I saw some of this show earlier in the week during my strength-training session at my apartment complex’s gym. The weight loss was amazing, especially for five months. I wondered how they did it and I poked around for information, and of course it’s completely contrary to the paleo plan.

My first concern is that I haven’t lost much weight myself. When I’ve kept on the diet, the weight comes off, but I haven’t stayed on the diet for long periods. Specifically, I tend to cheat a bunch. A coke here, some rice there, maybe some ice cream now and then. I stay away from grains and eat a good complement of fats, but carbs are a weakness.

A lean, fit 5′10″ adult male will burn about 1700 calories a day just sleeping all day. Even small bits of exertion will push that up over 2000 calories a day. Heavier people (say, at 250 or 300 pounds) will burn 500 or more extra calories daily keeping that extra tissue fed and warm. So the massive calorie-deficit diets the show contestants are on are near-starvation.

Luckily, the diets aren’t high-carb; if they were, I think they’d have huge problems. The diet plan is “4-3-2-1″, four fruits & veggies, three lean meat, two carb units, and one “other”, which is probably a cheat carb unit. If you’re yoyoing your blood sugar and insulin with carb infusions, they probably need cheat carbs just to remain sane. And five meals a day helps there, too, normalizing blood sugar.

But, they eschew fats, ignore micro-nutrients, still eat grain (probably poorly-treated whole grains!), and eat five times a day! Craziness.

Their results do underscore the most important factor in weight loss: sticking to your plan. Whether it’s intermittent fasting & paleo, or health-be-damned starvation diets, cheating kills results.

The main reason to eat paleo is long-term health. Do you want cancer? Heart disease? Diabetes? That’s my primary motivation. But I do know for intense physical activity (like snowboarding!) that I want to lose weight and get fit. The lesson that I get from this hugely popular TV show is: STICK TO YOUR PLAN. If they can do it while eating that crap, I can do it while enjoying bacon, steak, butter, and cheese!

Zero-carb lunch for me, then!

see also: 100 Calories a Day