Learning From The "Biggest Losers" Who Couldn't Maintain Weight Loss

If you’re like me, and have been overweight in your lifetime, you know all too well what a struggle it is to keep the weight off. Losing the weight is the easy part. Keeping the weight off is a whole new metabolic boosting ball game.

There has been a lot of controversy about the "Biggest Losers" not being able to maintain their weight loss. I’m going to help separate fact from media hype, so this doesn’t happen to you. I'm going to fill you in on what the stories don't say that you need to know if you’re serious about losing weight and keeping it off for good.

Rule #1 is don’t believe everything you read or see on television. For the most part, just about everything you read or see on television is paid for by a sponsor who wants to sell you the alternative methods that are most likely medical procedures you need to keep the weight off.

I’ve struggled and have all the metabolic disadvantages possible; from hypothyroid to being menopausal, combined with the fact that I love food and live to eat (I think I'm the world’s biggest food addict). All this made losing weight and keeping it off difficult, but not impossible. I was depressed and stuck in every area of my life, but I found that when my food is in order, my whole life falls into order.

There are simple all-natural, highly effective and convenient solutions that anyone can do to lose weight, and if they continue, will keep it off. These simple solutions are a lot less expensive than living overweight, not to mention the emotional price.

The toughest part is dealing with denial. Denial will keep you stuck, allowing faulty thinking and fear to kick in, keeping you stuck exactly where you are. Bear in mind that whatever takes the weight off is also what keeps the weight off for good. Whatever weight loss method you choose needs to be sustainable for life.

Don't let that last sentence scare you. I remember hearing that and thinking, "how long do I need to drink these shakes, take these supplements, and eat like this?" A funny thing happened, however; once I reached my goal weight. For the first time in my life I didn’t want to go back to my old ways of eating. I not only surpassed my goal weight (I was 40 pounds heavier) but also felt better emotionally and had more energy, so I got off the couch. What you see today is a by-product of that weight loss.

Below is what you need to know when reading media reports when it comes to exercise and the "Biggest Losers." I have worked closely with a few "Biggest Loser" contestants, and I can tell you firsthand they struggled because they didn’t have a livable, reliable, sustainable lifestyle in place.

DILEMMA: "Biggest Losers" relied mostly on excessive, joint-damaging exercise every day that is not practical in real life.

The "Biggest Loser" contestants worked out for at least five hours daily, allowing them to eat more calories without slowing their metabolism down. In real life when you have family and a full-time job you can’t work out for five hours. Even if you could, it's damaging to your joints and you shouldn’t. Everything is about balance, starting with eating enough of the right foods.

As a weight loss specialist, I specifically suggest metabolic boosting foods to offset your dead metabolism instead of eating whatever you want. Often the foods you insist on eating are the very foods that initially caused you to gain weight. There are also the health halo foods that cause weight gain. For instance, did you know that if you have hypothyroidism, kale can inhibit your thyroid, making it even harder to lose weight? People are adding kale to their diets, juicing excessive amounts, and even adding it to their protein shakes because the media says to do so.

The bottom line is that things aren’t always as they seem. For the "Biggest Losers", it's not that losing weight affected their ability to keep it off. It's more the reality that they could not continue doing the unrealistic steps that the show had them doing to take the weight off.

DILEMMA: "Biggest Losers" ate more calories than most of us can because they were over-exercising.

In a perfect world this would work fine—eat what you want and exercise it off in the gym. In the real world, it’s just not realistic.

I’ve suffered from this issue. As a trainer and bodybuilder, I ate super healthy yet didn’t lose an ounce. Looking in the rearview mirror, I can be honest and say I was an exercise addict, and this will not work when you're trying to lose weight or maintain weight loss. At some point, your joints can’t take the stress from that excessive amount of exercise, so you have to cut back to a normal, more realistic amount. When this happens, it must also be remembered to cut back on the eating as well.

I don’t know about you, but the days I don’t exercise are the days that I tend to eat the worst, making this the perfect set up for weight gain. It’s not the weight loss that was the problem for the "Biggest Losers", it’s faulty thinking that stops them from achieving their sustainable goals and living a leaner lifestyle.

There are five facts you need to know to lose weight (1 pound a day) and keep it off for life.

