LARGEST LOSERS SPLASH INTO WEIGHT LOSS

We’re Back!  Sincere apologies to our contestants and their fans for keeping you in the dark the past 2 weeks.  Don’t be fooled however… they’re still kicking butt and making big changes.

This week Courtney tried something a bit different and “dove in” with a new exercise routine—Water Aerobics.  “I love water workouts because you get resistance from all angles” She reports.  “It was a no brainer with this group who can’t do too many plyo’s or high impact exercises.  Those exercises have tremendous benefit for weight loss and fitness however, so being able to match that intensity in a low impact environment (water) is a vital tool to get them to the next level.”

Speaking of different… Toni reportedly ‘had a ball’ with the Wednesday group.  Her workout consisted of about 35 different exercises using only a stability ball.  As put by one of the participants, “I have a ball at home that I just used for crunches.  I had no clue you could do that many different things with 1 piece of exercise equipment.”

Apparently neither did we.  Tom chimed in (no surprise) and added “These trainers ridiculously creative.  I’m pretty creative when it comes to exercise and I’ve been training for quite some time—but every week they come up with something new that I’ve never even considered.”

Courtney’s reply:  That’s the point.  1) Safe 2) Effective 3) Interesting exercise.

Nutrition Notes
Tom focused on maintenance strategies this week, and gave away an interesting tidbit of information to the question “so how many calories do you eat Mr. Dietitian?”  His example referenced a heavy training week but showed that on those weeks with high training volume he typically consumes around 3600 calories per day!  “The key is balance” Tom Defends.  “If you are a professional athlete working out for 4-6 hours per day, you may need 6000 calories per day to hit your performance goals—but if you work at a desk for most of the day and your goal is weight loss, you may need 1200 calories or sometimes even less.  

Weigh-in Notes
Around the office we love week 8 because Tom spends all week dreading the weigh in.  It’s the hardest one because often times participants still have passes and burn them (rightfully so by the way) since week 8 is the last time they can be used.  This week 4 participants used their option, leaving the double elimination down to 3 participants.  Mike and Diane received the short end of this stick and despite great weeks of 1.6 and 2# respectively were promoted to Track 2.  Cliff and Barb bounced back strong on week 2 to lead the group with 3# each.  Even with the widespread passes, the group busted through the 200# mark and is down 7.45% through two-thirds of the competition!