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Biggest Loser Super Promo

Just in time for tomorrow's season premiere, I got my greasy mitts on a new extended “super promo” clip, hosted exclusively at NBC.com!!!

Check it out...

Fat March

Another summer reality show for the fatfighters to chew on, Fat March.

All you need is a pair of sneakers! Twelve overweight people set off on the walk of a lifetime! It's an epic, life-changing journey that begins at the starting line for the Boston Marathon and ends in Washington, DC. The contestants and their two charismatic fitness trainers, Steve Pfiester and Lorrie Henry, will walk over 570 miles, passing through nine states, with the goal of shedding unwanted pounds and getting fit along the way in an attempt to permanently alter their lives. In addition, they all will compete for a prize pool of $1.2 million. Stressing team work, the more people who finish, the more money each person wins, on Fat March, premiering MONDAY, AUGUST 6 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.

During each leg of the excursion there are "luxury reward challenges" where an individual or team can win incentives such as spa treatments, low calorie gourmet meals prepared by a private chef or deluxe accommodations for the night to help them on their trip. There are also amazing prizes at stake, such as get-aways to Hawaii and Las Vegas. The challenges are geographically specific to the area contestants are in. At the elimination, participants are able to expel a group member who is holding them back from reaching the finish line in the allotted time. However, eliminating a fellow competitor has a price: $10,000 is deducted from each competitor's potential prize money with each elimination.

I'm so bummed I missed it, but was still unpacking over the weekend. The TV didn't get plugged in till Monday night. Now that I know about it, I'll make sure to catch it next week. Lucky for me, I can catch a full episode online.

Review: Shaq's Big Challenge

Three word review: It was ok. Even shorter review? Meh.

To be fair, I think it is a highly commendable thing Shaq wants to do. Childhood obesity is a tragedy and I'm happy someone of his profile and means is making an attempt to change the course. Does it work as a summer long reality TV series? I'm not quite sure.

For one, it's hard to snark on kids. It's easier to roll eyes and ridicule the adults of Biggest Loser, yet these kids didn’t come off as completely likeable either, in the Discovery Channel, feel good sorta way.

Then there was a scene where the kids were working out and checking in with Shaq, proudly boasting about their accomplishments. Except they were lying. Turns out, they weren't hitting the gym as hard as they proclaimed and left to their own accords, they turned into a modern day Lord of the Flies.

My question was, why on earth were they working out alone? They don't even trust grown people to go it alone on Biggest Loser or Celebrity Fit Club till the last week. The overly dramatic, I'm gonna kick their butts, was disingenuous.

I did like that Shaq involved all aspects of weight loss, bringing in a nutritionist to show them what all the food they ate on a weekly basis looks like in one sitting and they weight they'd surely gain by eating all that food made the 5lbs of fat prop hit home even more. The stress tests and motivational quotes warmed the cockles of my cold snarky heart, yet I still wasn't sucked in.

I haven't decided if I'd continue to watch it. Perhaps if I had my own kids and that was an issue for me the answer would be a yes. If nothing else, I'll be sure to tune into the final show to see what they look like now because I have no doubt, they'll all achieve their goals.

Shaq's Big Challenge

ABC will be kicking off the Summer Reality TV Season with a new show, Shaq's Big Challenge.

Tuesday, June 26 at 9/8c - "SERIES PREMIERE"

Childhood obesity is a fast-growing epidemic in the U.S. Obese children face a shorter lifespan due to weight-related illnesses such as increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. But hope has arrived for America's children. Shaquille O'Neal, a four-time NBA champion and a role model to millions, is on a quest to battle this scourge and help kids across America live more healthfully.

I've already got my TiVo set

I'll do a mini recap of it tomorrow. If you happen to catch it, leave a comment with your thoughts.

Wonder no more

Yes, it's THREE WHOLE MONTHS away, but we will finally get an update on fomer contestants of The Biggest Loser.

"The Biggest Loser" will return on Sept. 4 with a "Where Are They Now" special edition.

[snip]

The "Where Are They Now" special will revisit contestants who have kept the weight off as well as those who put the pounds back on.

