Day 73 – A Dose Of Reality

“He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.”

~ Tao Te Ching

190.8 lbs.

Still hovering around the 190 mark. It’s depressing to be going through all the stresses of starvation without the dramatic shrinking the news media are clamoring for.

With less than a month to go I’m also starting to think about the upcoming recovery phase; getting my BMR back up to speed so I don’t puff up to my starting weight – or higher – as soon as I begin eating again.

This can happen, and does. People go on crash diets and slim right down, but months later they look like they sat on an air hose and swelled. Have you ever seen the reality TV program The Biggest Loser? The 1st season winner, Ryan C. Benson, who lost 122 of his 330-pound starting weight, is back up above 300 lbs.

Contestants on The Biggest Loser apparently not only crash diet, and do intense physical training, but also (at the request of their trainers and the show’s producers, according to former contestants) intentionally dehydrate themselves to the point that, according to Ryan, he was peeing blood.

I’ve watched the show. One of my major beefs with it is the focus on weight loss, not body fat loss. Simply losing mass isn’t a sign you’re getting healthier. I’ve lost about 50 lbs in 73 days, and I was actually healthier at a bloated 240 lbs, having since then lost muscle mass, depleted glycogen reserves, etc.

Healthy weight loss is slow and sustainable, and focuses on preserving your muscle, bone density, organ health, and so on. If the key to being healthy was simply to weigh less, I’d start marketing helium-filled belts.

We like quick fixes, and shows like The Biggest Loser seem to offer that. If only, goes the fantasy, I had someone guide me through a program like that I, too, could get my dream body. That’s how the show rakes in $100 million bucks in merchandising alone.

As far as being successful goes, good for them! I’m not one to hate on a show for being popular or doing well. With 10 million viewers every week, and more than 200,000 people auditioning every season to be on the show, The Biggest Loser – in its 8th season as I write this – is certainly popular.

I do have concerns, however. And so do doctors, nutritionists and physiologists not affiliated with the show.

Trust me; severe caloric restriction is not a sustainable or healthy weight loss method. Just the other day on Twitter I spotted one of my followers enthusiastically endorsing a fasting diet. I followed the link and, sure enough, someone was promoting a full week with no food as a reasonable way to lose weight. More like a reasonable way to endanger yourself.

Rapid weight loss, while flattering, brings with it the possibility of medical problems like a weakening of the heart muscle, irregular heartbeat and dangerous reductions in potassium and electrolytes.

“I’m waiting for the first person to have a heart attack [on the show],” said Dr. Charles Burant, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Health System director of the Michigan Metabolomics and Obesity Center.

“I have had some patients who want to do the same thing, and I counsel them against it. I think the show is so exploitative. They are taking poor people who have severe weight problems whose real focus is trying to win the quarter-million dollars.”

Not everyone agrees. Dr. Rob Huizenga, the medical consultant to the show and an associate clinical professor of medicine at U.C.L.A., claims the program is safe and misunderstood. “This is not only a major amount of weight loss, it is a totally different kind of weight loss compared with surgery or starvation diets,” he said.

What about reports of contestants collapsing, like the one who keeled over during a 1 mile race on a beach the show was filming, and had to be hospitalized? “If we had it to do over, we wouldn’t do it. It was an unexpected complication and we’re going to do better,”, said Rob. “That challenge has changed a lot of the way we do things,”  – which allegedly includes close monitoring of contestants’ body temperatures during exercise.

Some of us are well aware that “reality TV” often isn’t. But when it comes to things that offer hope, people can drop their objectivity and want to believe that losing 15 lbs a week is realistic, attainable, and lasting.

JD Roth, the executive producer of the shows who created its current format, said that The Biggest Loser “needs to be extreme.”

“For some of these people this is their last chance. And in a country right now that is wrestling with health care issues and the billions of dollars that are spent on obesity issues per year, in a way what a public service to have a show that inspires people to be healthier.”

Inspiring people to be healthy is commendable – but is that what the show does?

Kai Hibbard, a Season 3 runner up who lost 118 pounds, is open about some of the dangerous techniques the contestants would use to lose weight that quickly. She says she and other contestants would drink as little water as possible for the 24 hours before a weigh-in. And when the cameras were off, she claims, contestants would work out in as much clothing as possible to increase sweating and drop even more water weight.

Kai, who dropped to 144 lbs by the Season 3 finale, gained 31 lbs back in 2 weeks once she started drinking water again. This is common: every winner of the first 4 seasons of the show gained back at least 20 percent of the weight they lost shortly after they finished filming.

One of the two trainers who supervise contestants’ workouts on the series – let’s just call her… oh I dunno… Jillian Michaels – characterizes the off-camera tricks and post-show weight rebounds as “the dark side of the show.”

“Contestants can get a little too crazy and they can get too thin,” she said. “That is the worst part of the show. It’s just part of the nature of reality TV.”

Contestants are required to sign releases with some interesting clauses.

- Kai is at risk of getting slapped with fines ranging from $100,000 to $1 million for talking about the behind-the-scenes stuff that she went through. Shortly after a reporter started contacting people who’d been on the show, one of the show’s producers sent an e-mail message reminding them of the “serious consequences” that could ensue if the former contestants ever talked about The Biggest Loser without the show’s permission.

- Another part of the release, provided to the New York Times by a former contestant on the condition of anonymity, reads “no warranty, representation or guarantee has been made as to the qualifications or credentials of the medical professionals who examine me or perform any procedures on me in connection with my participation in the series, or their ability to diagnose medical conditions that may affect my fitness to participate in the series.”

- For a show that features contestants more than 400 lbs, it’s a bit odd that they’re all made to sign a waiver certifying that they believe themselves to be “in excellent physical, emotional, psychological and mental health.”

Despite these criticisms Ali Vincent, winner of Season 5 who started the program weighing 234 pounds and finished at 122, maintains that her involvement in the show was “definitely worth it.”

“I went from a life of nothing to being active every day, six days a week,” she gushed. And I agree – getting active is a good thing. I’m sure the $750,000 prize money has a bit to do with her opinion that the alleged dehydration, overtraining, and dangerous caloric deprivation was “worth it”. On a high note Ali was one to keep the weight off, clocking in at a buck 25 now, just 3 lbs. heavier than her “victory weight”, and making even more coin as a spokeswoman for products and ventures related to The Biggest Loser.

The point of reality TV shows is to entertain, and based on its ratings it seems The Biggest Loser accomplishes that. Just don’t be seduced by the rapid weight loss it portrays. Slow and steady is far more sustainable.