Having
been in the weight reduction business I know that in a couple of years
even these figures won't hold up (no pun intended)--only 4-5%, not
5-10%, of people who lose weight keep it off for 5 or more years.
HEY LOSERS!
May 12, 2009 --
IN
tonight's finale of "The Biggest Loser," the contestants will unveil
their new svelte selves. But how long will it take before they return
to their fat forms?
It
may sound cynical, but it's the reality: Of people who have lost a
significant amount of weight, only 5 to 10 percent keep it off.
Jillian
Michaels, the show's tough-love trainer, says "Biggest Loser" numbers
are better than the national average: Only about 35 to 40 percent of
contestants from the show's six seasons have regained their weight.
There
are certain standouts -- 2004's Season 1 winner Ryan Benson, for
instance, is closing in on his starting weight of 330 pounds.
"That is discouraging, believe me," Michaels says. "But our numbers are pretty darn good."
Contestants who care more about the competition than about being healthy, such as Benson, are bound to fail, she explains.
"I
force the contestants to focus on the big picture -- the emotional
issues behind why they put the weight on in the first place," she says.
"No one wants to say, 'Gee, let me look at all the painful things as to
why I got to 400 pounds.' "
By
and large, Michaels, 35, says she can predict which Losers will gain
and which will maintain, based on how much emotional digging they do.
"I'm
so aggressive, so confrontational and so intense because my time is
limited," she says. "I don't get to coax them along with three years of
therapy."
The trainer herself was an overweight youth, a "troubled kid and a violent teen." She was in therapy by age 5.
"Because
of the help I received, I feel like I know what I'm doing," she says.
"I understand how difficult the journey is, but I'm not going to make
it any easier."
Besides
confronting emotional issues, contestants must make the tricky
transition from the protective "Biggest Loser" campus to their homes.
"Sure, you can't exercise eight hours a day, but the diet I put them on is for the rest of their lives," says Michaels.
Overall,
she likes her record. And she's not so tough after all -- like when she
sees a contestant who regains his or her weight.
"I'm heartbroken," she says.
Regaining
some weight, though, is inevitable: Most contestants' final weight is
often shockingly low to put them within reach of the prize money.
Benson, for exanple, did a cleansing diet (no food) for 10 days before
the finale. Those who have maintained are in a healthy range.
Read on to find out which contestants did or didn't break Michaels' heart.
marymhuhn@nypost.com
POPPI KRAMER
Poppi Kramer, 36, lost almost 50 percent of her body weight to capture the at-home title in 2006's Season 3.
The
stand-up comic and actress, 5-foot-2, dropped from 232 pounds to 125
pounds to win and now weighs a comfortable 129 pounds. Her goal is to
stay below 132.
"It's a weird marker," she says. "I like to say I kept off 100 pounds."
Kramer,
who originally tried out for the show to get the television exposure,
was skeptical that any program could help her. "My stomach was so big I
was spooning myself," she jokes.
After
she was eliminated in the first week, she continued the competition at
home, on her own. She worked out and changed her food habits right in
Chelsea. And she says staying in her own neighborhood actually helped
her keep the weight off, because she didn't face the usual adjustment
issues after she won.
She keeps trim by exercising and eating a mostly vegetarian diet.
"You
can't quit eating, so I found foods that felt like I was cheating," she
says. "Morningstar Farms sausage tastes like sausage but isn't 400
calories."
After
three years, she has found the "sweet spot" -- the balance between
calories and how little she can work out so she won't gain weight.
"It's about consistency, overall consistency," she says.
MATT & SUZY HOOVER
Matt Hoover and his wife, Suzy, met on the show. They faced a hard adjustment at home.
"Our
lives changed so drastically," says Matt, 33. "You get used to working
out so much. You get back to the real world, and you don't have the
time."
In
2005, Matt, 5-foot-10, won the second-season show, going from 339 to
182 pounds. Once at home, he turned to hypnosis CDs to help get his
head around his new weight. "I knew I weighed 200 pounds, but I felt
like I weighed 300," he says.
But
by December 2008, Matt's weight had crept up to 255. Since he started
training for an Ironman competition and the 2012 Olympics (as a
wrestler), he's lost about 20 pounds.
"I'm still trying to figure out a way to keep it off forever without training for Ironman," he says.
Suzy,
5-foot-5, lost 95 pounds to hit to 132 pounds for the season finale.
She put on a few pounds afterward, but was able to maintain at 150
pounds -- and even had 8 pounds of skin removed.
But she continued to be obsessed with her weight. "The show gave me a mental complex when I got home," she says.
Then
she got pregnant and had two kids. This past fall, she was within a few
pounds of her starting weight. "It was horrible gaining weight in the
public eye," she says.
However, being pregnant freed her weight-focused mind.
"I realized I'm not a number of the scale," she says. "My body produced a child."
Now she's back to a size 12 and weighs 179 pounds.
"The thing is . . . I'm not done with this until I'm dead," says Suzy. "I'm in this forever."
PETE THOMAS
Pete
Thomas, 41, is another Season 2 winner -- only he won the at-home
division, for people who continued to lose after they left the show.
The 6-foot-5 Thomas started at 401 pounds and lost 185 pounds, weighing
in at 216. He now maintains a happy 240 pounds.
Once a fad dieter, he now is a motivational speaker and has a weight-loss program and a blog (winningman.com).
Thomas weighs himself twice a week to keep himself in check.
"You don't get morbidly obese with a couple of bad habits," he says.
Keeping
up his routine has been a priority: The day after the finale in
November 2005, he went for a jog. "I said to myself, 'This isn't the
time to stop,' " he recalls. "This is when life begins."
He exercises regularly but watches his diet, too. "Your legs can't outrun your mouth," he says.
And he looks at his food issues as any other addiction -- he may have conquered it, but "that fat guy is always in there."
To stay motivated, he sets yearly goals -- such as running a marathon -- and keeps an eye on his lifetime goal.
"I want to get old and look like Jack LaLanne," he says.
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