THE LARGEST Loser tv program is watched by thousands of people worldwide. of your competition when the contestants had been isolated inside a training environment the common rate of pounds reduction was 0.4 ± 0.1 kg/d which decreased to 0.19 ± 0.1 kg/d after returning house for the ultimate phase. The full total pounds reduction was 58.2 ± 26 kg with 81.6 ± 8.4 % via surplus fat. The pc simulations closely matched up the info and determined that typical energy intake through the 1st stage was 1300 kcal/d while taking part in 3.1 h/d of strenuous exercise. After coming back home energy consumption risen to 1900 kcal/d and strenuous workout decreased to at least one 1.1 h/d. Simulation of diet plan alone led to 34 kg of pounds reduction with 65% via surplus fat whereas workout alone led to a lack of 27 kg with 102% from fats. Simulated pounds loss maintenance could possibly be achieved having a moderate 20 min/d of strenuous workout and SQ109 SQ109 a 3000 kcal/d diet plan. Keywords: diet workout energy expenditure pounds loss INTRODUCTION Thousands of people view reality television applications depicting dramatic pounds loss. Typically the most popular can be “THE LARGEST Loser” which started in 2004 in the U.S.A. and offers since been replicated all over the world mirroring the rise from the global weight problems pandemic (1). The display portrays a cast of obese people engaged in strenuous exercise and rapidly losing Rabbit polyclonal to ASH1. a large amount of weight. While the focus of the television show is the exercise component of the weight loss program the relative contribution of diet restriction is unclear. Here I calculate the contributions of diet and exercise to the observed weight loss using a validated computational model of human metabolism (2) to simulate the body composition and energy expenditure data measured during the competition (3). METHODS AND PROCEDURES The methods and procedures used to collect the experimental data have been previously described (3). Briefly 16 obese participants were housed on a ranch near Los Angeles CA where 6 days per week they engaged in 90 minutes per day of directly supervised vigorous circuit training and/or aerobic training and were encouraged to exercise up to an additional 3 h/d on their own. Participants stayed on the ranch until being “voted off” every 6-11 days. At week 13 the 4 remaining participants at SQ109 the ranch returned home. At week 30 all participants returned to Los Angeles for testing. Resting metabolic rate (RMR) fat mass (FM) and total energy expenditure (TEE) were measured at baseline week 6 and week 30 in 11 participants who were the subject of the current analysis. I used a validated computational model of human metabolism (2) to simulate the diet and exercise program required to match the average body weight (BW) change and TEE data. The computational model quantitatively tracks the metabolism of dietary macronutrients and simulates how diet and exercise changes result in adaptations of whole-body energy expenditure metabolic fuel selection and alterations in the major whole-body fluxes contributing to macronutrient balance and body composition change. The model simulates both the energy cost of exercise as well as its effect on fuel mobilization and utilization. To simulate the Biggest Loser intervention I specified that the model parameter defining the average energy intake was a constant for the period of time on the on the ranch followed by another constant energy intake phase after the participants went home. The model parameter representing exercise was chosen to increase upon starting the program and ramp SQ109 up linearly while on the ranch to represent a training effect. Upon returning home the exercise parameter was assumed to be constant. No other model parameters were adjusted to fit the data. The values of the four model parameters defining the average energy intake and exercise during periods on the ranch and at home were the only model parameters adjusted to fit the BW and TEE data. The best fit parameter values were determined using a downhill simplex algorithm (4) implemented in the Berkeley Madonna software (version 8.3;.