Biggest Loser Grinding It Out!

I’ve been following NBC’s reality weight loss show Biggest Loser from a life insurance and health education view point. This had to be a tough week psychologically on the participant’s, as there was a lot of hard work going on and very few dropped any significant weight.

Hopefully Dr Jen , the Biggest Loser doctor, will address the physiological reason for this plateau. Based on my limited knowledge of the dynamics of weight loss through diet and strength training, these kind of plateaus happen because loss of fat is offset at times by by the gain in muscle mass.

Because of the small weight loss this week, from a life insurance perspective, there was not a lot of gains to be made. For this week I will post the new weights and leave the life insurance premiums alone. I suspect next week will see a lot of people falling off of that plateau and significant weight drops and life insurance rate drops will occur.

My disclaimer. There is an assumption as I provide quotes that there are no underlying health issues. Because insurance companies reward long term weight loss, there will be an assumption that the weight loss has been kept off for more than a year. All life insurance quotes are for $250,000 of 20 year term. I will be using the company that will make the best offer at any given height and weight. All quotes will be yearly premiums.

Blue team

Jerry – 62, 5’11, Start 297#, now 254 – Ending quote $2412.00 – voted off

Kae – 27, 5’2, Start 225#, now 197 – Start quote $310.00, now $225.00

Neil – 25, 6’2, Start 421#, now 386 – Start quote $560.00, now $441.00

Nicole, 26, 5’6, Start 279#, now 262 – Start quote $344.00, now $310.00

Patty, 34, 5’8, Start 280#, now 260 – Start quote $449.00, now $388.00

Ryan, 29, 5’10, Start 374#, now 347 – Start quote $610.00, now$544.00

Red Team

Amy, 28, 5’6, Start 297#, now 279 – Start quote $413.00, still $413.00

Bryan, 29, 6’0, Start 346#, now 321 – Start quote $544.00, now $430.00

David, 31, 6’0, Start 368#, now 338 – Start quote $622.00, now $580.00

Phil, 27, 6’5, Start 403#, now 363 – Start quote $513.00, now $453.00

Black Team

Bill, 40, 5’8, Start 334#, now 298 – Start quote $912.00, now $794.00

Hollie, 28, 5’7, Start 255#, now 239 – Quote $319.00, now $225.00

Isabeau, 21, 5’8, Start 298#, now280 – Start quote $344.00, still $344.00

Jez, 24, 5’8, Start 345#, now 316 – Start quote $570.00, now $520.00

Jim, 40, 5’7, Start 361#, now 325 – Start quote $1148.00, now $1078.00

Julie, 34, 5’2, Start 218#, now 210 – Start quote $388.00, still $388.00

I don’t want to minimize the weight loss that happened. For these folks every pound is going in the right direction. I think it’s important to keep in perspective the three components of weight loss, fat, water and muscle. I think it is a fair leap of assumption to say that the first week was mostly fat and water loss with very little muscle building. This plateau of muscle building will provide the added stamina to go after more fat next week.

I have implored the Biggest Loser folks to spend some time, any time, talking about obesity and the collateral health issues that it can cause. So far they aren’t real enamored by my suggestions. Must be too busy counting the advertising dollars to worry about health education.

Bottom line. Life insurance underwriting for overweight people looks at all of those health issues that Biggest Loser isn’t talking about. Obesity, unless brought under control,  brings with it a strong likelihood of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease at the very least. This is stuff the Biggest Loser producers should be talking about.