We hit the ground running this week. Having just finished Biggest Loser “6,” we turned right around and started another. At the end of week one, there are 39 participants. The results so far are pretty promising. Over half the group lost at least 2.0 lbs and 21 people lost more than 3.0 lbs.
As always, the goal in the first week is to just get everyone moving. They’re supposed to walk at least a mile in the morning, and then get another workout in later. Three days a week they’ll hit the machine circuit to build muscle. The other days are cardio days where they do things like walking, jogging, elliptical, bike, and so on.
The morning workout can be as little as 20 minutes, but the “real” workout later in the day should be 30-45 minutes. It has to become a priority, and most people do better by planning out their workout times. If you just wait until you have time, it never happens. Schedule it, and keep your schedule.
Their assignment this week is to figure out their daily “minimum.” This is the minimum number of calories they need to live. They do this by getting their body fat and going on the website www.tomdolanfitness.com and plugging in the numbers.
Most of the women are going to find out that their minimum is more calories then they’ve been eating. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that women never go below 1,200 calories, while guys should never go below 1,800.
For best results, most women will need to be around 1,500-1,800 calories. Men will need to be between 2,000-2,400 calories. That means most women will need to start eating more, but most men will need to cut back a little. 9 out of 10 women don’t eat enough, but most men are over-eaters.
Once they get the amount of food right, they need to break it up into 3 meals and 2-3 healthy snacks. After they’re doing that correctly, it will be time to take a look at the quality of foods they’re eating, but more on that another time.
I like to phase these things in over the first 2-3 weeks, and then start fine-tuning their eating. Meanwhile, they’ll be working to turn things up in the gym too. Each week, they’ll be doing a little bit more—pushing themselves harder and working out longer.
As I mentioned before, quite a few people lost quite a bit of weight. I try not to get too excited about large weight losses in the first week, because sometimes it’s primarily water weight. The real key is if they lose weight the next week.
If they lost weight the first week, but gain weight after that, it’s a pretty good indicator that it wasn’t all fat. But if they lose a lot of weight early and keep losing, that’s the real deal. Like I told them, we’ll find out next week.
The winner this week was Nicole Richardson who lost 4.0% of her body weight and 7.2 lbs. She won a $20 gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance. Here are your top ten.
% lbs
1. Nicole Richardson 4.0 7.2
2. Stacey Reed 3.7 7.4
3. Penny Spinner 3.6 6.2
4. Vince Porter 3.3 9.4
5. Bessie Rigdon 3.3 4.6
6. Steve Jones 3.1 7.6
7. Doug Sutton 3.1 8.0
8. Lacey Strow 3.0 5.6
9. Mary Ann Creech 2.2 4.0
10. Libby Reel 2.1 6.4
Each of our 39 participants has done something special. They all had a desire to do something about their situation, and now they’ve started. That’s the real secret to success. Just get started. If you don’t do that, nothing happens. For them, it’s going to be a matter of learning how to be consistent, even when things get tough and life starts to intrude.
It also comes down to who can stay focused on the goal, which is to feel better and lose the fat. To get there, you’ve got to make it a priority in your life. You’ve also got to have a good game plan. Follow someone that seems to be getting what you want. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel—just do what they’re doing.
So why not shadow this group? Put together a group of people and have them do it with you. Get in a gym and get busy. Do your own 12 week program. Just get started.
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