The Biggest Loser

You’re told you need to make a huge change in your life. That if you don’t make that change, this weight will take its toll on your health. It will kill you. So you do it - you go on national (and international) television and allow them to document every last embarrassing drop of sweat and tears it takes you to become The Biggest Loser. Then you go home to your healthily ever after. Or do you? In a recent New York Times piece, researchers found that not only did participants regain the weight they lost, their metabolisms had slowed down so much, it was more difficult to keep weight off than before they went on the show. Professor Alexander Tan, consultant endocrinologist, explains why.