I never quite understood The Biggest Loser Method

Thinking about it. We have all learned that if you eat below 1,200 calories that your body will go into starvation mode. If you work out you will go into starvation mode even with this amount.

But, here is what baffles me...The people on "The Biggest Loser," work out for 4 hours a day and I believe I read that they only eat 1,200 calories. Also their BMRs have to be quite high. Wouldn't it seem like their weight loss would slow down within time? Especially when they got back home on their own? It seems like their bodies would go into major starvation mode and they would pack on a lot of weight back.

At least from what we have learned about health and our bodies it would seem that way.

Can anyone explain this to me? Or are you just as baffled as I am? Lmao.

for the past 5 seasons, every single contestant except one person on the biggest loser even the winners have gained some weight back since leaving the show. Lets see how these last contestants do. Sorry l don't know the answer to your question

Um, haven't seen that show, but that sounds ridiculous! O_O

My opinion: The biggest loser method isn't about weight loss, but a TV show trying to make money. =/

tincognito---i think if you saw teh show you would have a different opinion. even if the purpose is for financial gain, it does amazing things for the people that are on it.

If that's true about them only eating 1200 cals, i would think they would go into starvation. but maybe the exercise totally blows that out of the water. They do all tend to stall a little hwen tehy get home, probably because of the extra cals they take in. i have always wanted to go on that show!

this post has really made me think about reality and the "starvation mode". i have a friend who has done/is doing a doctor supervised diet where she only takes in 800 calories (there is NO exercise involved). even before i joined CC and learned the magic 1200 number i wondered how is it possible to survive on so little food. surprisingly i've given it little thought even since i've learned more about how our bodies work (or at least i've learned lots of peoples opinions on the subject. :o)  )

now i'm wondering if the reason she is able to lose weight and not have "starvation mode" issues is because she's getting just the right quantity of  nutrients, even though is comes in fewer calories. i know that the "food" she buys from them supposedly has everything you need and they do blood work once a week to make sure her body is still functioning properly.

what i'm proposing at this point is that if somehow you are able to get the proper nutrients to run your body the 1200 number is irrelevant, but us ordinary people eating REAL food have to keep to higher calories because you have to eat the right variety and quantity of foods to get the same/similar nutrients.

all that being said i think my friend and the majority of the biggest loser people are headed for trouble in the long run. they are not acquiring a good relationship with real food and exercise. so while they may lose weight quickly their odds of keeping it off are pretty slim. (i know this is a fact for my friend, since this is her second go around on the diet. she lost all her weight the first time, but couldn't afford to keep paying for the maintenance program. the weight came right back and as soon as she had the $ again she went back to start all over again.)  :o(

This is a subject of interest to me, too, and I'm still trying to form my own opinions on this subject.

I'm beginning to believe different body types has a lot to do with it.  Different body types respond differently to different foods and different exercise routines.  (See post by CoachDee that I finally found and bumped.)

In addition, there really is a huge difference in whether you're "not exercising" by being very still all the time, sitting and lounging in the same relaxed state you'd be if you were asleep, and are generally sedentary ... and when you're fidgeting, maintaining posture, tightening muscles, etc. even while just "chilling."

Add to that that you don't have to go to a gym or work out to exercise.  Housework, chasing after kids, going up and down stairs, walking to get somewhere, carrying things, etc. - that's exercise, too.

I think *starvation mode* definitely exists and can SCREW with you (and I've surely done that to myself in more than one binge and starve binge and starve diet in the past), but I am still on the hunt to find out exactly what triggers it.  But I'm starting to believe the exact trigger is something different for different people.

I think people give way too much weight to "starvation mode."   A few days below 1200 cals will do nothing.  Sure, if you are consistently at 800 cals your metabolism will be screwed up, but I think it takes real long term deprivation to do that. 

Here's my own personal opinion of TBL ...

Whilst I do agree that the show has made amazing life changes for the contestants throughout the seasons, it is not realistic at the end of the day. During the season, all of the contestants have access to personal trainers, dietitians, health care providers, and they are sheltered from "real life" for months on end.

What size of the population of our country has direct and daily access to those types of resources? I obviously don't know the number myself, but I'm guessing it is a very miniscule portion of the population. Would the obesity rate in America be dramatically less if we all had those resources at our fingertips? You bet it would.

I equate the TBL experience to a chemical dependency facility experience. When you're admitted to a chemical dependency facility, you're sheltered from "real life" and you have resources available to you that most people don't have access to on a daily. You gain a mindset that more than likely cannot and will not exist once outside the confines of the facility.

With regard to TBL, it has to be somewhat devastating to go from having all of those resources to having very few (if any at all). Whilst I'm sure that a good number of the TBL contestants will continue with their success(es), I think the TBL experience in general kind of sets a lot of these contestants up for failure in the long-run.

Thems my $0.02.

Original Post by jvermaes:

I equate the TBL experience to a chemical dependency facility experience. When you're admitted to a chemical dependency facility, you're sheltered from "real life" and you have resources available to you that most people don't have access to on a daily. You gain a mindset that more than likely cannot and will not exist once outside the confines of the facility.

