Tag Archives: weight loss

Biggest Loser Trainers Speak Out About Rachel’s Weight Loss

The public has spoken up about Rachel Frederickson’s shocking weight loss on “The Biggest Loser” season 15. So has the media. Finally, the trainers from the show are releasing statements. Although between you and me, it’s pretty easy to read between the lines on this screen shot from the big reveal:

the-biggest-loser-bob-harper-jillian-michaels-rachel-frederickson-reaction-nbc

 

Here’s what the stars of “The Biggest Loser” have to say:

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Biggest Loser’s Rachel Makes Headlines with Her Weight Loss

On Tuesday, February 4th, our own Brandi Koskie tuned into the season finale for “The Biggest Loser” season 15. She was watching the program from her living room, which was unusual—she’s been in the audience at well over half of the past season’s finales. What she saw shocked her, and she’s not alone.

Rachel-frederickson-lg-02

The winner of the contest had lost a shocking 60% of her body weight, reducing her 5’5″ frame to a painfully thin 105 pounds. Although Koskie was one of the first to rally against NBC and the show, telling them they’d gone too far, other news outlets soon followed suit. Winner Rachel Frederickson said she feels “absolutely great”, but this didn’t stop any of the concern for her and criticism for the way the “game” is played.

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“I Feel Absolutely Great.” Biggest Loser’s Rachel Frederickson Speaks About Her Win and Shocking Weight Loss

Last night’s Biggest Loser finale wasn’t exactly the celebration we were all hoping for. Rachel Frederickson, a favorite to win, and one of our favorite contestants to watch, was named the Biggest Loser over Bobby Saleem and David Brown. Her victory should have been wonderful, but instead had a sour taste to it.

Rachel Biggest Loser Finale

What stuck out was how thin she appeared to be. At just 105 pounds, Rachel lost 60 percent of her body weight during her Biggest Loser journey, setting a new record for highest percentage of body weight lost during the show. NBC has offered “No comment” about Rachel’s weight loss.

Mary Hartley, R.D., spoke out against the speed at which Rachel lost weight.

“Fast weight loss is often associated with muscle loss and protein-calorie malnutrition since protein from the muscles and organs is converted to glucose to feed your brain. Muscle glucose makes up for the lack of glucose coming in. Rapid weight loss, and any starvation, leads to psychological changes that promote binge eating as the body attempts to replace lost mass.”

From a starting weight of 260 pounds, Rachel lost 155 pounds in 7 months. What concerns us about her weight loss is Rachel admits to being 5’5″ tall which puts her current BMI at 17.5. That’s solidly in the underweight range, and she is the only contestant in Biggest Loser history (worldwide) to end their season underweight.

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Walk More, Live Longer

By Team Best Life

The more walking you do and the faster you do it the healthier you’ll be, suggests a new study. People who got more than the recommended 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity per week in the form of walking were 33 percent less likely to die during the 9-year study; those who met the activity recommendations were 11 percent less likely to die. And speed matters: Slower walkers were more at risk than those who kept a quicker pace. Those who walked slower than a 24-minute mile were 44 percent more likely to die of any cause.

walking

Every burst of activity you do during the day counts toward that goal. Every time you walk to speak to a coworker instead of calling or emailing, every time you take the stairs instead of the elevator, every time you park your car a little farther from your destination and walk the rest of the way—those minutes count toward your daily tally.

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Work it Off: Burn Away a 446-Calorie Bowl of Soup

During winter I make a lot of soup. But it’s hard to find a recipe that has enough protein, fiber, fat and so forth to keep me satisfied for hours after mealtime. Recently I tried a new take on tomato soup—one with lots of chickpeas in it. It’s actually pretty similar to the Best Life Diet’s Chickpea and Tomato Soup, only I add a scoop of pesto and leave out the ginger, cilantro, curry, and lemon.

tomato pesto soup

This is no overindulgence—all of the ingredients are healthy and eaten together they really do provide a filling, tasty meal. But I was pretty surprised to see that the aforementioned recipe packs a 446-calorie punch. This isn’t a crazy amount of calories—as I mentioned, it feels filling enough that I tend to skip my afternoon snack when I eat it for lunch—but it still seems high for vegetable soup. Add on the fact that I sit at a desk for most of the day and you’ll see how a even a healthy soup could potentially lead to unwanted pounds.

So, how can I make sure that this delicious soup fuels more than just my fingers, typing away on the keyboard? Here are 3 ways to burn off the 446 calories in from this bowl of soup:

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The Skinny on Fat: Why this Nutrient is Essential for Weight Loss

Fat makes you fat, right? Wrong.

For years, all fats have been made out to be a delicious incarnation the devil. As a health and nutrition coach, I get questions all the time from my clients about low-fat diets and avoiding avocados and olive oil in case they cause weight gain. Some have even justified eating an entire bag of Twizzlers because it says, “No Fat”.

healthy fats

Listen up: Fat is not the enemy! At least, not entirely.

