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Posts Tagged ‘The Biggest Loser’

There is a new book out by Bob Harper, who hails from The Biggest Loser, that is really good and if you desire to lose some weight, for life, then this is a good book to have in your weight loss library.  When I reviewed the book I was blown away from the very start where Bob writes about how he made it into the gym for the very first time in his life.  I was glued to the story about how the passing of his mother brought his weight loss and health training passion full circle in his life.

Being a huge fan of Jillian Michaels I am always looking for some insight into the tiny facts of Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels.  I am not a stalker or anything like that but I just like to know more about what makes them so successful in helping others be able to lose massive amounts of body weight.  Bob has become an inspiration for weight loss and whether he likes it or not he has been cast into the role that will be forever his and no Hollywood set will ever be able to change that.  Bob Harper has become a weight loss and fitness legend and the new book out “Are You Ready!”has hit the shelves ready to rock.

The forward of the book is a part I normally skip over but I read this one and I am glad that I did because it offered much insight into what makes Bob Harper tick.  The forward of the book provides the reader what really is the philosophy of how he goes about helping people start and complete their personal weight loss journey.  One interesting aspect of the book is that the title of the book is a question, yet there is no question mark on the page.  I think what this means is that it really is not a question that is being asked at all.  Bob Harper knows and has made the assumption that you are ready to lose weight and he is ready to help you.  I think what this means is a significant peek into the mindset of Bob because he not only knows you are ready he is ready to make it happen with you.

The book is filled with many photographs and instructions on how to perform certain exercises and when reading the book I felt as if I could hear his voice rising out of the pages.  I kind of felt that Bob was talking to me when he was getting into the whole Yoga and calming technique which was new to me, but I love it and it has helped me personally.

Overall it is a good comprehensive book that touches on the holistic experience of eating and working out combined with the challenges we experience as we start to lose weight and introduce exercise into our life.  It is quite evident that Bob Harper takes an interest in the contestants on The Biggest Loser and he is saddened when the players gain all of their weight back again.  The approach of the book is one that acknowledges that in order to truly lose the weight you need to learn about more than just exercise otherwise you can gain all the weight back again like Ryan did from The Biggest Loser season one. The book will be a valuable addition to any one’s library, I only wish I could find some insight to Bob Harper’s tattoos, but alas, there is little to no information available.  So if you read this Bob, there are a lot of people asking.

“Are You Ready” is an easy read and the reviews on Amazon.comrate this book really well so you don’t just have to take our word for it!

January 27, 2009: Rachael Ray has Jillian Michaels on her television show and the interview covered The Biggest Loser and her tough love approach to the contestants. She also brings along a work out for everyone to try.

The show started off with Jillian Michaels coming into the New York studio and interacting with some of the audience who were waiting outside in the cold weather.  She teased some of the ladies outside with some minor exercise routines. 

Rachael Ray introduced Jillian on the show as “slightly scary and totally sweet.”  Rachael then had a flashback to a scene where Rachael had her hand on the butt of Jillian.

There was then a brief hand raising moment where the audience was asked who had started the New Year with a resolution with weight loss that already failed.  The audience raised hands and then Rachael asked Jillian if she believed in New Year’s resolutions.  Jillian Michaels responded with the answer that if that is what it took to motivate some people, then it was alright and said there was nothing wrong with having them.

Then there was a mention from Rachael Ray about the new videos Jillian Michaels has available on Amazon.com and Rachael said that she herself has ordered some.

Jillian then went into a monologue that she tries to help people lose weight by getting to the core issue of what is causing them to be obese.  She said she likes to focus on the behavior that brings reward that will make the weight loss efforts worth the trouble.  Rachael then stressed the fact that she considers Jillian to focus on the Holistic aspect of the person.  Jillian agreed with Rachael.

The next brief scene provided some insight into the mind set of Jillian Michaels.  She said that Season 7 of The Biggest Loser has made her fear failure and one insightful phrase was uttered.  Jillian said she was afraid of being consider a fraud and that she has doubts of being a success.  Jillian seemed very human during that scene.

