Are 'The Biggest Loser's' Low-Carb, Low-Fat Diets All Hype?

Sure, reality TV can be enticing — the over-the-top lifestyles of celebs, the rags-to-riches [...]

Sure, reality TV can be enticing — the over-the-top lifestyles of celebs, the rags-to-riches transformations, the promise of becoming a better self — but as we all probably know on some level, it's just not real life. One supposed-exception to this rule, The Biggest Loser, encouraged many of us that stunning weight transformations could be achieved in record time with the right plan and attitude. Which is why it was such a blow to many of us when a 2016 study discovered that most contestants gain back most or all of the weight they'd lost on the show — with some especially unlucky contestants ending up heavier than they were at the start.

So what gives? It turns out that the bootcamp-style, fast-results methodology of the show isn't actually what's best for the contestants in the long run. Instead of putting so much weight (pun intended) on the idea of conforming to a particular vision of health and fitness, researchers are finding that a truly successful health plan needs to take your particular personality and lifestyle into account.

What that means is, a low-carb or low-fat diet can work for some people, but no diet plan is a one-size-fits-all solution. According to Frank Sacks, weight-loss researcher and professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, "Some people on a diet program lose 60 pounds and keep it off for two years, and other people follow the same program religiously, and they gain 5 pounds." The conventional wisdom of eat less/exercise more isn't as simple as many of us were led to believe.

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Instead, a truly effective diet and exercise plan needs to work with, not against, your current lifestyle. For instance, it's a myth that Type A people are the only ones who can lose weight and keep it off — indicating that there's something beyond simple willpower at play here.

Another startling finding that researchers following TBL contestants discovered? After losing a large amount of fat, their metabolisms plummeted — and they didn't bounce back when the fat returned, either. This makes it even more difficult for people to keep the weight off, even after a major transformation. (Researchers surmise that this is an evolutionary holdover from when losing weight meant food was scarce, but that certainly doesn't help our modern struggles.)

The takeaway for all of this is both unsettling and strangely validating. The good news is that, if you've struggled with weight loss in the past or found that "work harder/eat less" hasn't produced the results you were promised, it's not your fault (and you're not alone). The bad news is that researchers have not yet been able to nail down an ideal diet and exercise plan that works for all bodies — according to the National Institute of Health's Kevin Hall, "It's the biggest open question in the field. I wish I knew the answer."

Until a clinically proven solution is discovered, adopt some new conventional wisdom: First, "you need a plan that satisfies hunger," as Tufts University nutrition professor Susan Roberts told Time. "Most diets fail because hunger erodes willpower," so skip the crash diets or anything else that leaves you feeling robbed.

Second, avoid holding yourself to the standard of someone else who has succeeded on a given meal plan: "You take a bunch of people and randomly assign them to follow a low-carb diet or a low-fat diet...within each group, there are people who are very successful, people who don't lose any weight and people who gain weight," explains Hall.

And third, above all, remember that TV magic is sometimes just that — an illusion.

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