The question is : Will you lose weight?

It’s likely you will, given the plan’s two foolproof dieting tactics—calorie restriction and exercise. You just have to make sure you stick with it. Expand this section for research on the diet.

Some research has evaluated obese or morbidly obese contestants who have appeared on the Biggest Loser show. Interpret cautiously: The sample sizes are small, contestants may have had more—or much more—weight to lose than you do, and many had motivation-boosting TV cameras, prize incentives, and expert advisers surrounding them throughout the process.

• In one small study, published in the American Journal of Medicine in 2011, researchers reported that 14 Biggest Loser contestants lost an average of 133 pounds (39 percent of their initial weight) after seven months of intense exercise and moderate calorie restriction following a plan where 30 percent of calories came from protein, 25 from fat, and 45 from carbs.


• An unpublished study split 62 adults into three groups. The first group consisted of 14 Biggest Loser contestants who exercised four hours a day, six days a week and were encouraged to eat a diet largely of protein sources, fruits, and vegetables while avoiding saturated fat, processed grains, and added sugar. The second group—36 “home contestants”—attended a three-day symposium on diet and exercise and were instructed to exercise twice a day for 60 to 90 minutes each session. The third group, the controls, were sent home without any instructions.At eight months, those in the Biggest Loser group typically lost from 31 to 39 percent of their initial weight; for those in the home group, the typical area was from 22 to 28 percent. By comparison, the control-group individuals typically added from 2 to 5 percent of their starting weight. At 20 months, those in the first two groups typically had backslide somewhat, but were still 19 to 31 percent below their starting weight.

• Two additional sets of data on Biggest Loser contestants, published in 2007 in theJournal of Clinical Densitometry and the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research,reported similar amounts of weight loss. One reported that on average, 25 women had dropped 25 percent of their initial body weight and 22 men lost 32 percent of their weight after 8 months. Another set of data showed nearly identical figures for 27 women and 22 men after 8 months.

The question is : Will you lose weight?