Tuesday, January 26, 2010

BIGGEST LOSER "10 & 11" WEEK TWO "HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?"

Two weeks have come and gone for Biggest Losers “10” and “11” as well as most of January. Have you gotten started with your own program yet? With the Biggest Losers, our whole focus last week was simply to get everyone moving, and I think that went pretty well.

All but two of the 53 participants made the 1st weigh-in, and most everyone also made the workout. After a week of getting familiar with the machines and cardio equipment, their weekly workout was still pretty tough: 5 sets of 10 pushups, 10 body squats, and 10 sit-ups.

After finishing all 50 of those, they did three rounds of 30 seconds of grappling (trying to muscle their partner around), partner pushups, and partner sit-ups. This was definitely the most fun, and there were a lot of laughs during those rounds.

This week, we lost one, and four others missed the weigh-in. In the workout, they did 4 rounds of 15 pushups, sit-ups and squats, for a total of 60 reps. They also did walking lunges, side-stepping squats, and the monkey walk, finishing with partner sit-ups, partner squats, and the dreaded one minute plank!

They were also supposed to focus on how much they were eating. They used a calorie log to track everything they ate during the day. If they didn’t know the calories from the box or packages, they looked it up on the internet at sites like www.calorieking.com .

They were also supposed to go to www.tomdolanfitness.com and plug in their height, weight, age, gender, and body fat. Then it would calculate their minimum number of calories they needed to get through the day. It also helped them set a target number.

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that women never go below 1,200 calories. But we’ve found that most women do better if they eat just a little more. If they can stay between 1,500 and 1,650 calories/day, they’ll usually feel better—and still lose the weight.

Men need to stay above 1,800 calories for their minimum, but they usually feel better if they’ll stick around 2,400 calories/day. That’s usually more than enough food to satisfy them, but just about the right amount to lose weight if they’re active.

We also talked about how to eat right. It sounds silly, but eating right is almost a lost art these days. With all the junk food, fast food, and goofy diet’s out there, it’s tough putting the right foods into our bodies.

Good Protein sources include: Fish, Poultry (chicken & turkey), Meat (beef & pork), Low-fat Dairy (Milk, Yogurt, Cottage Cheese, Eggs, and Cheese), some Beans, and Nuts. Most people don’t get enough protein in their diet. Women need about 3-4 oz at every meal; men need 5-6 oz.

Good sources of Starch include Whole Grain Breads & Cereals, Pasta, Rice, Regular Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Corn, some Beans, and Oats & Oatmeal. We typically eat too much starch at our meals, and whatever we don’t burn for energy will be stored as fat. Try to limit yourself to one starch per meal. If you’re diabetic, be extra careful with these, and check with your doctor.

The last category is Fruits & Greens, and they’re naturally low in calories—even bananas top out around at only 130 calories. Greens (vegetables) are low in calories due to their high fiber content. We don’t eat nearly enough of either, which is too bad because they’re so high in vitamins and minerals and we get a great quick energy boost from the fruits!

The one category not covered already, is fats. These are easy to deal with. If you’re avoiding junk foods, and eating low fat dairy, fish, nuts, and trimming the fat off meat & poultry, all you really need to do is add an Omega-3 and Omega-6 supplement. These are easy to find. I like the Omega Complex which has Omega-3, -6 and -9 in good proportions, and it’s pretty inexpensive.

The winner this week for the Friday night group in Biggest Loser “10” was Scott Block, who lost 2.4% of his body weight and 5.6 lbs. Heather Gill was 2nd, losing 2.3% and 3.4 lbs. Donnie Bartos and Danielle Foley tied for 3rd place, losing 2.2% and 4.4 lbs, and 3.4 lbs, respectively. Sheri Tyler and Shawn Bowers tied for 5th place, losing 2.1%. Sheri lost 4.6 lbs and Shawn dropped 6.2 lbs.

The winner for the Saturday group in Biggest Loser “11” was Scott Dosch, who lost 3.3% of his body weight and 8.8 lbs. Brad Adams was 2nd, losing 2.3% and 5.5 lbs. Jennifer Bowers lost 1.5% and 3.0 lbs for 3rd place. Dawn Stewart scored 4th, losing 1.4% and 2.9 lbs, and Melissa White placed 5th, losing 1.3% and 1.8 lbs.

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