Why aren't these contestants losing weight?
I wish, when plateaus hit, that there would be a little more education. My counseling experience has taught me that plateaus, if not fully understood, can be demoralizing and demotivating. It can tempt a person pursuing weight loss to give up altogether.
Some of the things I wish you all had heard last night:
1. One of the training effects of exercise is that your body gets better at storing fuel to use during exercise. One of those fuels is glycogen. Every gram of glycogen is stored with 3 grams of water. Glycogen is not fat, it's a form of carbohydrate. If you're starting to store more glycogen at the same time you're losing fat, the weight gain can offset the weight loss.
2. The more obvious training effect is that you are also gaining muscle. Gaining muscle while losing fat can negate what the scale shows.
In other words, not all weight is fat. Not all weight loss is fat loss, and not all weight gain is fat gain.
One of the contestants, after seeing her weekly results, stated that she believed that her body was not accepting the exercise.
Au contraire, madame!
If you're gaining muscle and developing a capacity to store more fuel, which ultimately allows you to be more active, your body is alive and well and responding to your hard work in a very healthy way.
The goal of this show is to lose fat and gain muscle, is it not? Then why do they only focus on one when it comes to measuring?