My thoughts on Weight Loss

by Dr David Tessier
(Colorado Springs, CO)

My fiance is addicted to this show and of course I watch it with her. I see the workouts, a little about the food but mainly these people losing weight week after week. Last week I watched as a contestant that was eliminated previously returned and she had lost 87 pounds on her own. Unfortunately she was eliminated because she had gained 5 lbs back. I am a doctor and I do a weight loss program with my patients. My goal is to restore their health through proper hormone function. Last week when that contestant was eliminated for gaining 5 lbs, I thought about how stressed she must have been, emotionally and physically. You see cortisol is released when our bodies, minds, emotions are under stress and cortisol retains fat, and breaks down muscle. I see these people on there like Ron who has recently been sent to the ER for issues and he is losing weight but is he regaining his health. Losing weight does not guarantee health, there are a lot of sick skinny people. If diet and exercise is the only way to lose weight, then how does one explain the person that never exercises, eats excessively, eats anything and never gains an ounce? The answer is metabolism, and what controls metabolism? Hormones. I think the show is doing great things and bring a tremendous amount of awareness to the public, but I think there is a missing part to all of this. I would like to see how many contestants have fallen off the wagon because it is just to time consuming to spend hours a day in the gym and they did not restore their health in the first place by getting healthy and allowing their bodies to work the way they should. I believe that excess fat is only a symptom of an unhealthy body! Get the body healthy (hormones) and the body has a process to self regulate (homeostasis)and keep things in balance, including their weight. Consuming more calories than you burn on a regular basis is just one piece of the puzzle. Another factor that is over looked is the type of exercise you have the contestants perform. I am all for the those that stimulate growth hormone release, short duration high intensity workouts, vs endurance type of workouts which stress the body and cause the release of cortisol. In some cases some of your contestants should not be exercising at all, the increased stress emotionally, and physically have just the opposite desired effect, yes they can see short term loses but in the long run they cannot keep up with the contestants that have different health issues. I base my treatment off of body types, adrenal, liver,ovary and thyroid. I have a site that allows people to take a free quiz that will tell them what body type they are and if they are in a fat burning mode or fat storing mode based on symptoms and food consumption. I think you need to have like body types competing against each other.