But that's not the best news to me. The best news ever is...

the return of former "Biggest Loser" trainer Jillian Michaels -- whose new role on the show has been kept a secret. [source]

Yayyyyyyyyyyy! My favorite trainer from hell is back.

Where are they now?

Do you ever wonder what happened to the Biggest Loser winners after the cameras stopped rolling and the trainers stopped barking?

Ryan Benson, 38, an actor who works for a DVD distributor in Los Angeles, lost 122 lbs. to win the first season in January 2005 but says he regained 32 lbs. within five days simply by drinking water.

Matt Hoover, 31, a motivational speaker based in Seattle, had a 15-lb. rebound within a day of winning Season 2.

Last season's runner-up, Kai Hibbard, 28, an aerobics instructor in Alaska who says she spent the night before her final weigh-in hopping in and out of a sauna for six hours, consumed only sugar-free Jell-O for several days and wolfed down asparagus, which is a natural diuretic. "It's amazing the things you learn in a weight-loss competition," she says.

This part of the article really gets me:

The show tries to prevent unhealthy behavior by making contestants keep food journals (to make sure they're not starving themselves) and threatening penalties if tests show they are too dehydrated (although an executive producer says no violations have been uncovered yet). But like the $55 billion U.S. diet industry, The Biggest Loser places the bulk of its emphasis on shedding pounds rather than maintaining the loss.

Too dehydrated? Why was Kai eating nothing but asparagus and sugar-free Jell-O then?

Two and a half years after Benson's final weigh-in at 208 lbs., the new dad has slipped out of the spotlight and into old habits. "No one sees me get an apple pie in the drive-through," says Benson, whose weight now hovers at around 300 lbs.

In spite of the shows' sleight of hand, I think the reality of losing weight and keeping it off comes down to what Kelly Miner did.

The first-season runner-up dropped from 242 lbs. to 163 lbs. by the finale and now weighs 140 lbs. A school administrator in Bethlehem, Pa., Minner, 31, says she works out from one to four hours a day, six days a week. She exercises while watching TV--and did so throughout our phone interview.

Watch Online

In case you missed it or are unable to view it in your area, you can watch FAT: What No One Is Telling You online.

(PS, GMTA, as Rachel posted a link to the series in comments on Friday)

Review: FAT: What No One Is Telling You

If there is one word to sum up my feelings about the documentary, Fat: What No One is Telling You, that word would be, sobering.

It doesn't sugarcoat the issue at all. Losing weight is HARD. Not only is it hard, there are subtle reasons why one person can eat fast food all day long and gain weight while another doesn't. So many issues come into play, poor food choices, lack of exercise, overall sedentary lifestyles, prevalence of cheap food, not sleeping enough, genetics and on and on.

And the thing is, what makes losing weight for hard, may never be known. Maybe I don't get enough sleep, so despite all the efforts in working out and eating right, I may just need to sleep x amount of hours for it all to come together. Frustrating to say the least.

Wanna hear the worse part? The majority of people who embark upon a weight loss program will fail and drop out. The majority of those who do lose weight via a weight loss program will gain it back. The majority of people who attempt to do a weight loss program, won't lose much weight.

The documentary showed that once you gain a considerable amount of weight, it is very hard to return to your old size. The brain in your head fights with the "brain" in your gut. In the battle for eating, your subconscious primal brain takes over, ever single time. One of the doctors gave a great example of how hard willpower really is. He said try walking up a flight of stairs and tell yourself you will not breathe hard. He said that'll work for about 5 minutes or so but at some point, your body will take over and whether you want to or not, you will breathe harder.

That's almost what's at play when it comes to dieting. The "brain" in our gut is constantly fending off starvation and any drop in calories, any loss of precious fat, any extra physical exertion, makes it fight to keep things the way they are and that's why for some of us, the truth of the matter is, we will not lose, or lose very little, weight.

Very hard news to hear. So what are we, as fatfighters, to do?

They did provide a modicum of hope. Basically, if you are willing to put in the work and be consistent, it is possible. One of the featured people was a comedienne who lost weight by changing how she ate and working out about 3 hours a day. Sad but true, that's what she HAD to do to stay slim.