 I never thought about it like that but it really is like a detox or rehab for them. Drug addicts have a tough time too because they are heavily supported and then they go back to reality. but then they arej ust like us, having to deal with real life. You can be taught all the right things, but if you don't utilize it in teh end, it means nothing.

I don't think they eat that little of an amount.  Remember the season with the blonde trainer (i can't remember her name) and Jillian's secret black team.  I remember a specific incident where the blonde trainer was yelling at her last team member because he was under eating and I think he's food log was at 1500 calories, so I would have to assume they are told to eat more than 1500 since the trainer was telling him it was too little.

Original Post by morganbclaw:

I think people give way too much weight to "starvation mode."   A few days below 1200 cals will do nothing.  Sure, if you are consistently at 800 cals your metabolism will be screwed up, but I think it takes real long term deprivation to do that. 

 I have real reservations about the "starvation mode" also and everytime I say so I get a real fast referral to some site or post but I still wonder how much it truly exists.  I find little corelation between my consuming more calories and losing weight.  In fact the fewer I eat the more I lose.  Now I wait for the rapid response to this radical statement.

  I try to eat healthy food and exercise.  I keep my calories close to 1200 but the days when I don't make it I tend to lose, gain or stay the same and the days when I hit 1200 or a bit above I tend to lose, gain or stay the same! None of those instances effect me too much since it is the long run weight control I am interested in............but I do wonder about the whole concept being overemphasized. I have a medical background and find very little to substantiate the whole theory in my education...............but ofcourse I know there are authorities who proclaim the truth of the "starvation mode" concept.

 I find the most important concept is eat healthy and exercise regularly.

I haven't watched much of the American version, but I have watched the Australian one for three seasons. One of the things I've noted is that their diets are carefully supervised, not just for calories, but for what they're eating nutritionwise. They're actually trying for optimal diets for building muscle to go with that weight loss, keeping sodium down, drinking lots of water, etc.

When someone gives 1200 calories as a hard and fast minimum that all people should adhere to, you have to know they're wrong right from the gitgo. Not because "starvation mode" is a myth (I have mixed opinions on it) but because all bodies are different and will react in different manners.

Do I think TBL is realistic? Of course not. Do I think it makes long term changes in contestants' lives? Yes. For those who embrace it and don't backslide. In the end, it's all about the choices we make when we have the full gamut available.

I know the women on the show eat 1500 cals.  Not sure about the men, but still it seems super extreme.  I guess that's the appeal of the show.  No one would watch if they only lost 1-2 pounds a week.

I've always wondered why, if you were going to weigh-in in front of a TV camera, you wouldn't weight-in with an overcoat on would you?  I think they know their weights before they step on the scale for TV.  Oops!  Excuse me; that's Celebrity Weight Loss, not The Biggest Looser.

I "asked mary" a question about starvation mode. I couldn't seem to get a clear response from posters on CC, so I turned to her.

They re-worded my question, and cut it down slightly... But it still makes sense. Here it is:

I'm worried about entering "starvation mode" by not consuming enough calories. If I burn 1900 calories, what is the difference between eating 1100 calories a day with no exercise versus eating 1500 calories and burning 400?  Either way, I am producing an  800 calorie deficit.  Will both of these scenarios cause me to enter starvation mode?

“Starvation mode” has more to do with the amount of weight you lose than the number of calories you eat and burn.  After losing around 10% of your body weight, your metabolic rate slows down to protect you from starvation.  This metabolic compensation is called “starvation mode”.  But the reason why you should not drop your calorie intake too low is to give yourself room to get the nutrients you need and to prevent your muscle mass from being used to for energy.  And so, with that in mind, it is better to eat 1500 calories and burn 400 calories in activity.

Although, now that I think about it, I suppose this still begs the question of starvation mode for The Biggest Loser competitor. Even a person who started at 300 will have lost 10% of their body weight after losing 30 lbs.

hello,

I am a huge biggest loser fan and i watch the show all the time. this guys do crazy amount of exercise, very high intensive exercises as well as resistance exercises, they create a daily calorie deficit of about 5000 to 7000 calories, thus the huge amounts of weight they lose, i am sure they also dehydrate themselves before the weigh ins, a 1 hour cardio session will take 1 kg off your body easily (most of it is water, but there is a lot of energy involved). The biggest loser method is the same method as any other fitness instrusctor will tell you, they have 5 to 6 meals a day, each one of them containing about 300 cals, i dont think they do 1200 a day, it must be more, with plenty of carbs, otherwise they would not be able to pull 4 hours of exercise every day, they have oatmeal for breakfast, and drink water all day long, they should be on a 2000 cal/day. In the glorious first week when they lose those huge amounts of weight, half of that weight is just all the stuff in their gut, with that size they can hold up to 1 stone of who knows what ....... plus the first week the body responds quite fast and burns a lot of calories. so with all and all the show is not that bad, they burn those extra calories the hard way, and they learn how hard it is to slim down once the damage is done. It is of course a tv show, and as such, it has some drama in it, but i am sure the gym sessions are extremelly hardcore ...... beyond anything you can imagine.

CHEERS.