The skinny on The Biggest Loser weight loss and keeping the weight off

      

Lose 14 pounds in 14 days. Drop those last 10 annoying pounds by.... Keep the weight off by following.... The weight loss battle never seems to end and the majority of participants never seem to truly win. Celebrities like Oprah and Kriste Alley have lost he same 40 pounds at least three times that I can remember.

Do fad diets, boot camp like fitness regiments and reality show weight loss contests really help people to lose the weight they need to, but most importantly keep it off over the long term?  Well, it seems that people really can lose weight with the above methods. The problem isn't losing the weight, it is keeping the weight off over the long term...that is where most contests, fad diets and boot camp like programs fail.

As long as the weight loss participants are "in the program" they are fine. But once they try to assimilate back to a "normal" eating pattern, they fall short, because they really haven't changed their lifestyle to eat healthy, they just know what not to eat.

For example, the celebritydietdoctor.com did a follow up on The Biggest Loser season one winner, Ryan Benson. In 2005, Ryan lost an amazing 122 pounds. But according to this post in his myspace blog, Ryan says, "I wanted to win so bad that the last ten days before the final weigh-in I didn’t eat one piece of solid food! If you’ve heard of “The Master Cleanse” that’s what I did. Its basically drinking lemonade made with water, fresh squeezed lemon juice, pure maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. The rules of the show said we couldn’t use any weight-loss drugs, well I didn’t take any drugs, I just starved myself! Ryan has regained all but 30 pounds that he initially lost, and most of the regain happened immediately after the completion of the show.

Huffington Post.com reported Kai Hibbard third season The Biggest Loser runner up stayed in the final competition by eating sugar free Jell-o, and asparagus and sitting in a sauna for six hours. Another participant said she stayed thin by exercising for four hours a day. Seriously, who has time for any of that nonsense?

Seems that Dr. Louis Aronne feels the same way. Dr. Aronne promotes losing weight slowly, the way you should lose weight, without extreme hunger or fatigue. This is what Dr. Aronne has to say about rapid weight loss. " Those lose "10 pounds in 10 day" promises? You might lose that much that fast, but most of that weight loss won't come from fat. It will come from the stored carbohydrate that your body starts burning for energy as well as the water that your body sheds as it does so. As soon as you start drinking more water and eating starch again, the weight comes right back."

In his new book The Skinny, Dr. Aronne describes the weight loss plan he has researched for the past 23 years. He says, "... Most of my patients don't lose 10 pounds in 10 days, and none of them have ever appeared on The Biggest Loser (although some are celebrities). They lose a smaller number of pounds, and they do it in ways that don't sound all that dramatic. Rather than exercise for 4 hours a day, they spend 20 minutes several times a week. Rather than battling extreme hunger by trying to stick to an 800-calorie asparagus diet, they've learned how to fill up on fewer calories. They start the day with a high protein breakfast. The rest of the day they eat high volume, low calorie, high satisfaction foods such as soups, salads, vegetables, lean protein, beans, and high fiber grains. They learn how to minimize the damage of hunger promoting foods such as bread, alcohol and dessert (yes, dessert really does make you hungrier!)".

Seems the trick to Dr. Aronne's weight loss plan is a gradual lifestyle/eating change. People lose weight. They just do it at a slower pace without experiencing extreme fatigue or hunger. Dr. Arone says this about his weight loss plan, "...It's not the type of dramatic weight loss that would allow them to win a reality show like The Biggest Loser, but they keep the weight off and I don't hear any of them complaining about their results."

For more info: To learn more about Dr. Aronne's sensible, successful weight loss plan, you can find his book The Skinny: On Losing Weight without Being Hungry-the Ultimate Guide to Weight Loss Success at Amazon.com.