If you are inspired by the contestants on the show "The Biggest Loser," you can participate in The Biggest Loser Club, a website that offers a personalized and interactive experience, or purchase one of their books to try to lose weight on your own. Although many show contestants regain the weight because they can't keep up the unrealistic lifestyle at home, the plans The Biggest Loser Club offers for home consumers are more conservative and realistic, although they still cause some concern to health experts.
The Biggest Loser Club
The Biggest Loser Club defines itself as "an interactive nutrition and exercise program that creates customized meal plans and daily exercise activities," according to The Biggest Loser Club website. On the plan, you receive daily personalized eating and exercise plans. You have access to an online weight loss community for support, have the option to compete against others and can track your progress through charts. The club seems to provide a lot of support and emphasizes healthy weight loss through diet and exercise.
"The Biggest Loser 30-Day Jump Start" Book
The American Council on Exercise editors give "The Biggest Loser 30-Day Jump Start" book three out of five stars. Like the website club, the book includes exercise and eating plans, although they are not personalized. ACE editors note that the book plan does not include such extreme exercises as on the show. The book includes conservative goals to slowly change your life, suggesting five small meals a day and beginning with 20-minute aerobic workouts, which you slowly add to. Over time, 10 minutes of strength training workouts are added.
"The Weight Loss Program to Transform Your Body, Health and Life"
"The Biggest Loser -- The Weight Loss Program to Transform Your Body, Health and Life" book focuses on a 4-3-2-1 pyramid, which stands for four 1-cup servings of fruits and vegetables a day, three 1-cup servings of protein each day, two servings of whole grains a day, and 200 extra calories. Maggie Greenwood-Robinson, from the American Dietetic Association, cites a focus on both diet and exercise, motivational tips and pointers on how to choose a healthy lifestyle as positives of this diet. Overall, she indicates it is a healthy plan.
Negatives
"The Biggest Loser" weight loss plans have some problematic areas. In reference to the club, a December 2010 article in "Journal of Medical Internet Research" found that 50 percent of Australian participants stopped using the website features after about nine weeks. Participants who had poor exercise and eating habits before going on the program were likely to stop using it. This suggests the program does not change lifestyle habits for many people. ACE editors felt the first book's suggested 1,500 calories per day is too low for sedentary people beginning a new diet. For the second book, Greenwood-Robinson recommends exercising more as you lose pounds instead of continually reducing calories as the diet suggested. She thought the diet's lowest suggested calorie range of 1,050 to 1,399 calories is too low; she favors 1,200 to 1,400 calories a day with a multivitamin to get proper nutrition and keep up your metabolism.
References
- American Council on Exercise: Make One Simple Change a Day in Your Diet and Your Fitness -- Gain a Lifetime of Health
- The Biggest Loser Club: How It Works
- "Journal of Medical Internet Research"; Dropout, Nonusage Attrition, and Preteatment Predictors of Nonusage Attrition in a Commercial Web-Based Weight Loss Program; Melinda J. Neve, et al.; December 2010
- American Council on Exercise: The Biggest Loser 30-Day Jump Start
- American Dietetic Association; The Biggest Loser -- The Weight Loss Program to Transform Your Body, Health and Life Book Review; Maggie Greenwood-Robinson; January 2007
Member Comments