Biggest Loser / Diet / Weight Loss

Downside of Rapid Weight Loss

Matthew McNutt9 Comments

On the one hand, I’m a pretty big fan of rapid weight loss. I lived it. During my season of Biggest Loser I managed to hit my weight loss goals in six months, and then spend the next few months losing an unhealthy amount of extra weight to try and win a bunch of money. Yeah …

Anyway, I tend to land on the side of the argument that says rapid weight loss done through exercise and healthy eating is a good thing. I certainly didn’t have any negative health side effects.

But there is a downside.

Overconfidence.

I actually told someone recently that weight loss is easy, keeping it off is hard. They thought I was crazy, kept telling me it’s NOT easy. But here’s the thing: I know it’s physically possible for me to drop 60 pounds in one month. Because I did it. I lost 100 pounds in the first three months. And not just when I was morbidly obese – the final month before the finale, when I was already under the weight the doctors wanted me, I managed to drop another 30 pounds. I know for a fact that whatever my weight is, if I exercise ten hours a week and eat between 1800-2100 calories a day, regardless of how heavy or thin I am, I will consistently lose at least five pounds a week.

So now I’m obnoxiously overconfident and overweight again. Because I always put off the dieting because part of me rationalizes that I can lose the weight I need to lose in a pretty short span of time. Part of me knows it’s physically possible for me to be at my finale weight by this summer. Which makes it easy to put off ‘for a few more days.’

But there’s one detail missing: the enormous accountability of a massive television audience and the potential to win a massive cash prize. Take away those incentives, and I just never manage to pull off that ten hours a week of exercise. Who has that kind of time?

I think I’m finally learning to rethink my own expectations and set more realistic goals for myself. I need patience, and ultimately, to have a more long term focus than just shooting for the end of a contest. And I need to wake up: weight loss is HARD. And that’s the real reason I’ve kept putting it off.

9 thoughts on “Downside of Rapid Weight Loss”

  1. I love the BL show but it some ways it does have a downside. I exercise 5 to 6 hours a week and eat 1,200 to 1,400 calories a day and the most I lost in a week was 5 lbs. Most of the time I average 2 pounds a week. I get so discouraged.

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  2. You're doing amazing! Once I lost enough weight to get myself under 300 lbs, I couldn't lose more than 5 pounds a week – it didn't matter how much I exercised. There's only so much the body can do. The dirty secret of reality tv weight loss shows is that they know this and will sometimes film as long as two weeks and call it one week – then the viewers at home think they should be able to lose 10 lbs in a week, and beat themselves up for not doing it when even people on the ranch couldn't pull it off! I lost the second highest amount of weight during season three (176 lbs), and I had to work HARD to drop five pounds in a week – and I was ahead of just about everyone.

    Two pounds a week is a reasonable and healthy goal. I know it can be discouraging when you're watching people on TV drop what appears to be way more, but you can't hold yourself to that fake standard. Besides, it starts adding up quick. That's a hundred pounds in a little less than a year. A year goes by fast and that's an amazing accomplishment!

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  3. Thanks! I had lost 80 pounds had a kid so I went back up. Now I am down 30 pounds from the pregnancy weight and on the right track. You are so motivating and nice!!!

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  5. Hey Matt… I've love for you to join the eleven-day nutritional cleanse our team is doing January 17 to 27. I felt like I need to go to the ranch at one point because breathing difficulties and my weight hindered my ability to exercise. I could hear Julian screaming at me, "unless you faint, puke, or die, keep walking" but it was so hard. This Shake-Meal-Meal-Shake plan really made a difference for me, and got me from almost 190 to under 150, by feeding my body the stuff it needed to supercharge the natural built in mechanisms God gave us for dealing with the junk in our food and environment. All natural, 70 trace minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and bio-active live enzymes from filtered whey, not pasteurized, from happy cows (no hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides). I didn't think I could pull off 10 hours a week of exercise either, so I did this instead, and it worked. Seriously. Look me up on facebook and check out my album. Think about the January 17-27 Team cleanse. We can all get healthy together. I'm finally at the point now where I feel like I can exercise without dying and my hubby doesn't have to impersonate Bob to get me to do it either. Let me know if you wanna order the shake/cleanse kit. I'll see you Monday. –Tracey– 🙂

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  6. <blockquote cite="#commentbody-45411">

    Matthew McNutt :

    I lost the second highest amount of weight during season three (176 lbs).

    I just have to wonder if you figured out that achievement before I told you :P. Did you know that you held that place, or did I bring it to your attention? Also, have you ever thought about that you were one of the first Grey Team members ever? Nobody else was before you! Adrian, Jaron, Poppi, Tim, and Virginia were all along side you as the first Grey Team ever! That is so cool, IMO! :D!

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  8. <blockquote cite="#commentbody-45427">

    SuperCyber15 :

    <blockquote cite="#commentbody-45411">

    Matthew McNutt :

    I lost the second highest amount of weight during season three (176 lbs).

    I just have to wonder if you figured out that achievement before I told you <img src="https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif&quot; alt=":P" class="wp-smiley"> . Did you know that you held that place, or did I bring it to your attention? Also, have you ever thought about that you were one of the first Grey Team members ever? Nobody else was before you! Adrian, Jaron, Poppi, Tim, and Virginia were all along side you as the first Grey Team ever! That is so cool, IMO! <img src="https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif&quot; alt=":D" class="wp-smiley"> !

    lol … I was a big enough nerd and competitive enough that I was tracking my weight loss and the rate I was losing it against everyone. I was trying to break Pete Thomas' record at the time and was bummed that I was in third for total weight loss in the history of the show at that point. A few seasons later I was bummed when I was bumped down to being in the top five … and now I'm not even in the top ten!!! Back in my season, at 366 lbs, I was one of the biggest people to make the show at that point. Now a days, at 366 I would be on the smaller side!!!

    For the record, though, I did weigh in lighter than Eric Chopin (the winner my season), and we're the same height, so if he hadn't started off 40 lbs bigger than me I would have totally beat him. 🙂

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