Losers
The Coconut Diet is based on the concept that traditional populations that consume a diet high in pure coconut oil rarely display problems with weight gain and are also free of many of the chronic diseases that are common in western cultures.
In a nutshell, the diet focuses on eating mainly vegetables and lean protein. Grains, sweets, and most fruits are strictly avoided. Additionally, dieters are instructed to consume 2-4 tablespoons of raw coconut oil every day. The diet authors state that these fats can increase metabolism and have many other health benefits such as improving thyroid function, digestive problems and antiviral effects.
The book (which is still available on Amazon for $14) claims that dieters can expect to lose 10 pounds during the first 21 days if the program is strictly followed. Whether those results come from eating coconut oil or avoiding grains and sugars…. I’ll leave that up to you.
No matter the science (or lack thereof), in 2004 the coconut diet was the most popular fad diet in the US. Americans are unwavering in their desire to find the secret to weight loss, and entrepreneurs are quick to capitalize on their willingness to spend. As it turns out, so are television producers.
In the 2000’s Americas love affair with weight loss, was rivaled only by their love for reality television. Survivor, Fear Factor, The Apprentice, and The Bachelor were the crown jewels of network television. Executives were constantly looking for new reality concepts, and at the intersection of reality TV and weight loss NBC saw dollar signs.
The Biggest Looser premiered in 2004 and was a runaway success. Twelve contestants would enter a weight loss bootcamp for 30 weeks. The program included weekly weigh ins, challenges, rewards, and a strict diet and fitness regimen. At the end of the 30 weeks, the contestant who had lost the most weight by percentage of their original body weight was crowned the winner and took home a prize of $250,000.
When the first season came to a close, Ryan Benson was crowned the first ever winner. Over the course of 30 weeks he had shrunk from 330 pounds to 208 pounds, losing an astonishing 37% of his body weight. More importantly to NBC, the average viewership was over 10 million per episode, making the Biggest Loser the 37th most highly rated show on TV.
American audience fell in love with watching weekly as the severely overweight contestants were pushed to (and often past) their limits of physical exertion. Viewers felt hat happiness of each successful weigh in, and the struggle of each temptation challenge.
NBC had a hit on their hands, and they wanted to take it as far as they could. Viewers loved the extreme workouts, the insane diet plans, and mostly the completely bonkers transformations. NBC simply figured, give them more of what they love.
Losing 37% of your body weight in 30 weeks is extreme. It isn’t healthy, it isn’t sustainable, and it comes with serious complications. NBC didn’t care. Over the next 16 seasons, the smallest weight loss by a winner was 45%. In season 15 Rachel Frederickson lost 155 pounds. A shocking 59.6% of her bodyweight.
It was at that point that past contestant began to speak out. Season 3 contestant Kai Hibbard lost 115 pounds. After the show, her immune system shut down in response to the extreme weight loss and her hair fell out. Season 1 winner Ryan Benson gained back 32 pounds in five days following the show simply by drinking water. In 2009 the cameras conveniently missed two contestants being airlifted to the hospital after collapsing. The majority of past contestants report chronic knee and hip problems, the result of 300-pound bodies working out for 6 hours a day.
When the stories began to surface, scientists said what many of them had been saying the entire time. It was too much weight loss, too fast. It was too much physical exercise for poorly conditioned bodies. The calorie reduction was too extreme. The show wasn’t just putting contestants through an unhealthy crash course, it was unsafe. The show sputtered through three more seasons before being unceremoniously cancelled.
Too much too fast is a valuable lesson. We learn from a young age that the tortoise wins the race, yet all too often we are impatient with results and want things to move faster.
The desire for quick results is the number one reason people fail to reach their savings goals. If you deposit $1,000 a month into a retirement account, you will reach your goal much faster than if you start with $200. So long as you continue making the deposits. But immediately jumping to $1,000 can be hard. It can mean cutting back on eating out, Starbucks runs, and vacations. Giving up those things in order to meet your savings goal might be easy for a month, maybe two, but before long you will most likely start to miss those things. And when you begin to really miss them, there is a good chance you will do what many people do and stop your retirement deposits altogether. And before long, the tortoise who was depositing $200 will catch you. You were doing too much, too fast.
Start small. Work to increase it over time. The tortoise always wins the race.