Is 'Biggest Loser'-Style Weight Loss Healthy?
The scream-at-desperate-people television juggernaut known as " The Biggest Loser" sure doesn't look like much fun. That is unless, of course, you're into exercising until you vomit, denying yourself the ability to ever use food for comfort or celebration, and using the scale to determine your self-worth and happiness. No doubt though, given the incredible losses seen on the show, some viewers will wonder whether or not it's all worth it. To answer that question, two more need to be asked. Firstly, do the "Biggest Loser" contestants maintain their losses, and secondly, is "Biggest Loser"-style losing healthful?
As far as maintaining their losses, unfortunately there is no registry of "Biggest Loser" contestants to reference. That said, of the six contestants I've personally interviewed, each of them stated that 75 or more of their former contestants have regained their weights. One contestant also asserted that among those who do keep their weights off, many do so by means of post-show bariatric surgery.
[Read: Weight-Loss Surgery: A Cure for the Morbidly Obese? ]
And what of health? "The Biggest Loser" positions itself to suggest to viewers that the lifestyle espoused by it is worthy of aspiration -- and of course, of spending. Plainly, if you too want to live like the folks on "The Biggest Loser," you can do so by means of purchasing a "Biggest Loser" book, joining an online "Biggest Loser" weight loss service, or even heading over to a "Biggest Loser"-branded residential weight loss program. But should you? Perhaps not if you value your health, as a recent study has confirmed that "Biggest Loser"-style weight loss has an awful impact on a person's metabolism.
The study, published ahead of print in the journal Obesity, confirms what an earlier study had already reported -- that losing weight "Biggest Loser"-style destroys the loser's metabolism. This current study compared the impact "The Biggest Loser" had on participants' metabolisms versus the impact gastric bypasses had on a case-matched group's metabolisms.
[See: 7 Mind-Blowing Benefits of Exercise.]
For the Losers, the results aren't pretty. Though they, like the surgical patients, did lose more than 30 percent of their presenting weights, their metabolisms took a huge hit. While it's wholly expected that massive weight loss will unavoidably lead to a slowing of metabolic rate -- both consequent to the fact that there's literally less of these individuals to burn calories and to the fact that the body slows down metabolism in response to weight loss (a phenomenon known as metabolic adaptation) -- the Losers' metabolic slowdowns were much more dramatic than the surgical patients'. When compared with their matched gastric bypass patient controls, whose metabolic slowdowns were in the order of 300 calories/day, Biggest Loser participants' metabolic slowdowns were more than double.
And the study had more bad news for the Losers. Looking at the hunger hormone leptin, where low levels of leptin would be expected to lead to generate both cravings and hunger, "Biggest Loser" contestants are in big trouble. Their circulating leptin levels, when compared with the circulating leptin levels of those who lost their weight by means of bariatric surgery, are 500 percent lower. Meaning not only do Losers burn fewer calories, but they're likely to be hungrier as well, and burning fewer calories while simultaneously being hungrier is definitely not a good combination for maintaining weight loss.
[Read: Diet Success Stories: Dieters Reveal How They Hit Their Target Body Weight .]
Perhaps tellingly, the authors of this study, in discussing its limitations, noted: "Limitations of this study include the differing rates of weight loss in the BLC and RYGB groups and the lack of a weight loss maintenance phase to investigate the subjects in a state of energy balance."
Given the results of the study, and the reports from former contestants, I can't help but wonder if the reason why there's a lack of a weight loss maintenance phase to investigate Biggest Loser contestants in a state of energy balance is because for the vast majority of Losers, there is no maintaining these metabolically unhealthy losses.
Yoni Freedhoff, MD, is an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa, where he's the founder and medical director of the Bariatric Medical Institute -- dedicated to non-surgical weight management since 2004. Dr. Freedhoff sounds off daily on his award-winning blog, Weighty Matters, and you can follow him on Twitter @YoniFreedhoff. Dr. Freedhoff's latest book, "The Diet Fix: Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work," is a national bestseller in Canada and is widely available across North America and online.
