Today I want to talk about the recent New York Times article that is going around the web about past participants on ‘The Biggest Loser’ gaining back all of their weight over time.

But first, a quick announcement to let you know that the loooooong-awaited #treadLIFT program is now open for registration (through Friday only)! I cannot wait for you to experience these workouts (all 30 minutes or less) and let me know how you do!

Now, on to the weight regain …

Basically the article says what we all already know: that losing a drastic amount of weight quickly using deprivation practices is not sustainable and any weight you lose will come back on (and oftentimes more!).

It reminded me of a story.

I few years back, I was speaking at a conference for women about fat loss nutrition, and the woman who hired me told me they brought a former contestant from ‘The Biggest Loser’ to the conference to speak the year before me.

She said that when the gal stepped off the plane, she was unrecognizable. She’d gained back all of her weight, plus more.

This pulls at my heart strings because though I’m all about personal responsibility, sustainable weight loss is effing hard, and using the practices they do on ‘The Biggest Loser’ not only did her a disservice, but it was straight up irresponsible. The poor girl had no prayer of keeping it off. We know this.

I always say: The faster it comes off, the faster it will come back on.

This sucks for these participants.

Not that weight loss has to be the goal, but to go through the experience of working your ass off to lose it all, then enduring the subsequent ups and downs: watching as your metabolism just doesn’t wanna anymore, to then saying screw it why even bother, to the daily feelings of shame, embarrassment and desolation.

Weight regain can be a tough one.

As you know, I have lost and gained the same dang 25 lbs a thousand times. And every time, my body has paid for it.

Yo-yo dieting is not benign.

The metabolism is like tires on a car. The more miles you put on it through losing and gaining and losing and gaining, and using these unsustainable practices like hours of cardio and cutting cals drastically, the more worn down it gets. The less traction it has.

Your metabolism doesn’t keep responding optimally every time you try to lose weight. In fact, it down-regulates the more you diet.

So when you think about these Biggest Loser participants, not only did they not have enough time to actually implement their new habits effectively—you don’t lose a million pounds in 12 weeks and then assume you’re good to go forever, change takes time—but their metabolisms literally do not burn calories at the rate of someone of comparable size who never dieted.

That’s why, sustainability is the new sexy! Lol. I just made that up, but I think it will catch on, no? ;) Let’s get excited about moderation and sustainability and the slow and steady!

You in?

Lol.

But seriously, it doesn’t work any other way.

As much as we want to kick and scream and we want our jeans to fit YESTERDAY, if you want to keep off any weight you lose, you need the 3 E’s:

You have to actually LIKE how you move. You’d think this would be a no brainer, but oftentimes we’re caught up asking, “What’s THE BEST workout?” or “What’s THE BEST thing to eat for weight loss?” that before we know it, we’re doing workouts we hate and eating food we find straight-up disgusting.

We need to have some excitement about our training, or else we aren’t going to be able to it for long.

For this, I am a huge fan of learning new skills, seeking out new training programs that help you bring up your weaknesses and training with a partner. Oftentimes my 8:30am workout with my little T (Tara Ballard) was the only thing getting me to the gym, because I knew we always had a blast together, even when the workouts were #vomilicious (yes, you must hashtag it!).

In terms of eating, ask: “What do I actually like to eat? What is satisfying to me?” Remember, feeling stuffed is not all that satisfying, so instead, learn to navigate the middle, #moderation365 and preempt your cravings by building small nutritional gimmes into your daily regimen.

Your workouts and your eating cannot be a full-time job. You have a life with other people in it and things to do and stuff to create and errands to run and people who want your attention.

Being a little less obsessed with our regimen allows for us to be a little more consistent.

Literally, do not try to make your own homemade salad dressing if you are fine eating a store-bought version. Small rock. It won’t make or break your results. Most people shouldn’t have to stress over how many grams of sodium is in every little thing. Small rock.

Just ask: “Does it have any protein? Good, I know I’ll stay fuller for longer.” Focus on the big rocks and you free up tons of mental energy for other things.

And your training can’t take all day.

The old school belief that anything less than an hour isn’t worth it is the mindset of someone who won’t be successful long-term. It’s old, outdated. The new science of results says that shorter, more intense workouts not only are “worth it,” but you can get every better results in less time.

Which is why I haven’t exercised longer than 30 minutes in 3 years and why all #treadLIFT workouts are 30 minutes or less. But they are also …

The final E is about effectiveness. And the #treadLIFT workouts get results. They are fast, they are intense, they include both weight-training and high-intensity cardio intervals and they force your body to change.

Exercise that helps you reach your goals is important because if you're not seeing progress, it's going to be hard to want to keep it up. Don’t spend hours at the gym just to burn calories. Spend 20-30 minutes a few times a week going all-out so that your body continues to respond.

And then the rest of the time, rest, recovery, give your body the downtime it needs so that you can push hard again. And eat to sustain that effort and fuel your workouts.

Life is too short to be obsessed with food. And it’s too short to spend every minute at the gym. Luckily, there’s a way to #likehowyoumove and still get results. Just be smarter ;)

GALS. #treadLIFT is available now through THIS FRIDAY ONLY.

Get all the details here.

Read all about it, and let me know if you have any questions! Happy to answer anything.