Jillian then switched to a scene of being in a health club in L.A. and answered questions of people who came up to her.  The one answer that was insightful was about people achieving plateaus.  She said that there really is no such thing.  You may stumble for a week, but the solution is to “eat less and just move more.”

Jillian then called a few ladies from the audience and demonstrated some exercise routines.

Jillian announced her new weight loss videos will be released on Feb 3, 2009.

Have you ever wondered what has happened to some of the contestants on The Biggest Loser?  Below is a short listing of some of the people who participated in the show and where they are now.  Just some before during and after information of the people you watched on The Biggest loser.

Updated on December 30th, 2008

Season One

 Ryan Benson had a starting weight of 330 pounds.  A finale weight of 208 pounds and current weight of 300 pounds.

Andrea Baptiste had a starting weight of 215 pounds.  A finale weight of 156 and a current weight of 155 pounds.

Kelly Minner had a starting weight of 242 pounds.  A finale weight of 163 and a current weight that she will not disclose.

Season Two

Matt Hoover had a starting weight of 339 pounds.  A finale weight of 182 and a current weight of 235   pounds.
Suzy Hoover had a starting weight of 227 pounds.  A finale weight of 132 and a current weight that she will not disclose.

Jeff Levine had a starting weight of 370 pounds.  A finale weight of 217 and a current weight of 240   pounds.

Season Three

Amy Wolff had a starting weight of 260 pounds.  A finale weight of 154 and a current weight of 195   pounds.

Marty Wolff had a starting weight of 365 pounds.  A finale weight of 219 and a current weight of 255   pounds.

Mark Wylie had a starting weight of 307 pounds.  A finale weight of 178 and a current weight of 225 pounds.

Season Four

Bill Germanakos had a starting weight of  334 pounds.  A finale weight of 170 and a current weight of 198  pounds.

Jim Germanakos had a starting weight of 361pounds.  A finale weight of 175 and a current weight of 198    pounds.

Jerry Lisenby had a starting weight of 297 pounds.  A finale weight of 187 and a current weight of  195 pounds.

Nicole Michalik had a starting weight of 279 pounds.  A finale weight of 174 and a current weight of  182 pounds.

Isabeau Miller had a starting weight of 298 pounds.  A finale weight of 185 and a current weight of 220   pounds.

Hollie Self had a starting weight of 255 pounds.  A finale weight of 150 and a current weight of 166 pounds.

Season Five

Ali Vincent had a starting weight of 234 pounds.  A finale weight of 122 and a current weight of 125 pounds.

Dan Evans had a starting weight of 310 pounds.  A finale weight of 174 and a current weight of 180 pounds.

Kelly Fields had a starting weight of 271 pounds.  A finale weight of 162 and a current weight of 169 pounds.

Mark Kruger had a starting weight of 285 pounds.  A finale weight of 156 and a current weight of 184   pounds.

Bob Harper and Jillian Michaelson The Biggest Loser are mainstays of the show.  One behind the scene star of the show is the equipment that is used.  For the most part that equipment is part of the 24 Hour Fitness families.  If you are an avid watcher of the show you will notice that all of the contestants on the show have a band around their arm.  That band is a high tech piece of gear that is not that expensive and easy to use.  That piece of equipment is from 24 Hour Fitness and is called BodyBugg.  Bob and Jillian use that equipment to track the progress of the players that train under their supervision.  BodyBugg is a calorie management system that helps a person not only manage the calories they consume, but also tracks the calories that are burned through exercise and any basic body movements.   It was created with the concept that you would be able to easily download the information from your armband to your computer and also to a website that helps monitor your progess.  The amount of information that is provided the user is awesome and it works.

(An update to the BodyBugg can be found at this link.)

One reason why there has been so much success on The Biggest Loser is because of Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels, but without the equipment the process would not be so streamlined.  Sure the weight loss is so rapid because of the amount of exercise that is being endured, but BodyBugg tracks the path and allows the user to trace what has been done to help plan where they need to go on their weight loss journey.  It is one piece of equipment that is fairly invisible to others when it is being worn, yet it is large enough in technology to help you take control of the direction of your weight loss.

