The Big Fat Truth: The Behind-the-scenes Secret to Weight Loss (29 page)

It’s not going to surprise you to hear me say this: Your state of mind is everything. It’s key to keeping the weight off. Dealing with your issues. Believing in yourself. Both of those things are critical. There’s a young guy named Josh who made it to the finals week of
Extreme Weight Loss,
but ultimately didn’t make it on the show—yet went on to lose 308 pounds on his own and kept the weight off. His experience was completely different from Ashley’s, and I wondered what accounted for his success.

When Josh tried out for the show, he was 28 years old and close to 600 pounds (he’s 6'9“, so he can carry a lot more weight than most people, but still that was dangerous). He told me that he lost 26 pounds during finals week, and it helped him realize that he didn’t need a show to get the weight off. “I was sick of making excuses for myself,” he says, “and I started to believe that I could do it.” That last part—believing in himself—was what really turned his life around.

Josh:
Before

Josh:
After

For a long time, Josh had been unhappy with how unhealthy he’d become, though he kept up the façade that all was good with his life—even though he didn’t attend his own college graduation because he didn’t want to deal with a cap and gown that didn’t fit. Josh was very social and a partier, so when he resolved to change his body, he had to change just about everything in his life. He gave himself a year, stopped going out to bars and started living a quieter life. “I thought to myself, ‘If my friends don’t understand, then they’re not really my friends.’ ” Turns out, they supported him big time, and as he got more comfortable with his new lifestyle, he started going places again—but doing it his way, bringing a cooler with healthy food and a big jug of water to cookouts, for instance, so he could eat and drink the way he wanted. He put control into his own hands, which is so empowering. What all this did was feed Josh’s confidence. “So many people don’t believe in themselves. When I discovered that I wasn’t just physically strong, but mentally and emotionally strong, that’s when I hit my stride.”

I love this story because not only does it show that you don’t need a reality show to lose large amounts of weight, but it highlights the importance of looking at your accomplishments and using them to keep pushing you forward—and prevent you from falling back. Think about why you’ve done this, and how much you’ve achieved. Don’t focus on what the scale says. If you become obsessed with the number like Ashley did, the weight is going to come right back on. Come back to your purpose, and think about the mental and emotional hurdles you have overcome. It doesn’t matter if those hurdles seem relatively small (“I always thought I hated running”) or large (“I finally got help to deal with the abuse that happened to me years ago”); keep them in mind. Why did you do this? How far have you come?

There are also some practical things you can do to keep from regaining the weight you’ve lost. One thing former cast member and current
Extreme Weight Loss
trainer Bruce said he learned along the way was that a lot of people try to figure out a new way to eat instead of sticking with the diet that helped them lose in the first place. Don’t change it up. Stick with what helped you be successful. “Don’t think, ‘I can probably tweak it here and tweak it there,’ ” he says. “Stay with what got you where you are.”

But, as you keep your dietary practices fixed, don’t be complacent about what you do and don’t know. Keep educating yourself on the finer points of healthy living. “There were so many things I didn’t know in the beginning,” says Bruce. “I didn’t know what a carb was. I didn’t know that a fresh chicken breast has only 75 milligrams of sodium versus the frozen packaged ones, which have 360 milligrams. I didn’t know that a russet potato has more calories than a red potato. I didn’t realize how many vegetables there are and how you can make them taste good. I didn’t know I could love mushrooms, onions, and peppers. I never thought I’d sit down to eat a pepper like an apple and enjoy it. I feel as though I learn something helpful every week. You have to be a lifelong learner.”

One thing that almost everyone says after they’ve changed their eating and exercise habits is that they feel a lot better. Don’t lose sight of how good you feel when you’re exercising regularly and eating well. That was crucial in Robert and Raymond’s transformation. “We’re actually feeling energy from the foods we take in; we can feel it doing its job,” says Raymond. “Now we eat for our bodies to be fueled, not to be stuffed. It’s weird to think we were once so into fast food. It was our thing.”

Throughout this book, I’ve told you the stories of a lot of different people with the goal of helping to inspire you. They’re not offered, though, for you to compare yourself to them. Comparing yourself to someone else can sometimes motivate you, but it can also help you spiral downward, negating all the gains you make. Your journey is
your
journey. We have to drive home this point on our shows since people are losing weight in a group. Mostly, being in a group is great—that’s why I’ve been encouraging you to reach out. A group gives you a platform for sharing ideas, and there is built-in support. But if group members compare themselves to one another, it can get ugly.