You can also opt for weight loss surgery, a young budding filmmaker went that route and lost over 100lbs.

You can just accept your size, they had a woman on there whose point of view was fat people are unfairly attacked and labeled as slobs and lazy because it's safe. As long as your happy with yourself, stop making yourself upset with failed weight loss attempts and just love and accept yourself.

And an approach I can personally get behind is, eat better and exercise to be healthy. Rather than look for quick fixes, which they proved do not work, as cheesy as it sounds, eat for health.

If after all this, you still want to see it for yourself, thought I don't blame you if you don’t, it's showing again this weekend. Again, check your local PBS station for times (Find out when it airs in your area). The entire documentary ran an hour and a half and was followed up by a 30 minute discussion with medical and community experts on what we as a nation can do to solve this problem. They gave no quick fixes, blanket statements or trendy phases. But if you want the practical way to approach this, you'll appreciate the frank discussion.

FAT: What No One Is Telling You

I caught a preview for this PBS documentary earlier this week. It's airing tonight:

Face it: We're fat.

With 66 percent of U.S. adults either overweight or obese, our girth is a serious public health issue. Yet many of us still view being overweight as a character flaw, a lack of self-control, or even a moral crime.

But does fat really equal failure? FAT: What No One Is Telling You explores the myriad psychological, physiological and environmental factors that can make it so tough to shed pounds and keep them off.

In this documentary, Executive producer Naomi Boak and producer/director Tom Spain, both Emmy Award honorees, share new scientific knowledge about hunger, eating, and human metabolic operation. This film also explains our psychological responses to food, and shows how external pressures (such as oversized restaurant portions and the unending barrage of food advertisement) make fighting fat so difficult, both on the personal and national levels.

FAT's engaging personal narratives create snapshots of our national struggle with obesity:

• Meet Rosie Dehli, a Minnesota grandmother, battling to get fit so she can enjoy an active, playful relationship with her grandchild.
• Meet Mary Dimino, an actress and comedian, in New York, NY, who exemplifies the hard work people must do to lose pounds and stay healthy once they've been obese.
• Meet America Bracho, a public-health professional in Santa Ana, California, who is educating families about nutrition while encouraging her Latino community's children to move, both in school and at home.
• Meet Rocky Tayeh, a Brooklyn, New York teenager grappling with the very personal (and highly criticized) solution of undergoing Lap-Band surgery.
• Meet Dr. Lee Kaplan of Harvard University Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, who is a clinician, researcher and above all an empathetic warrior in the battle against obesity

The voices of these and other real Americans tell the story of the biological barriers, cultural habits, and economic realities that contribute to our nation's expanding waistline.

Sounds like an interesting show. I've already set my reminder and will try to post a recap/review of it later this week. Find out when it airs in your area.

To Be Fat Like Me

Mucho thanks to Erin for providing this review of To Be Fat Like Me, the Lifetime made for tv movie I missed two Monday's ago.

********

When advertisements for the Lifetime original movie To Be Fat Like Me began peppering the commercial space between reruns of “The Nanny” and “Golden Girls” in the mid-afternoon, I rolled my eyes and changed the channel immediately. It just didn’t seem like big news. Tyra, Courteney, and Gwyneth had already been there, done that, and gotten the XXL t-shirt, donning fat suits that made them look like puffy, slightly misshapen versions of their svelte selves and either playing the part for laughs or using the experience as a chance to wag their fingers at society for continuing to perpetuate sizeism as a pervasive form of discrimination. The plot of this particular movie didn’t seem to offer much more: Ally, a pretty, athletic, alpha teenager (played by Kaley Cuoco of “Eight Simple Rules…”) willingly changes her appearance and identity into Fat Ally for a summer in order to create a hidden camera documentary about obese teenagers and the world in which they live. Life gets complicated, lessons are learned, yada, yada, yada. Pass the rice cakes.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a good portion of its two hour long story was actually a very articulate and emotionally compelling look at the cold war between obese individuals and the peers who judge them. Ally’s goal during the documentary is to prove that fat people use their weight as an excuse to self-isolate, to enable themselves from participating in social events and relationships, and to obscure personality and determination with a fat identity instead. As expected, her original hypothesis is proven wrong when Fat Ally is almost instantly rejected and ridiculed by the students at her new summer school, and she is forced to befriend the school outcasts in order to make sense of her defeat.

