Burning the fat: All about the Biggest Loser Diet

Here's all you need to know about this weightloss diet, geared to help you burn fat off the body.

You've probably watched at least one episode of the reality show The Biggest Loser either on TV or on Youtube. If you haven't, then you should know that it's all about overweight contestants competing against one another to lose the maximum weight. The contestants are everyday people and the winner is the person who loses the most weight in a set period of time. Of course, the winners of the show shoot to fame each season, but something else has too: the Biggest Loser Diet.

What is the Biggest Loser Diet?

The Biggest Loser Diet is a calorie-controlled, carbohydrate-modified, fat-reduced weightloss diet geared to help you burn pure fat off the body. It helps to do so without deprivation or loss of energy. It was developed by obesity specialist Michael Dansinger, along with dietitian and chef Cheryl Forberg and trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels.

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The main principle of the diet is that all your food should be as close to its natural state as it can get. So it includes a lot of green sources such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The reason to include as many natural foods as you can is because your body processes and uses them much more efficiently to build health.

The structure of the Biggest Loser pyramid has a 4-3-2-1 pattern:

• Four servings of fruits and veggies
• Three servings of lean protein
• Two servings of whole grains
• One serving of fats, oils, sweets, alcohol, or anything of your choice

Couple these four steps with some good old-fashioned exercise, and you will be well on your way to losing weight.

The exercise part of this diet plan consists of a 12 week cardio workout that increases the intensity of your aerobic training with every week.

You have to get a circuit training course that uses nine specific moves in a sequence, with only several seconds of rest between sets. You have to do it for 30 minutes, three times a week.

The plus points of this programme include:

• It promotes natural foods in your diet.
• It does not ignore exercise and makes it a part of the routine.
• It allows you to have a serving of 200 calories of your choice. So you are really not depriving yourself.
• Considering it has a huge following, you can get support on online forums and chat rooms.
• The diet is endorsed by the American Dietetic Association.

The minuses of this programme are:

• Calorie limits are set very low. As a result, your diet might be nutrient-deficient.
• Because the diet has been featured on TV, some people start with unrealistic expectations.
• It has become commercialised, peddling lots of products the dieter doesn't really need.
• If you are not open to making some changes to your eating patterns, you're going to have a really hard time following this plan.

The Biggest Loser Diet takes lots of discipline, but if you stick to the diet you will see the results. The goal of the Biggest Loser Diet is to reform your lifestyle habits and get you on the path to better health and wellness.