Let me be clear in saying that there are many kinds of fats, including the saturated and trans fats found in candy bars, processed foods, and T-bone steaks—these are generally no good. But there are also the natural fats found in whole foods like avocados, nuts, seeds, salmon, coconuts, and olive oil, which are so, so good!

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7 Crazy Diet Tricks That Actually Work

People will do some weird things to lose weight. In my teens and early twenties I skipped meals, downed cans of protein shakes and one time I decided if I ate all my food with toothpicks, I’d be exhausted and just give up before I consumed too many calories. These were all unhealthy and ineffective, especially the toothpicks because let’s be honest, I still had hands, which I used to shovel the food in my mouth anyway.

Below are seven other crazy ideas that actually have some merit to them:

Spicy Peppers

Spice It Up – Adding spicy ingredients like jalapenos and habaneros to your recipes can boost weight loss. Scientists who studied a group of rats found that capsaicin, the active ingredient in some hot peppers, may actually inhibit fat accumulation.

Just Look At Yourself! – Hanging a mirror opposite you at the dinner table keeps you mindful of your posture, how much you’re eating and how long you’ve been at the dinner table. It’s also handy because you don’t have to ask your dinner guest if you have spinach in your teeth.

Sit At The End – Not because you’re shy, because you want to avoid all that mindless before-meal snacking. Bread baskets, chips,salsa and other free appetizers are usually situated in the middle of the table. If you can’t reach it, you can’t eat it.

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The Dark Side of Juicing: Why Too Much Juice Can Get in the Way of Your Health

I’ll be the first to admit that a glass or bottle of fresh juice is a delicious treat. I’ve been known to order a green juice after yoga class or a beetroot juice before bootcamp. In fact I’ve even followed 1-day juice fasts with both Blueprint Cleanse and Cooler Cleanse.

But I’ve long wondered just how healthy the juicing cleanse trend was. After all, once you strain away the healthy fiber of fruits and veggies you’re left with a lot of nutrients (pro) and also a lot of sugars (con). People claim to feel lighter and “detoxed” after drinking these fresh blends, but regular juicing never sat right with me. After all, nutritionists regularly steer clients away from juice because of its high concentration of sugars and calories, recommending whole foods like salads and pieces of fruit instead. Why would a diet of just juice be good when a glass of juice is often considered bad?

juices

When I read a recent Opinion piece in the New York Times, about how Jennifer Berman’s health habits—including juicing—were having the opposite affect, I wasn’t all that surprised.

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Stay Motivated With Weight Loss Advice from 5 Top Life Coaches

Can you believe we’re already halfway through January? It seems like just yesterday we were counting down the seconds to 2024! With the new-ness of the year beginning to wear off, it can be easy to fall into a mid-month slump where your weight loss resolutions begin to feel less important and less feasible.

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Get back on track! To help you stay true to your weight loss goals we compiled advice from several leading life coaches. Read on for motivation, inspiration, and hopefully the extra “oomph” you need to keep on going!

Julia Stewart, MMC – President, SchoolofCoachingMastery.com

  • Cultivate mindfulness. This ancient Buddhist approach can be applied to any moment in your life that you want to enjoy more—or have more control over. Notice when you’re hungry; learn to distinguish between cravings and genuine hunger. Feed the latter, not the former.
  • Stop hating yourself. You can’t beat yourself into submission, but you can develop a healthy relationship with your body by appreciating all the ways it does its best to support you.

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New From Nutrisystem: My Way and Fast 5

Diet giant Nutrisystem is unveiling a brand new plan in time for early 2024 dieters. With Nutrisystem My Way, the company is offering dieters customizable weight loss plans with calorie count based not just on gender (as it was in the past) but also taking into consideration age, weight, and activity level. The company is confident that this change will help users get the most possible benefits from the plan, which centers around Nutrisystem shakes and shelf-stable and frozen foods.

ShakeAndBoxes

But that’s not all. The company has also introduced a new “jumpstart” plan called Fast 5—a one-week low-cal diet that is meant to help users see rapid weight loss at the very beginning of their attempt, hopefully providing extra incentive to stick with the My Way program over the long haul. On Fast 5, dieters consume 1,000 calories a day. When Nutrisystem tested the Fast 5 eating program on real dieters, they found that people lost an average of 5 pounds in just one week.

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Science Teacher Loses Almost 40 Pounds on “McDonald’s Diet”

Inspired by Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, Super Size Me, science teacher John Cisna from Iowa decided to help take his students’ education out of the classroom. He engaged in  a three month experiment much like Spurlock’s, eating McDonald’s every day, but instead of indulging and not exercising, he followed a more structured program which he discussed on TODAY.

  • Cisna’s students put the menus together which included nearly everything on the McDonald’s menu from salads to Big Macs to sundaes.
  • His students tracked his caloric intake and 15 different nutrients
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