• Fact: If you have been, or are overweight, your metabolism is negatively affected and slower.
• Fact: If you go back to your old ways of eating and drinking you will gain the weight back.
• Fact: If you are over 40, have diabetes, or are hypothyroid (it’s even worse if you're female), losing weight is harder for you due to your metabolism being slower.
• Fact: If you can pinch more than an inch of belly fat, losing weight will be difficult for you and will require an aggressive approach vs. the old-fashioned, outdated methods of losing weight slowly.
• Fact: You can’t starve yourself or exercise the weight away, or rely on surgical procedures such as LAP BAND® or gastric bypass to fix the problem.

The bottom line is you’ve got to set yourself up for lasting weight loss success by living a leaner lifestyle.

There are some foolproof ways that are backed by science that will help keep your metabolism running at an optimal speed, so you lose 1 pound a day and keep it off for life if you continue to do what it takes. Just because you lose weight doesn’t mean your metabolism is fixed. It simply means you found the right way of eating to make it work. So why would you ever consider stopping?

Think of it this way: If you found a way to make money, and it began working and changed your life, why would you stop? If you stopped working at that job you would also stop making money. Weight loss is no different.

It's a very emotional journey, and this is what the media conveniently leaves out. One of my favorite sayings from Overeaters Anonymous is, "It works if you continue to work it.” As a metabolic expert, I can tell you that in 25+ years I've never met a person whose body would not let them lose weight, no matter what they were dealing with.

The real question is will that person do what it takes? It’s not a case of "will it work?" It's a case of are they willing to do it and how badly do they want it. I wish someone had told me that while I was overweight and struggling. It would have saved me a lot of frustration and despair. I missed a lot of my life because I hated myself and my body. That’s why I created the Metabolic Boosting Lose 1 Pound Per Day Kit. I want to be the change you seek, and I want to make losing weight faster, easier, and permanent!

There's more hope than you think, and here's why.....

Step One on the LynFit System is to drink a LynFit Complete Protein Shake to boost your metabolism by 25 percent. This offsets the slow metabolism issues most of us struggle with. It's what makes the LynFit Complete Protein Shake different from all the rest. It tastes unbelievably delicious while most of the other shakes you find on store shelves are yucky tasting, so you don’t want to drink them. The high quality of whey used in LynFit shakes (LynFit uses a minimum of 80 percent whey compared to other shakes that use 25 percent or less) makes it metabolic boosting while blocking cortisol (a hormone that's secreted when you are under stress). This is something that vegan shakes or lower quality shakes will never do.

You do need to cut calories to successfully lose weight, and this calorie-cutting can slow your metabolism. However, every time you drink a LynFit metabolic boosting Complete Protein Shake or eat a LynFit Lean Bar you trick your body into thinking you've just eaten a big meal. In turn, your metabolism speeds up, keeping you from regaining the weight you've lost. When it comes to your metabolism and weight loss, you have to boost it to lose it. Keep in mind however that not all shakes will do what a LynFit shake does. LynFit Shakes and Lean Bars are specifically designed for this very purpose.

I couldn’t lose weight easily, no matter how hard or how much I worked out. I learned from the pros how to take it a step further since I live in the real world and can’t live five hours a day in the gym. I learned that the smart use of safe supplements to naturally boost my metabolism was another bullet in my leaner lifestyle holster. You too can follow the steps below to further enhance your weight loss or weight maintenance.

Complete details on LynFit safe supplementing and metabolic boosting meal plans can be found in the LynFit Quick Start Guide and Advanced Metabolic Boosting Meal Plan.

There are more ways to make sure your metabolic engine stays running at an optimal pace 24 hours a day. Of course, food is 90 percent of your weight loss success, so if you're not losing you’re not eating the right food for your metabolic engine. Be sure to read more on thermogenic eating and what foods are thermogenic, as well as irresistibly delicious thermogenic recipes in The Metabolism Solution.

If you’re serious about reshaping your body and boosting your metabolism with the right kind of exercise, be sure to check out my metabolic boosting workouts while you’re reading. They are only 30 minutes in length and can be broken up into shorter sessions to suit your lifestyle. You’ll not only transform your body; you will keep getting better, even as you age.

Are you ready to lose that weight for good? Thousands, just like you, already have. They've not only lost the weight, but they've kept it off while living a normal life.

Real people like Lisa, Sam, Vanessa, and Teresa below. You can do it!