Low Carb Diva

Link: http://www.lowcarbdiva.com/blogs/index.php/2009/04/15/fat-people-can-t-jump

Last night on The Biggest Loser Laura was told that she had a stress fracture in her hip. The doctor told her that it was from the level of exercise that she was doing, she was training like an Olympic athlete instead of the out of shape overweight girl that she is.

While I like the weight loss results on this show I always cringe when I see the workouts that Bob and Jillian put these contestants through. It seems that the network executives at NBC have decided that just watching fat people sweat and gasp for breath is not interesting enough. Now we have to have them carry each other on their backs, lift 4-5 times their body weight, jump on and off a step stool and more.

Follow up:

Yes, these contestants are monitored by a medical team, but that did not prevent Laura from suffering a stress fracture in her hip. She was told that she would not be able to do any weight bearing cardio exercise for three months. Jillian looked more upset about the fact that Laura would not be able to workout, rather than the fact that her overtraining Laura is what caused the stress fracture to happen in the first place.

The Biggest Loser gives obese people the impression that in order to be successful at weight loss you have to kill yourself in the gym for hours on end and push your body past its limits. This is a dangerous philosophy and most overweight individuals will not have constant medical supervision as they attempt to imitate these grueling workouts.

So what is a fat person to do? I cannot give medical or training advice but I will tell you what this fat person does. I do 30 minutes of cardio 3 times a week, either on the treadmill or the exercise bike. I do not run on the treadmill or do any of the antics on The Biggest Loser. Instead I walk or cycle at a pace enough to get my heart rate up. Remember you are already carrying an extra 50, 100, or more pounds of weight on you so you don't have to kill yourself in order to burn calories. Of course as you get smaller and less winded you always have to increase your exercise accordingly. I also do weight lifting 3 times a week. But my weight lifting is a combination of pushups (on the knees I am not strong enough to do the real ones yet) and squats and some lifting of 1-5 pound weights.

Yes, I have not lost 50% of my body weight in 12 weeks, but I also have not suffered any exercise related injuries either. You don't have to exercise 2 hours a day. Start out with 7 minutes if that is all you can do and add an extra minute every week or every few days. Soon you will be up to 30 minutes!