One of my guilty pleasures is watching a little show called The Biggest Loser.
For almost all of the 17 seasons, I’ve watched overweight contestants
literally work their asses off, going from morbidly obese, broken people
to basically athletes.
If you’ve ever seen the show, people drop dozens of pounds a week —
they actually get upset if they only lose six or seven pounds. (Do they
even realize that’s a pound a day?!?) Now I’m not obese, but I
wouldn’t mind losing five or 10 pounds (15 if you ask my mother). By my
reality-show-universe calculations, if I were on The Biggest Loser, it would only take me one week to reach my goal. Since I’m all about instant gratification, I daydream of being on the show.
Well recently, my dream came true — sort of. As it turns out, The
Biggest Loser brand has four fitness resorts across the U.S. (in
Florida, Illinois, New York, and California) for regular people like you
and me. So when I was offered the chance to check out the newest
location at the J.W. Marriott in Palm Desert, California, I jumped at
the opportunity.
“I’m going be 15 pounds thinner by the time I get home,” I told my
colleagues at Yahoo Travel. “You’re going to be so jealous,” I warned
them. Funny, they didn’t seem too jealous that I was going to spend my
Christmas vacation eating healthy and working out.
Whatever. I was excited. But just in case, I ate lots of pizza the night before I left.
It turned out to be quite an experience. If you, like me, dream of
going to The Biggest Loser Resort, here’s what you need to know.
After a direct flight from N.Y.C. to Palm Springs and a 20-minute
drive to the J.W. Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa, I had
visions of the swanky Biggest Loser Ranch we see on T.V. dancing in my
head.
Not so much. In reality, though it’s called The Biggest Loser Resort
(BLR) and the program is created by The Biggest Loser brand, each
location is housed in and run by a different hotel or resort property.
The J.W. Marriott Desert Springs is an enormous hotel in what sort of
felt like the middle of nowhere. I knew why I was here, but I wondered
why others came to stay at this behemoth of a hotel. (Turns out the
clientele are largely convention-goers and time-share owners who like to
golf.) The rooms were basic, had nice bathrooms, and mine had a pretty
view of the pool. There’s a Starbucks (but you’re not allowed coffee on
the BLR diet); there are several mediocre restaurants (but you’re not
allowed to eat at them anyway). There’s also a pool, a golf course, a
small gym, a basketball court, tennis courts, and a spa.
The food is decent, but you’re probably going to be a little hungry a lot of the time.
The BLR diet is roughly 1500 calories a day from three meals and two
snacks, all low dairy and low gluten with a careful balance of protein,
fat, and carbs. You get to choose from six breakfasts (think Greek
yogurt parfait, oatmeal, eggs, and more), but other than that, there’s
no ordering here. Save for accommodations made for dietary restrictions,
everyone eats the same thing. The BLR chefs do a great job of mixing it
up (they have so many recipes, they never repeat for a full month), but
the truth is, some recipes are better than others. I personally really
liked the Greek Salad and the dishes that were just simple grilled meats
with veggies or potatoes as sides. Everyone loved the pulled-pork
sandwich and slaw and the chocolate peanut butter fudge (yes, you get
dessert). Some light versions of bad-for-you meals, like the tofu
enchiladas, were not good. Breakfast always felt pretty filling and the
mid-morning snack helped (I’d usually have a banana or apple with a
little natural peanut butter), but by lunch and until dinner I was
pretty darn hungry. Dinner — if I liked it enough to eat the whole thing
— filled me up.
You’re going to have workout four hours a day — or more.
You may think that because you’re going to a pretty expensive program
created by The Biggest Loser brand that there will be fancy workouts
and a state of the art gym. Not the case — but that’s good news, because
that means you can take your workout program home with you. The
workouts mostly consist of interval training. A lot of them were
combinations of moves that you could do almost anywhere — things like
jumping jacks, running, sit ups, push-ups. Others involved cardio
machines and weights. There were also options to work out in the pool,
to take walks (around the time-share parking lots — so not glamorous),
and to do spinning. There was even a “last chance” workout, like on the
show.
In my opinion, two of the daily workouts were fairly challenging,
while the others were easier. But you can modify the moves to be as easy
or as hard as you need, based on your fitness level.
You won’t lose 15 pounds in a week, unless you’re a morbidly obese man.
Despite all the working out and the carefully measured healthy food,
it’s not realistic for a person who is not morbidly obese to lose that
amount of weight in seven days. (On the T.V. show, they reportedly feed
contestants less than 1,000 calories a day for five to eight hours of
workouts, as well as using unhealthy tricks, like dehydrating the
contestants before weigh in to artificially boost weight loss numbers.)
