Recap from biggest loser seminar

I'm at the library as I have some free time but am away from home so thought I'd write a quick recap of that biggest loser seminar last night. One word, DISAPPOINTED! It wasn't what I thought it would be at all. First problem is that they pack 1000 people into theater seating so chairs are right next to each other and that's trouble when the majority of people there were overweight and couldn't comfortably fit into the chairs so lots of thighs squishing together with your neighbor! There was an local newsman as the emcee and then one speaker was the head of a medical company here and just the regular stuff about that we need to get healthy. Suzy Preston spoke for 10 minutes and half the time was joking about her nylons having a run in them and acting goofy and airheady and kinda flirting with the doctor (the head of the medical company). She also seemed real nervous and flustered. She didn't talk about your wt loss journey much as she said if we watched the show we would know her story. The one point she did make was you need a reason to lose weight. A permanent one, not a temporary goal such as a wedding or for your hubby. She said her reason was that she feels so much better about herself and confident now that she's lost the weight. She did look good and her hair is red now! Her hubby, Matt, was there but he was in the front row and there was about 1000 people there so I couldn't get a look at him.

Then Dr. Dansinger came out to talk and had kind of a funny intro about god vs. the devil and the devil is McDonalds and the like. He kept saying that we live in a obesiogenic(?) world and that convenienence food and fat food is everywhere and easily accessable and it is hard to be healthy. He showed a lot of charts and graphs on how the country is getting fatter and fatter and some charts you couldn't even see well. He did talk about a study he conducted comparing weight watchers, the zone, ornish, and atkins and said that on all of them you can lose some weight over the course of 12 months but the key is adherence to the program. He runs a wt loss clinic at Tufts Univer. and said he uses the biggest loser books among some others and has had success at getting people to lose about 35-40 pounds in 6 or more months. He said the formula he used for calories to be consumed on a wt loss program is 7 calories per pound of body wt. So, I think he means that if you weigh 200, take (200lb x 7cals = 1400 cals. per day). He also recommends working out 30 min 5 times a week at the minimum but an hour or more would be better. He showed clips of success stories from the biggest loser and stated several times that even though the average joe shmoe doesn't have personal trainers and can't go and be on the biggest loser show and away from everyone that you can do this! He said that the people who had lost wt on the show needed to keep on exercising most days of the week and for 90 minutes to keep the wt. off. He said that of the contestants that had been on the show that 1/3 have kept the wt off, 1/3 have put some back on and that the other 1/3 had gained about all of it back. He thought that was pretty good statistics considering they say that 90-95% will gain all the wt back. He equated the wt loss journey to climbing a mountain, like our rainier here, and how it's hard and there are pitfalls and treacherous terrain but when you get to the top the journey is so worth it and the view is beautiful (those aren't the actual words but that was the jist of it).

I feel that the info presented is out there in most wt loss books and I didn't learn anything new. I won't go to this type seminar again. I mean, I really didn't think I could learn anything new as I have read so many books on wt loss, fitness, diet. What I was looking more for was was a shot of inpiration to motivate me but it wasn't that kind of presentation. When I was walking out a lady was saying to her friend "I wanted more how to lose the weight, what I can do on a daily basis rather than all those graphs and statistics charts, I can get those anytime". I tended to agree.

In other news, I've been real sick with a cough and cold so no progress or news on the wt loss front for now. Hope everyone is having a good week!