The Biggest Loser 2: Commentary and Review

• The trainers Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper are back as is host Caroline Rhea
• The gigantic scale
• The temptations
• The challenges
• Grueling workouts many hours long

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Biggest Loser Diet

The new diet has a strong emphasis on calories in vs. calories out rather than focusing on carbs, protein or fats directly. Interestingly, the show has deliberately veered away from recommending no or low carbs and instead takes the stance, "Don't cut carbs." It seems the Atkins bubble has truly burst.

Ideally, one should eat a well-balanced diet but count calories to come out with a daily deficit to lose weight. Exercise and Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) also contributes to calories burned.

Biggest Loser Diet Guidelines: No Processed Food - potato chip - sugary cereals - hot dogs No Processed Grains - white breads - pretzels - pastries Don’t Cut Carbs Women’s total calorie range 1200-1500 cal./day Men’s total calorie range 1500-2000 cal./day

Blue Team	Orig. Lbs.	Week One	Lb. Change	% Wt. Lost		Red Team	Orig. Lbs.	Week One	Lb. Change	% Wt. Lost
Suzanne	229	213	-16	6.99%		Matt	339	311	-28	8.26%
Kathryn	217	202	-15	6.91%		Pete	401	379	-22	5.49%
Shannon	257	242	-15	5.84%		Nick	346	318	-28	8.09%
Ryan	225	207	-18	8.0%		Mark	358	335	-23	6.42%
Andrea	220	209	-11	5.0%		Jeff	370	352	-18	4.86%
Jen	267	248	-19	7.12%		Ruben	278	261	-17	6.12%
Suzy	227	207	-20	8.81%		Seth	291	270	-21	7.22%

This week's "Biggest Loser" was Suzy, who lost a remarkable 20 lbs or 8.81% of her body weight. For the men, both Matt and Nick incredibly lost 28 lbs. each, but because they had more weight to start with their percentages were not quite as good coming in at 8.26 and 8.09, respectively.

The women edged out the men by losing 6.64% of their team body weight (after adding 5 lbs), while the men lost 6.59% overall. That's an outstanding amount of weight lost in the first week. This kind of weight loss cannot continue. Watch for things to slow down immensely in the weeks to follow as their bodies start to plateau.

The women actually won by a larger margin, because they had an added 5 lbs due to losing the challenge. The true percentage would have been 6.94% vs 6.59%. The men lost 157 lbs., but to truly beat the women, they needed to lose 166 lbs.; a margin of 9 lbs.

Rapid weight loss once again! Is it healthy?

As a word of caution, experts say that losing more than 1-2% of your body weight in a week is dangerous and unhealthy. Just as in the first season, we're seeing rapid weight loss again. The most any contestant should have lost would have been Pete, weighing 401 lbs., who should have lost 8 lbs. at the most.

The problem with rapid weight loss is that the body is put into shock, first of all, and goes into "starvation mode". This causes the body to hold onto fat reserves, thinking that a famine must be occurring. Instead, precious muscle and water losses account for the majority of weight lost.

The more water and muscle lost, the more one's metabolism actually diminishes. Always drink enough water.

Another reason to avoid rapid weight loss is the yo-yo effect that generally follows. The body cannot sustain the huge losses and desires to return to equilibrium. Food is rapidly assimilated and stored and appetites can be hard to control, resulting in weight gain. The gain in weight can replace what was lost and in some cases even supercede the loss relatively quickly if one is not careful!

Healthy Weight Loss

Having said that, there are numerous studies pointing out that even losing 10% of your overall body weight can have a dramatic effect in improving your chances of living a longer, healthier life.

Healthy weight loss should be the goal for a long-term, lifestyle change that one can sustain and healthily lose weight. Even losing only one pound a week consistenly can result in 50 lbs. or more lost in a year! This gradual approach is much more feasable and maintainable to the body.

To lose one pound a week, all you must do is sustain a caloric deficit over the week of 3500 calories. 3500 calories equals a pound of fat. This deficit can be accomplished by either diet, exercise or a combination of both. Just 300 calories per day burned more than consumed and you'll consistently be on your way to losing weight and keeping it off!

Is the new elimination system fair?

The question remains, will the men be able to beat the women? Considering that weight loss per men vs. women is not exactly linear, this will be interesting to watch. The men will have to lose much more weight each week collectively than the women to win via percentage.

However, the fact that the men and women were pretty close in team percentage of weight lost this round says a lot about the fairness of the new system of elimination.

Who got voted off?

No surprise here, it was Ruben. The red team seemed to loath him due to his "lack of team attitude", although he was clearly not the teammate who cost them the most. There were two other teammates, Jeff and Pete, each with significantly lower percentages of weight lost than him.

Will slow and steady wins the race? We'll see if their more mellow weight loss will be to their advantage later on.

As for Ruben, his weight loss journey didn't end there. He started at 278 lbs. and currently he weighs 215 lbs!

Weight Loss Success!

The best thing about "The Biggest Loser" is the ability the show has to inspire people to make positive changes in their lives, to lose weight and get lean. We at GettingLean.com applaud the efforts of everyone who decides to embark on a transformation journey during this time.

If you have made a transformation or are participating in your own personal weight loss plan, we'd love to feature your success on our site. Simply email us. You could win $50 worth of free supplements to assist you and better yet, a new body!

Stay tuned for more reviews and coverage as we watch the incredible transformations on The Biggest Loser!

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