Trainers, what’s your take on the training/nutrition approach of the Biggest Loser TV series?
I refuse to watch that show besides avoiding TV all together. It portrays the fitness industry in all the wrong ways. It gives people a false sense of hope. They imitate a get rich quick scheme with weight loss that people will get lured into. However, as many know this is not realistic but that is TV for you. Television is meant to please its viewers and it will do what it takes to do so. I try and stay away from television and especially shows similar to “the biggest loser”
Nutrition and Training go hand in hand! They must both be addressed in order for our clients to have success. If a client is a workhorse and does every exercise you tell them you to do with ferocious intensity, the training will be completely null and void if that client doesn’t fuel their body correctly. Our clients must be taught to eat balanced meals, and that it’s also okay to slip once and a while as long as they don’t give up. I spend at least 10 minutes per session with my clients going over what they’ve eaten since I last saw them. If they need more time and have a bunch of questions on nutrition, we may spend an entire session addressing those questions. I am not a certified nutritionist, and won’t/can’t prescribe meals, but it is my responsibility as a member of the Wellness industry to give them guidelines and educate them on the foods available to them.
As for the show, having learned that the “celebrity” trainers on The Biggest Loser only work with the contestants about an hour each day while lesser known trainers make up the remainder of the workout time, and then seeing the poor form the contestants have on the workout dvd’s, I have lost a lot of respect for the trainers themselves. I’ve watched the show from the 1st season, and even though the weight loss is a big part of it (which happens way too fast), it’s not the whole thing. They also focus on what/when/how much to eat and how to prepare it, and they show the contestants how to make it a lifestyle. It’s up to the contestants, like any client, to keep it up. They are also diving more and more into the mental & emotional battle people have with food and movement. About 95% of these people have some traumatic event in their past that has paralyzed them emotionally. I’ve started to realize, with more than just BL, that part of the problem that caused the obesity epidemic is people not learning how to cope with grief and bullying. This should be taught to us as we grow into adulthood, however way too many people have missed this lesson. The one good thing I have to say about Jillian is that she has begun the process of really digging deep to help these people figure out what their true barriers are and how to break through them. The show used to be about getting healthy, eating right, and making it a lifestyle. These days it’s more about the drama…and the scripted infomercials that they sneak in. That being said, I’ll prob check in a few times next season, but won’t be watching it like I used to.
