I used to like this show until i saw how ignorant the judges and producers were.
People lost alot of muscle and nobody gave a shit. Two of the male contestants (Todd and Chrislord) lost around 43 lbs each. I calculated their lean body mass (LBM) based on their stats on the disc. health bodychallenge website and they both lost about 16 or so pounds of LBM. Maybe some of it was intramuscular fat but i bet alot was muscle due to severe calorie restriction. And nobody showed any interest, nobody cared. How the fuck can you run a competent diet program where you applaud losing tons of metabolically active muscle just because the numbers on a scale go down.
one of the contestants didn’t do too good weightwise or bodyfat-wise. He only lost 5% bodyfat. I could tell halfway into the program that the show’s producers were going to start saying ‘its his fault’ and sure enough they did. They brought out people saying he didn’t try hard enough and thats why he failed. Within reason i will agree with this but anyone who has seen studies on identical twins in regards to dieting or overfeeding knows people gain and lose weight at different rates. The overly simplistic ‘calories in/calories out’ formula is not as clean as people think and does not apply across the board. Some people’s bodies let go of fat easier than others while some people, when overfed, end up with more energy to burn while others convert their excess calories directly into bodyfat.
Here is a study on underfeeding variances.
RESULTS:: There was great variability among pairs in loss of weight (5.9-12.4 kg) and body fat (3.1-12.4 kg).
The mean weight gain was 8.1 kg, but the range was 4.3 to 13.3 kg.
I remember the doctor on the show saying ‘instead of eating sugars and starches X is now eating fruits and vegetables’. Fruits are sugar. Vegetables are starches. wtf logic is this? Fruit gets almost all its calories from fructose, a simple sugar. Sure fruit is high in fiber, has a couple of vitamins and is low cal but it is still sugar.
This is a radical lifestyle transformation these contestants are undergoing. It perpeuates the stereotype that is holding alot of obese people back (IMO) that weight loss is ‘all or nothing’. Either adopt a radically different lifestyle that contradicts billions of years of evolution or go back to doing almost nothing. Naturally most of them will eventually go back to doing nothing, oblivious that half assed healthy living is better for them physically than doing nothing.
Waist size on that show was bullshit. Two of the men started out with 42" waists and about 28% bf, and ended up about 42 lbs lighter, 18ish% bf and with 33" waists. This is crap. At that rate of waist size decreases by the time they get down to 8% bf their waists would be about 24". I know several physically fit people and the only ones with waists around 33" are close to 12% bf, and they are 5’8"ish. Someone on that show is lying.
I have other complaints but forget them. Maybe later.
I dont know. This is 2004, and obese people need competent help that addresses the valid problems they face. These shows are crap, perpetuating stereotypes and wishful thinking about obesity. Simplistic crap at that. Didn’t anybody care that two of the male contestants lost about 16 lbs of (what I assume is) muscle on their diets?
Well, that may be your perception, and I didn’t watch the shows. However, I signed up and I had to stop partway through due to my pregnancy - but I did get a free three month membership to Bally’s, and that helped immeasurably.
The whole point of the Body Challenge was to get America up off its butt - and in my case, it worked. I spent more time in the gym after I had the membership than I did at my previous gym.
Are you saying they didn’t have the subjects on an exercise program? That they simply cut calories to lose that weight? I can’t see that happening. But I didn’t watch the show.
I think I saw something similar to that, and it was amazing how good everyone looked afterward. One woman was tall and slender, and when it was all over, she was a little heavier, but looked so much better because her muscles were toned.
One of the women I train with went on it with her husband at the beginning of the year. It was kind of ok for him.
She, on the other hand, was already fit (she maybe could lose 5 pounds - but no more than that) and is very physically active - she was doing less during January than she does in the summer (we’re right now getting ready for a 200 mile in 2 day bike ride, followed by a half ironman, and then she’s going to finish the year with a marathon)…but she wanted something they could do together, that would be enough to keep her at ground level shape during the off season.
The discovery health guidelines, even taking into account all her physical activity, had her on 1200 calories a day. Which is, of course, insane. Of course, most people will lose weight at that incredibly low caloric level, but also be tired all the time and hungry all the time. I have to wonder about the rest of their health guidelines.
I also heard that most places ran out of Bally’s certificates, so very few people actually got the free 3 months (which is worth it - so long as Bally’s doesn’t suck you in for a long term contract to use the 3 free months)
1200 calories is about all a small women (100-110 lbs) needs to maintain her weight, and is consistent with what a 130 lb woman would cut down to in order to lose weight.
Is it also acceptable for a woman who gets a lot of regular, heavy exercise? Just curious. I mean, the woman runs marathons! Even in the off season, I doubt she’s sitting on the couch watching re-runs of Sabrina The Teenage Witch.
I don’t think its enough if a person is becoming lethargic. Before i hit this weight loss plateau i was losing around 2lbs of fat a week on 2900 kcal a day w/3000 kcal a week in exercise. When i cut down to 2500 or so a day i start having a metabolic slowdown and get tired easily.
At 1200 cals per day, a small woman would maintain her weight. Throwing in physical exercise, she’d be primed to lose weight.
Do you know how many calories she is burning via her marathon or training exercise? Might be alot less than you think. I calculate that she needs about a days worth of calories (1500) to run a marathon.
I concede it sounds like a paltry amount of calories, especially for someone doing alot of exercise. However, the body needs a paltry amount of calories to survive. Physical activity uses less than you think.
But I do think you have cast some doubt on the appropriatness of just 1200 calories if she is doing alot of intense exercise. Ideally, she might start out around 1500 and work the cals down if she isn’t losing weight.
The rate of weight loss is important. If you don’t have a morbid obesity problem and you are a small woman, the target of .5 to .75 pounds of weight loss per week while maintaining LBM seems alot more appropriate. She might get those results from 1500 cals/day and a fair am’t of exercise.
1200 seems a little low, yes. I won’t say ridiculous, but ridiculous it might be.
Of course not. But what the hell is your point? The whole Discovery thingamabob isn’t designed for amateur athletes. It’s designed for people with weight problems who haven’t been active in a long while and are just starting to break into being active.
You do have to remember this is infotainment, not a health class. The whole point is the contestants are making radical changes because they want to win a prize. I’ll allow that the show should have mentioned that in real life 1-2 pounds a week is considered the maximum safe weight loss.
It was pretty clear the doctor meant “sweets and refined starches,” when she said “sugars and starches.”
As I recall, Algie admitted he was eating a lot of stuff he shouldn’t. I didn’t view the show’s treatment of it as unduly pejorative, more as sharing a struggle a lot of us go through. If anything, I was annoyed by the inclusion of Todd, who was really an athletic person who’d grown a spare tire. I’m glad he didn’t win, because he didn’t have the same challenges as the others.
All in all, I found it really inspiring. I thought one of the biggest messages was that you must exercise (and preferably weight train) to lose excess fat and be healthy. With shows like* I Lost It * constantly featuring people who get gastric bypass surgery, this is an important contrast. Personally, I hate dieting. The show helped motivate me to get back into exercise (I’m training for a triathlon), and I’m eating better as a side effect, because it helps my training.
Re: Bally’s
If a center ran out of packets, they would mail one to you later, complete with the Bally’s certificate. I certainly got mine.