It is during these scenes with her new friends Ramona and George (Melissa Halstrom and Scott Little) that the movie demonstrates its merit. Ramona, a beautiful, brilliant, and morbidly obese high schooler with little or no demonstrable self-esteem, is given some of the most poignant lines in the movie as she talks about her weight, her self-image, even the secret stash of junk food in the glove compartment of her car. Ally quickly realizes through these conversations that while being overweight is certainly a personal problem in terms of physical health, the obese are also given no choice in the matter when the public wishes to make it a social problem as well. Fat adolescents are, in effect, left with absolutely no control over their body and how it looks, because the popular media, and ultimately their peer groups have decided it’s simply unacceptable to be obviously overweight. Ramona also touches on another sticky subject regarding fat culture; hierarchies exist even among the overweight themselves, and she is quick to point out that she looks up to Ally because of her beautiful features and exuberant personality. The film is a refreshing contrast from the other “fat suit” endeavors that have come before, because the writers of the film made an effort to include the voices of obese teenagers who don’t have the luxury of stepping out of the fat suit at the end of the day.

Another interesting story arc is Ally’s relationship with her overweight mother (Caroline Rhea) and chunky younger brother (Brandon Olds). Rhea’s performance as a compulsive overeater who ultimately ran through the family’s nest egg due to a diabetes-related heart attack is sympathetic, if a little wooden. After a series of bitter confrontations about her mom’s eating habits, another golden moment in the movie occurs when Ally finally realizes she resents her mother’s weight and personal choices because of fear instead of disgust. It’s an important lesson for anyone struggling with self-image and fat acceptance, because the fear of “catching fat” or losing a loved one due to a preventable condition can be incredibly powerful, if not always explainable.

The plot twists and resolutions in the movie are predictable for the most part, and a bit heavy handed as the film finally reaches its conclusion (I think it would’ve greatly benefited from shaving off at least thirty minutes worth of scenes on either end), but the conversations sandwiched in the middle are definitely worth checking out. As an overweight individual, it gave me a new perspective on how to handle the reactions from my friends and family members, and I think it was an admirable gesture to inform viewers that compassion, rather than shame or guilt, will help all of us win our battle against the obesity epidemic.

Bottom Line: Don’t plan your week around watching it, but it’s definitely worth some TiVo time.

To Be Fat Like Me

All December long I've caught promos to what looks to be an interesting show, To Be Fat Like Me. Here's the summary:

Pretty, popular, athletic 17-year-old Aly is on the fast track to college when an accident blows out her knee and any chance for an athletic scholarship. A documentary contest, and her mother's constant struggle with weight, gives her the idea to go undercover at high school wearing a "fat suit" and hidden camera to prove that personality can outshine physical difference. Aly has always been slim and confident, so she is totally unprepared for the reality of how the world treats a "fat" girl, and she begins to understand how intolerant she has been of her own mother's experience. Starring Kaley Cuoco and Caroline Rhea.

It's showing on Lifetime Monday 9PM EST. I've been having my own thoughts about weight and how people treat you based on what size you are. After it airs, I'll post a brief review. If you happen to see it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the show or that issue in general.

The Poppi Plan

If you watched The Biggest Loser finale, you may remember an at home contestant from New Jersey named Poppi. She won the $50,000 price for biggest loser at home and went from a size 22 to a size 2...

the resounding question is, "How on EARTH did you go from a size 22 to a size 2 in under 8 months???"

She was kind enough to post her routine on her myspace page. Here's a snippet:

THE REGIMENT

(I won't call it a diet, because I was NEVER hungry, loved what I ate and continue to do so!)
daily caloric intake: 1100 calories breakdown: 45% good carbohydrates (you need carbs to work out!!!) good carbs include whole grains, lots of vegetables and fruit (2 cups a day recommended), low carb wraps, etc 30% protein (low fat of course) includes white meat chicken, white meat turkey (all skinless), some shellfish (steamed shrimp..sometimes steamed lobster, butterless of course...) I do not eat these proteins, but on the diet you can: flank steak, tuna, all low cholesterol fish, egg whites, ricotta, yogurt, etc. 25% fat (this was more to keep track and make sure I was doing low fat) but I'd always have snacks that included low moisture mozzarella sticks, no butter, very low oil condiments, etc.

