior to your weight loss. This is why it is very important to splurge sometimes, but to do it at the right times. Don’t ever eat a large meal later in the day, if you do you will go to sleep and not burn it off. Try not to eat out and skip your exercise routine in the same day because if you have a good workout your body will be able to utilize the extra nutrients you give it to help you lose weight.

If you’ve seen previous seasons of The Biggest Loser you know that many of the contestants end up gaining the weight back. This is because they are no longer in a controlled environment, and while they may be more healthy in general they can never keep up the 40 hour a week workout routine they’ve established on the show. If the contestants eased back into the real world more slowly their bodies would be able to better adjust to a realistic fitness routine and not be thrown into it suddenly. With any lifestyle change you make in your health, always remember to give your body a chance to adjust at its own pace.