Jason Morgan

The following is a guest posting by my good friend and colleague Dexter Tenison. Dexter is an ISSA Certified Fitness Trainer and I highly recommend looking him up if you are in the Memphis, TN area. For more on Dexter, go to www.dextertenisonfitness.com.

I help people become more lean, more fit, and more healthy. I emphasize with my clients to lose 1-2 pounds of fat a week in order to keep their metabolism high while still getting fat loss results. However, the contestants of the biggest loser seem to defy my advice by losing a whole lot of weight in a short amount of time. Here are some of my top key things I see as flaws of the show:

• The severe exercise program and calorie restriction weight loss is not from fat, it is actually mostly water, not fat loss. This has little value towards improving health and fitness.
• Losing more than this a week will slow down metabolism due to muscle loss. Muscle is the metabolic tissue that burns calories. It is true that the body will use some of the body’s fat for energy during this time, but it relies much more on amino acids. Where does the body get amino acids? That would be stored in muscles, which have to be broken down to be used. Your body actually catabolizes itself if you were to go on an extreme program like the ones you see on the show! Gross!

• The contestants have excessive skin due to the extreme weight loss in a short amount of time. Skin does not reshape as fast as the rest of the body when extreme measures are taken and the end result is having extras flaps when waving goodbye to people.

• The show tells viewers that in order to get extraordinary results, they must enroll into a fat camp that has a controlled environment that has a sole purpose that revolves around exercise and dieting. The average person may be able to train 1 hour a day, most days of the week. On the show, the contestants train 6 to 8 hours most days of the week. This is an insane and impossible task for most people that would result in injuries and people not being able to pay their bills!
• Finally, if you follow the contestants after the show you will notice that most of them will gain the weight back (sometimes more) after the show. If the point was to keep the weight off instead of gain it all back, was this successful? Here are just a few examples:

http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20090112_tows_followup

http://www.celebritydietdoctor.com/ryan-benson-biggest-loser-follow-up/

I’m not a fan of the show because they do not do things the best possible way for a successful fat loss program. This show has the prime opportunity to send people the right and accurate message on how to lose weight and keep it off forever. This show and others like it are simply other “diet” programs that fitness professionals have to fight against because most people keep searching for the “miracle pill” for fat loss that does not exist. They must begin to implement the concept of continual progress, consistency, and nutritious eating. If watching the show gives you inspiration to exercise and eat better, who am I to say it is bad? Remember, the key is to learn how to effectively take what is learned about behavior modification and apply that to the daily rigors of real life, then participation in the show is worthwhile.

If you’re not yet in the kind of shape you’d like to be in, one of the most important things you can do to change your lifestyle for the better is to first understand your readiness for change.

In other words, although you might want to be in great shape, there’s a difference between wanting it and being ready to do the work necessary to accomplish it.

In this questionnaire below we’ll find out if you’re really ready to make the changes necessary to improve your body composition, health, and physical performance.

Simply answer the questions below by selecting the response most appropriate to your situation. Once you’ve completed all the questions, you”ll have a better understanding of your readiness for change.

And remember, be honest. You’re doing this exercise to find out if you’re really ready to make a lifestyle change. So don’t lie to yourself.

NOTE: If you’re already in good shape or you’ve already started changing, you can still take the test for fun.

The Readiness Questionnaire: