Slim Zoom

Jeff Behar asked:


The Biggest Loser Diet is a calorie-controlled, carbohydrate modified, fat reduced, weight loss diet geared to help you burn pure fat from the body. It also help to do so without deprivation or loss of energy.

How The Biggest Loser Diet Works

The Biggest Loser Diet guides you to choose foods that are closer to their natural source, particularly fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, because your body processes and uses them much more efficiently to build health. Whole foods are those that have not been modified from their natural state, or have been modified only a little bit, for example, through cooking. Foods that have been substantially modified are classified as processed foods. For example, blueberries are a whole food but blueberries toaster pastries are not.

Whole foods are higher in fiber, which aids in weight loss, both because it is filling and because it helps reduce the number of calories that your body absorbs after a meal. Further, whole foods are much less fattening than processed foods because they do not contain added sugar or other sweeteners. Nor do they contain added fats or oils.

This is a low calorie diet based on the Biggest Loser pyramid of 4-3-2-1 (four servings of fruits and veggies; three of lean protein; two of whole grains; and one “extra”), along with good old-fashioned exercise. Eat a diet based largely on fruits, vegetables and lean protein, add a heavy dose of physical activity and you will lose weight, lower cholesterol, decrease blood pressure, and become stronger and more energized.

The Biggest Loser Diet is based on a diet is high in lean protein. Protein has a hunger controlling effect on the body, which is why higher protein diets are so effective for weight loss and fat-burning.

What Food is Allowed in The Biggest Loser Diet

The Biggest Loser Diet gives you the freedom to eat a wide variety of foods, as long as you stick to mostly whole, natural foods. Over the course of the 12-week program, you can expect to eat small, frequent meals containing plenty of fiber and protein, for fullness without too many calories.

The Sample Meal Plan for The Biggest Loser Diet

The Biggest Loser Diet plan includes one week sample meal plans for 1,200, 1,500 and 1,800-calorie diets, along with some recipes. Forty-five percent of the total calories come from carbohydrates, 30% from protein, and 25% from fat.

The 4-3-2-1 Biggest Loser Pyramid sets the stage for number of servings from each of the food groups:



4 servings of fruits and vegetables

3 servings of protein — lean, vegetarian, or low-fat dairy

2 servings of whole grains

1 extra of fats, oils, sweets, alcohol, or your choice, equivalent to 200 calories



What Foods are Not Allowed in The Biggest Loser Diet

The Biggest Loser Die doesn’t allow eating any appetite stimulating white foods like bread, pasta, or potatoes.  You have to keep daily food logs, watching portion sizes, and drinking 48-64 ounces of water each day round out the basic plan.

Dieters are urged to choose foods that are not processed and contain no added fats, sugar, or salt.

How to Benefit from The Biggest Loser Diet

There is a simple formula for you, put together by the Biggest Loser doctors and nutritionists.  

Your present weight X 7 = Your daily caloric needs for weight loss.

Your calorie count should never be static; in fact, it’s a moving target. As you lose weight, you’ll need to readjust your daily calories downward in order to keep losing at a good pace and break through plateaus, should your weight loss ever seem stalled. Your Biggest Loser online program will make this adjustment for you, and change your meal plans as necessary.

Note: Everyone is different, and we all burn different amounts of calories at different rates. So if you and a partner, friend, or buddy follow The Biggest Loser Diet, one of you might lose weight at a different rate, faster or slower, than the other from week to week.

Additional Suggested Health Benefits of The Biggest Loser Diet

The biggest loser diet program contains a detailed cardio and strength-training program that increases in intensity for a fat-busting boost.

It works because you burn more calories than you eat, and if you follow the prescription for eating healthy, whole foods every few hours, you shouldn’t have to deal with hunger.

Potential Risks of The Biggest Loser Diet

Sounds simple enough, but when you don’t have a personal trainer pushing you, as the TV contestants have, it is difficult to stay motivated. If you’re motivated by the television program, you have to struggle hard at home with this sensible and straightforward approach.

Whilst The Biggest Loser Diet doesn’t provide viewers with a realistic format for exercise, it does motivate them to get started and that is a good thing.

What the Experts Say about The Biggest Loser Diet

The Biggest Loser Diet has certain advantages. When you eliminate refined starches and sugars or the appetite stimulating foods, hunger and appetite go way down because blood glucose and insulin spikes are minimized.

The diet is endorsed by the American Dietetic Association.  According to American Dietetic Association spokesperson Amy Jamieson-Petonic, MEd, RD, the Biggest Loser Diet is a worthwhile diet– as long as you consume at least 1,200 calories daily. “It is not recommended to consume fewer than 1,200 calories a day because it is difficult to obtain the necessary vitamins, minerals and nutrients needed for daily activities,” she says.

Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, assistant director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of California at Los Angeles also endorses the diet. According to Bowman, “The Biggest loser Diet is very similar to the plan we use at our clinics, using very low-fat and lean protein, lots of fruits and vegetables (with an emphasis on vegetables), and avoiding refined grains — which has proven to be successful because the diet is very satiating,” she says. Bowerman also recommends that dieters get plenty of omega-3 fatty acids, either in a supplement or by eating low-mercury types of fish twice weekly.

American Dietetic Association spokesperson Amy Jamieson-Petonic, MEd, RD, endorses the Biggest Loser Diet — as long as you consume at least 1,200 calories daily. “It is not recommended to consume fewer than 1,200 calories a day because it is difficult to obtain the necessary vitamins, minerals and nutrients needed for daily activities,” she says.

Bottom Line Evaluation of the Biggest Loser Diet

Only four components of food supply calories: protein and carbohydrates (4 calories per gram), alcohol (7 calories per gram), and fat (9 calories per gram).  Vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, fiber, and water do not supply calories.

Diet-wise, no matter what you’ve heard, calories really do count, and they count big-time. If you don’t eat fewer calories than you burn off, there will be no weight loss.



Milton

Cliff Baker asked:


With so many conflicting studies and vague interpretation of information, it’s not surprising that there is a lot of confusion when it comes to the value, safety and efficacy of low-carb diets. It seems like heated debates are everywhere!

Whether it’s the South Beach or Atkins, or some other low-carb plan, as many as 30 million Americans are following a low-carb diet.

Advocates contend that the high amount of carbohydrates in our diet has led to increasing problems with obesity, diabetes, and other health problems. Critics, on the other hand, attribute obesity and related health problems to over-consumption of calories from any source, and lack of physical activity. Critics also express concern that the lack of grains, fruits, and vegetables in low-carbohydrate diets may lead to deficiencies of some key nutrients, including fiber, vitamin C, folic acid, and several minerals.

Any diet, weather low or high in carbohydrate, can produce significant weight loss during the initial stages of the diet. But remember, the key to successful dieting is in being able to lose the weight permanently. Put another way, what does the scale show a year after going off the diet?

Let’s see if we can debunk some of the mystery about low-carb diets. Below, is a listing of some relevant points taken from recent studies and scientific literature. Please note there may be insufficient information available to answer all questions.

Differences Between Low-Carb Diets

There are many popular diets designed to lower carbohydrate consumption. Reducing total carbohydrate in the diet means that protein and fat will represent a proportionately greater amount of the total caloric intake.

Atkins and Protein Power diets restrict carbohydrate to a point where the body becomes ketogenic. Other low-carb diets like the Zone and Life Without Bread are less restrictive. Some, like Sugar Busters claim to eliminate only sugars and foods that elevate blood sugar levels excessively.

What We Know about Low-Carb Diets

Almost all of the studies to date have been small with a wide variety of research objectives. Carbohydrate, caloric intake, diet duration and participant characteristics varied greatly.

Most of the studies to date have two things in common: None of the studies had participants with a mean age over 53 and none of the controlled studies lasted longer than 90 days.

Information on older adults and long-term results are scarce. Many diet studies fail to monitor the amount of exercise, and therefore caloric expenditure, while participants are dieting. This helps to explain discrepancies between studies.

The weight loss on low-carb diets is a function of caloric restriction and diet duration, and not with reduced carbohydrate intake. This finding suggests that if you want to lose weight, you should eat fewer calories and do so over a long time period.

Little evidence exists on the long-range safety of low-carb diets. Despite the medical community concerns, no short-term adverse effects have been found on cholesterol, glucose, insulin and blood-pressure levels among participants on the diets. But, adverse effects may not show up because of the short period of the studies. Researchers note that losing weight typically leads to an improvement in these levels anyway, and this may offset an increase caused by a high fat diet. The long range weight change for low-carb and other types of diets is similar.

Most low-carb diets cause ketosis. Some of the potential consequences are nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and confusion. During the initial phase of low-carb dieting some fatigue and constipation may be encountered. Generally, these symptoms dissipate quickly. Ketosis may also give the breath a fruity odor, somewhat like nail-polish remover (acetone).

Low-carb diets do not enable the consumption of more calories than other kinds of diets, as has been often reported. A calorie is a calorie and it doesn’t matter weather they come from carbohydrates or fat. Study discrepancies are likely the result of uncontrolled circumstances; i.e. diet participants that cheat on calorie consumption, calories burned during exercise, or any number of other factors. The drop-out rate for strict (i.e. less than 40 grams of CHO/day) low-carb diets is relatively high.

What Should You Do?

There are 3 important points I would like to re-emphasize:

1)The long-range success rate for low-carb and other types of diets is similar.

2) Despite their popularity, little information exists on the long-term efficacy and safety of low-carbohydrate diets.

3) Strict low-carb diets are usually not sustainable as a normal way of eating. Boredom usually overcomes willpower.

It is obvious after reviewing the topic, that more, well-designed and controlled studies are needed. There just isn’t a lot of good information available, especially concerning long-range effects. Strict low-carb diets produce ketosis which is an abnormal and potentially stressful metabolic state. Under some circumstances this might cause health related complications.

The diet you choose should be a blueprint for a lifetime of better eating, not just a quick weight loss plan to reach your weight goal. If you can’t see yourself eating the prescribed foods longer than a few days or a week, then chances are it’s not the right diet. To this end, following a moderately low fat diet with a healthy balance of fat, protein, carbohydrate and other nutrients is beneficial.

If you do decide to follow a low-carb plan, remember that certain dietary fats are associated with reduction of disease. Foods high in unsaturated fats that are free of trans-fatty acids such as olive oil, fish, flaxseeds, and nuts are preferred to fats from animal origins.

Even promoters of the Atkins diet now say people on their plan should limit the amount of red meat and saturated fat they eat. Atkins representatives are telling health professionals that only 20 percent of a dieter’s calories should come from saturated fat (i.e. meat, cheese, butter). This change comes as Atkins faces competition from other popular low-carb diets that call for less saturated fat, such as the South Beach diet plan. Low-carb dieting should not be considered as a license to gorge on red meat!

Another alternative to “strict” low-carb dieting would be to give up some of the bad carbohydrate foods but not “throw out the baby with the bath water”. In other words, foods high in processed sugar, snacks, and white bread would be avoided, but foods high in complex carbohydrates such as fruit, potatoes and whole grains, retained.



Debbie