You don’t even have to be in a group to get depressed because someone lost more weight than you, or that you lost weight but didn’t end up looking like a movie star. Compare yourself to only one person: you. Have you done amazing things? (Yes.) Are you staying on target? (Hopefully.) Life is unfair. People are going to do things better than you, get more breaks than you—you can make yourself crazy looking at the inequities in life. I’m not saying a little competition isn’t good. We created a whole show—
The Biggest Loser—
based on that premise. But mostly in life, if you want to keep the weight off, be competitive with yourself. Each week, do better than the next. Set new goals. Try new things. Don’t stand still.

Here is something else that can help. Don’t be alarmed if you don’t feel comfortable in your new body right away. “It was a hard adjustment,” admits Jen, the woman whose 7,000-calorie burn I told you about earlier. “I felt comfortable being heavy, hiding behind my weight.” After she lost 66 pounds, people began to look at her, something she found hard to get used to. Many people feel this way; the trick is to not let it send you back to the refrigerator. Talk to someone about your feelings and give it time. You will get used to the new you soon enough—and so will everyone else.

Embarking on a journey to change your life requires that you be self-centered, at least for a while. But, when you’ve achieved your goal, the beauty is that you get to help other people follow suit. You get to pay it forward.

When we created shows like
The Biggest Loser, The Revolution,
and
Extreme Weight Loss
, our ambition was to not only get a cast full of people to whittle down their bodies but to show the world that anyone who sets his or her mind to it (and gets some help) can achieve remarkable things. Sure, lots of people watch transformative weight-loss shows because they’re rubberneckers; they want to see some disasters. But most people want to be inspired—and they are. We don’t know how many viewers have been motivated to begin their own weight-loss journey after viewing an episode of one our shows worldwide, but we know that there is a big ripple effect. Many viewers embark upon weight-loss journeys of their own after watching one of these shows. That’s one of the greatest rewards of producing them. And to think that when we first started
The Biggest Loser,
I was just hoping to get viewers to order the side salad instead of the french fries and to actually go to the gym instead of hitting their snooze buttons. Who knew we were about to start such a movement?

It Goes Beyond You: Your Weight Loss Will Inspire Others

JD,

It has been an incredible year for both me and my family.
Extreme Weight Loss
has forever changed my life, and I thank you for choosing me! I have been given the most incredible gift a person can receive—my life! This past year has changed my focus, my purpose, and most important, my life.
Extreme Weight Loss
has also changed my family. My wife has lost 50 pounds, my mother lost 72 pounds (at age 70), and my son lost 35 pounds!

—Bob,
Extreme Weight Loss
cast member, via email

And we know that the audience ripple effect is only part of what gets sent out into the world post-airing. Most of the cast members leave the show determined to help others do what they have just done. They not only want to give back but they know that they have a wealth of knowledge to share. They know, too, that helping someone else helps them stay accountable. I eat better when I’m helping someone change their diet because I know they’re watching me (and I want to practice what I preach).

There are so many different ways to help someone else. Pick a person at the gym to help. Offer assistance if you see someone struggling (obviously you have to gauge someone’s openness to help, or else you’ll just seem annoying). Maybe you’ll find a way to help through your work; a lot of former cast members have become trainers or motivational speakers. After Amber lost weight, she was eager to get back to her job at a health-care organization that focuses on preventive health. While she was still heavy, whenever she gave talks about health to groups, she’d always sit behind a table to hide that she wasn’t necessarily taking her own advice. Now, thinner and confident that she was on the right track, she returned to work happy that she could speak without hypocrisy and share what she had learned. Some of the people on our shows, including Bruce, have had offers for speaking engagements left and right. Their stories are so inspiring. Your story can be equally inspiring. Remember what Bruce said: “The only thing in life that is not hereditary is your attitude.” So change it today and start living the life you know you are capable of living.

I really believe that the goal of the whole weight-loss process is to become a better human being. None of us lives in a vacuum. It’s so much easier to live a healthy life when those around you are in step. Many people who’ve come on our shows lose the weight because they want to be there for their families, and set an example for their kids. One of the most heartbreaking things about finding out that Jeff and Juliana, the father-daughter team we spied on, were lying to us was that the father was essentially giving his daughter permission to be dishonest to herself and everyone else. Luckily, he was able to right that wrong. And look at the role model Jen became for her son when she did the 7,000-calorie challenge. Her son will never forget that night or the lesson that you can do anything you set your mind to. Like I always say,
kids won’t listen to a word you say, but they watch everything you do.

One of the many people I know of who has paid it forward is Josh, a guy that, as you might remember, wasn’t even on the show. When Josh was trying to lose weight on his own, a trainer of a gym he belonged to took him on for free. Now Josh is a personal trainer himself, and he takes on some clients for no charge, too. Probably what’s even more important, though, is that he counsels them to believe in themselves because that was the magic ticket that lead to his own success. And he doesn’t let people get away with anything. He posts things on his Facebook page like, “Feel like giving up? Don’t! You are so much stronger than you ever imagined.” and “If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.”