According to most experts, one to two pounds a week is a healthy amount
of weight loss. However, given that these conditions are more extreme
than your every-day life, you can do more than that. I only need to lose
about 10 pounds (if that) and I was able to lose more than four pounds
during the week. Some of the heavier male contestants who had 50 or more
pounds to lose dropped 10 or 11 pounds their first week (some of which
is water weight).
You’ll be exhausted.
I was up at 5:30 a.m. each morning to make the 6 a.m. stretch (which
also included some isometrics — this was no easy stretch). I was dead
tired and fast asleep by 8:30 p.m. every night. Why you ask? Well here’s
a typical day, with four hours of workouts and three hours of classes:
There’s so much you don’t know about nutrition.
As a lifestyle writer, I’ve written 1001 stories about nutrition. But
even I learned some interesting things I didn’t know. They taught us
everything from portion size to the right mix of carbs, fat, and protein
to quick carb calculations you use anywhere. We even had a class trip
to the local grocery store to learn how to make the best choices in the
real world. They gave us suggestions for balanced meals and what to
choose when eating out. You walk away with a ton of information.
A week may not be enough time.
It really depends on your situation. For me, I just needed a kick in
the butt to work out more (I already worked out twice a week at home)
and wanted to lose a couple of pounds to use as motivation. For that, a
week was just perfect. But if you’re looking to solidify new habits, get
in better shape, or lose a more substantial amount of weight, you
probably want to stay longer. Some of the participants I met stayed for
one week, many for two, and a couple for as long as eight weeks or more.
It’s mostly single women who do the program.
Even with a healthy diet and plenty of exercise, a week might not be enough to shed major pounds. (Photo: Biggest Loser Resort)
Perhaps this isn’t totally surprising. Lots of single women of all
ages, shapes, and sizes; the odd single guy; and some married couples.
I’ve kept up my goals at home — and so can you.
I knew that the biggest thing that would lead to my success post-BLR
was to create realistic goals. (The BLR life coach taught me that in
class, thank you very much.) Thinking I could alter my diet and
lifestyle drastically — counting every calorie like they did for me at
the resort or even working out four hours a day — would not only be
delusional, it would have set me up for failure. So instead, I decided
on a few easy-to-achieve goals that I believed would help me do better
than before I went. So far, since I have been home, I have kept them up
(mostly), and as a result, I have lost about another two pounds and
another half a percentage of body fat. Here are the four goals that, in
my mind, have made the difference:
1. Work out and stretch more — specifically, four times a week.
Before BLR, I was working out twice a week, which is pretty much
nothing for young, healthy person. But stretching and working out four
hours a day, every day at the resort really gave me the push I needed to
get to the gym more at home. Not only did I realize my body is capable
of a lot more than I originally believed (which is very motivating), but
I felt stronger and I didn’t want to lose that. Now I hit the gym at
least two times a week (including stretching) and the other two days I
either go for a long, brisk walk or I do one of the BLR workouts in my
living room or at the gym and finish with stretching.
2. I gave up (almost all) artificial sweeteners.
At BLR, we weren’t allowed to ingest anything that was filled with
chemicals. And artificial sweeteners in general, may make you gain
weight. So for tea or anything I like sweetened, at BLR I would use the
plant extract stevia. They served Stevia in the Raw, which I liked, so I
stuck with that at home. I also swapped some of my Vitamin Water Zeros
(which contain Truvia) for Bai, which the BLR nutritionist said has less
chemicals.
3. I eat protein with everything.
According to the BLR plan, protein is key. That’s because protein
takes longer to digest, so it helps slow the digestion of carbs
(preventing a spike your blood sugar) and helps you feel fuller (so you
don’t eat too many carbs or too much fat). So now, when I want carbs or
fat, I just make sure I eat them with some healthy protein.
4. I tweaked a couple of my favorite treats.
I used to have a medium skim flat white (basically like a skim latte)
every morning. Since I miraculously felt so much better on the low
dairy diet, I’ve switched to regular coffee with a dash of skim. I’m
still totally satisfied and I actually save like $2 a day, too. Then
there’s dinner. Most nights I’m home, I order a chicken burrito with
low-fat cheese. Now I have it with greens instead of rice, and make the
balance of carbs, protein, and fat even healthier, I only eat half of it
with the tortilla — if I’m still hungry (or just feel like eating
more), I eat the insides of the other half, sans tortilla.
Eventually I will set new goals, but for now, these work for me.
Rates for a seven-day package at The Biggest Loser Resort at J.W.
Marriott Desert Springs start at $2,995 for a single room and $2,445 per
person for a double room (not including tax). That includes the
weeklong accommodations, all food, and the program itinerary. You can
find rates for longer stays and more information on The Bigger Loser
Resort at the J.W. Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa (and
information on the other locations, too) right here.