When my wife and I started to exercise and lose weight we dropped weight quickly at first and then the weight loss slowed down.  After a few months of trying to lose weight every pound would be a struggle.  We would watch The Biggest Loser and be shocked to see the players drop double digits week after week.  As the seasons progressed we learned they are exercising six, seven and eight hours a day.  Knowing we could not compete with that in our lives we felt as if we would never get past our weight lose plateau.  We felt as if the last 20 pounds would never budge from our hips.  We were at the point where despite all of our weight loss success we were soon to yo-yo diet our way back to obesity.  That was when my wife and I gathered up the money to buy BodyBugg from 24 Hour Fitness.  We put the thing on our arms and started to track how many calories we burned in the course of the day.

What really surprised us was not the fact that it told us how many calories we had burned but we were able to take that information and sort of reverse it to our advantage.  The sales pitch of the product never really stressed the fact that by tracking what we burned it would allow us to decide how many calories we should eat.  Losing weight quickly became simple math.  There was no guessing and no mornings of disappointment on the morning bathroom scale.  Now when we get on the bathroom scalein the morning the display reflects what we expect.  We are no longer confused by what we see on the bathroom scale.  When we use the bathroom scale we now not only know what to expect we understand the results.  For the first time our bathroom scale does reflect weight loss accurately.  What BodyBugg has shown us is that the bathroom scale is accurate; we just did not know what we were doing. 

Overall we love The Biggest Loser and will continue watching the show.  As we sit on our couch we have gone through the first few seasons thinking about weight loss and did nothing.  About season three or four we started to get off the couch but we were as lost as Jerry (the Old guy) on Season 7.  Now we have educated ourselves on weight loss and have taken that knowledge to the next level with BodyBugg.  If it were not for The Biggest Loser we would have never even heard of BodyBugg.  We ultimately know that through The Biggest Loser, Jillian and Bob and BodyBugg, we were able to not only lose the weight but able to keep the weight off.

I have been a fan of the Biggest Loser show since season one. My only regret is that I have not been able to be on the show and work with Bob Harper or Jillian Michaels. They have helped over 100 contestants lose over five tons of body weight. Have you ever wondered how they were able to make that happen? Have you ever wondered if you could be your own personal Biggest Loser? Have you ever wanted to be on the show but you continue to sit there and only watch the contestants lose weight and wish it was you?

The secret to the Biggest Loser is not the ranch that the people are secluded to or the trainers that they have access to help them.  The secret to the Biggest Losers is that they have been able to develop that commitment that is needed to be able to stay focused on the weight loss.  Yes, the seclusion of the ranch is a benefit but you must remember that out of the large group that starts the show, many quickly drop out.  The reason for the winners, as well as the losers is the amount of motivation that one possesses.  Granted there is some game play involved here and there but the winner of the game ultimately ends up being the person with the highest degree of motivation.  The person that takes it all the way to the end is the person with the highest degree of self motivation that manifests itself into action, which yields results which is the elusive weight loss that is coveted by everyone.

The problem most people have with losing weight or with dieting is twofold. These are the two problems that the Biggest Loser demonstrates over and over and that is you must stop trying to diet and that you must change your lifestyle. In order to change your lifestyle you must be committed to the fact that weight loss motivation is not something that you do only for a few weeks but it must be something that you need to do for the rest of your life. If you were to lookup some of the Biggest Loser contestants you would learn that not all of them have been able to remain at their optimal bodyweight. With only minor research you will discover that not all of the Biggest Losers have been able to remain thin. This is not a slam or a dig at the contestants this is the reality of the situation and that situation is what we call life.

The end result is that if you desire to lose weight it is not something that you accomplish in 53 days and then you are done. What the Biggest loser has shown the world is that to be able to truly lose weight you need to not diet but change your life and that change is what will make your weight loss a success. It is hard to believe that weight loss is that simple but it is that simple. Weight loss is obtainable and you can do it if you are willing to take the journey. There you have it and it really is not a secret anymore. You now have the weight loss secrets of The Biggest Loser.