SAMPLE DAY :
breakfast:
organic waffle 110 cal
5.5 oz watermelon 45 cal

snack:
4 oz edamame (boiled soybeans) 100 cal
1 low fat mozz stick 80 cal

lunch:
6 oz steamed shrimp (seasoned) 160cal
1 cup miso soup 45cal
4 oz steamed broccoli (lite soy sauce) 40cal

snack:
whey protein shake 90cal

dinner:
4 oz grilled chicken breast 170cal
1 slice soy cheese 40cal
flax lavash (wrap that i grilled the 55
chicken and cheese on to make a panini!)
5.5 oz raw red pepper 25cal

snack:
small white corn tortilla 50cal
2 tbs organic black bean dip 15
2 tbs salsa (put in oven...kinda like a 20cal tostada!)

dessert:
Fat free frozen yogurt mousse pop 30cal

total: 1075 calories

THE WORKOUT
2 hours a day of intense/moderate cardio .5 hours a day of circuit.

Intense cardio for extremely overweight people can consist of eliptical, walking uphill on a treadmill, or for me, getting out of bed!!!! The two hours should be split up into two workouts. It would be helpful for beginners to consult with a trainer in terms of how to go about building your endurance. The one thing I found to be helpful is this: if your workout becomes comfortable, CHANGE IT UP!!! You should almost ALWAYS break a sweat and get your heart rate up. You don't need to do 2.5 hours a day. That's what I did. But I was completely horrified at my size on national tv! HA. Just be consistent. If you can only start with 20 min a day, so be it. Just make sure to go tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that.

A few parting words from Poppi,

"But remember. There is no magic in the diet/exercise routine. The magic is your mind."

The magic is within your will. We all struggle everyday with different things.

Her myspace page.

Biggest Loser: Episode 1

So did y'all watch the Biggest Loser? What'd you think? Was your state represented? Mine's wasn't

What was the funniest moment? Sweetest moment? Did you miss Jillian? Did you tear up? But what I really want to know is, who'd you want to smack upside the head?

Below the fold I crunch the numbers of Amy from Maryland who shed 16lbs in one week.

Starting weight: 260lbs
Current weight: 244lb
Lbs lost: 16
Caloric burn to net a 16lb loss: 56,000 for the week or 8,000 calories a day

At 260lbs, she needs 2333 calories to maintain her weight if she is sedentary. Bob put his ladies on a 1200-1500 calorie diet, creating a 1100 daily deficit via eats alone. For the amount of exercising they was doing, she actually needs 3350 calories per day to maintain her weight. Her daily deficit is now 2100 calories.

I am going out on a limb and say they workout intensely 4 hours a day. Not including misc exercise they get in, I'm talking gym time. I'm guessing Bob has them in first thing in the AM for @ least an hour. Probably around lunch time for another hour and as we saw post challenge, he put them back in the gym for cardio before dinner.

@ her size, she can burn 5000 calories in those 4 hours if she just walked or jogged. He had them doing the precor and intense cardio machines, plus lots of weights and jumping. Easily she burned 6000 calories.

6000 burned via exercise + 2100 daily deficit ='s doing the above for 7 days @ her 260lb weight is how she shed 16lbs in one week.

Set your TeeVee

Don't forget, the two hour premiere of the Biggest Loser starts tonight @ 8pm on NBC. There'll be a pop quiz in the morning

Biggest Loser Casting

Get Famous...and Fit!

Producers will visit three cities on July 1, three more on July 8, and one on both July 2 and 9. The show’s “casting teams guarantee the first 800 people in line will be seen,” according to a press release, so get there early. You can also apply online. [via realityblurred.com]

Sign up online. If you make the cut, bee (heh) sure to give the fatfighterblogs.com a shout out when you do your weigh in