Do you care about aesthetics? If not, I'd just do whatever you have the highest chance of being able to sustain over this time period. Personally I'd love to retain as much muscle as possible over my weight loss and would lift as part of my activities. Buuuut, this will tax your system differently than low intensity cardio like walking so it could also make adhering to the low calories suuuper tough/painful.

You aren't going to "build" a significant amount of muscle during this time period that will then impact how many overall calories you burn over the lifetime of this challenge. This is a very, very small rock for winning the bet.

9lbs in the first week is a huge loss (and obviously not sustainable). I don't know where you're getting this 12-13lbs number from.

Don't you watch the biggest loser Snitch? Here in USA#1 it's become scientific law for fat people. Dude probably should have been able to lose 20+lbs according to it.

I always watch the first few weeks of the Australian one (it just started again) to watch the morbidly obese people being shamed and degraded.

I generally do so while sucking down wings, ribs, beer, burgers and/or fried chicken.

It's not as entertaining after a few weeks when the real behemoths have lost 50lbs and are just obese instead of morbidly obese.

FYP. Too easy? Too soon? Maybe I should have just gone with a gang rape joke instead.

Thanks, and yes I know that it is not even close to sustainable. And Yugo is right, bad Television has warped my mind.

A week on Biggest Loser can be 10 or more days of filming by the way. They play all the tricks on there - pumping full of fluid pre initial weigh-in, and going to the finale weigh-in close to death due to dehydration.

I have heard it claimed ten percent of contestants keep the weight off long term, which actually stands up quite well compared to your average guy that loses by another method. I don't know if the claims have been substantiated. After training four times a day, and getting access to top nutritionists, doctors and trainers you would think they would leave the show able to keep on with it but......

I'm working my way through the Australian series on Daily Motion. Up to season seven. It's pretty much the only trash TV I watch to be fair. The thing that irritates me the most is the complete lack of knowledge in quizzes. They argue they have tried every diet etc etc but don't know how many calories are in a gram of protein. Seriously, you would think they would research it before or doing the show to give themselves an advantage.

The most comical are the challenges involving mud lol.

The first week of weight loss is usually a lot more than the others, largely because your glycogen stores are being depleted. Your muscles store some very low density energy in the form of 1 part glycogen, 3 parts water. You can actually increase the amount of stuff in your muscle by 2-4 pounds by loading creatine, and additionally more than that by carb loading (see glycogen supercompensation). This could have been part of your pre-weigh in "cheat". Counterintuitively, drinking too much water too long before the initial weigh in can cause a little bit of dehydration, as this can flush out slightly more electrolytes than you would want for a high weigh in.

Agree with Yugo that any muscle building in the next 11 months wouldn't help shed any meaningful weight. I think it's about 5 cals per pound of muscle per day, so like 350 for the whole length of the contest. Additionally, catabolizing muscle provides your body with only about 600 calories per pound (3000ish less than fat). So, as much as it is better for your appearance and health to spare a pound of muscle, it is not great for this competition. One summer between college semesters, I dropped 40ish pounds without lifting. Regained it all within a couple years of course. Later in life I have been at similar BF levels to that at 20# heavier bodyweight. Anyhow, it would not surprise me completely that if you lose 50 in this competition if the composition is 10 water, 30 fat, and 10 muscle, and your overall deficit would have to be much less than 3500*50.

Is last years' winner competing again? Big advantage to enter this thing right after gaining back the 60# from last year.

Definitely read the Lyle book Saw recommended before the contest is over. Pretty normal to just gain it all back. Lyle will outline the scientifically founded strategies to avoid that, I'm sure.

second weigh in update.

week 2 - 235 pounds. Lost 7 pounds.

Total loss - 16 pounds.

Remaining goal - 35 pounds in 9 weeks.

Feeling really good about my progress so far. I have gotten to the point where hunger no longer seems like an issue, I am eating a better number of calories than I was when first starting, and I am continuing walking 2-5 miles a day.

225 today.

10% down, about 6 weeks to go, so about halfway to goal halfway through.

Feeling good, I havent had this much stamina in years. Ran my first sub-10 minute mile the other day, going to join an adult soccer league either this spring or fall. Eating well and enjoying life. Its amazing how much your mind changes when your body comes in line with how you should feel. Depression is lifted, spirits run high, and you feel like you can take on the world.

Win or not, a $50 investment to give me the kick in the ass to start caring about my body is worth it a thousand times over.

Nice man. I know those feels. I wish someone had told me (and that I would have believed them, I guess) that I could be an athlete. Like... 20 years ago.

Hi all.

I appreciate the help received in this thread during this. Looks like I may come up a bit short. Was at 221 this morning, the leader right now is at 15% which means I would need to lose about ten pounds by Friday afternoon.

I don't really see that hapening, but I am doing a small water restriction plan right now, so I guess it is possible. I'm not doing any extreme weight cutting as I worry about no kidneys (stones run in the family, and I haven't had one yet)

That being said, I've dropped 30 pounds in in the last three months and have changed my life style completely, so this has turned out to to be a great thing. I would have liked to win, but it's looking very slim. 2nd or 3rd is still a shot so fingers crossed there

so much win right here.

gratz on dropping all the weight OP, gl in the comp but meh, who cares really, you've changed your life around for the better and thats massive

not putting it back on is the next challenge. good luck!

Great Job OP

Any thoughts on giving the current leader a trip to an all you can eat buffet? Or maybe just paying the Schwan's man extra to knock on his door non-stop?

He already had his final weigh in today. Mine is on Friday. Unfortunately, I have not seen too many ways to lose 10 pounds in two days that are either reliable or safe (I've seen some unsafe ways, but Im not willing to put my health on the line)

Thank you,

I'm not too worried about putting it back on. Ive been there before, and I cant imagine going back to feeling how terrible I used to compared to how great I feel now.

I'm never going to deprive myself of the good things in life, but I understand so much more now how easy it is to live and enjoy in moderation. I will never beat myself up for enjoying something if it strikes my fancy, as long as I understand that it wont be something I do every day.

Update: my final weigh in was 220.00 even, good for 31 pounds lost and 12.35% weight lost in 11 weeks.

This sits me just inside of the previous second place who was at 12% even.

4 are left to weigh in, and I have no idea how well they've done. Will know this afternoon

glgl

Regardless of the contest results, great results for you personally, and I assume you are going to keep it up? What's the ultimate goal, and has it changed from when you started?

That is likely a poor assumption. I know what you're saying but I'm going to call it out to light a fire under OP (not you, but if you get rustled that's just a bonus).

This is a great question.

OP - gl! I hope you take it down. Although I hope much more you can turn this into some sort of sustainable life routine where you eat in a manner to maintain the weight you actually want to be at long-term.

Unfortunately a winner is not me, somebody posted a 26! Another posted a 21, so I ended up fourth.

Yes I will be keeping it up, my original ultimate goal was 200, I'm now shooting for 185

That's the goal, I'm going to continue to eat a fairly low calorie diet and start mixing in additional workouts and then revert to a maintain type lifestyle when I reach my goal

attaboy