A ‘Biggest Loser’s’ tricks to keeping weight off

WASHINGTON – Don’t set stupid goals and do personalize your diet. Those are some of the tips that former “Biggest Loser” Pete Thomas says have helped him keep his weight off for eight years.

He won the grand prize on NBC’s “Biggest Loser” in 2005 and in the process set reset on his diet, fitness and lifestyle.

“I was like so many different people. I knew that I had a problem but I didn’t know exactly how to take the weight off. I tried things that everybody else tries. I tried the coffee diet, the shake this, the eliminate this entire food group and all of those were short term fixes,” Thomas said on WTOP Friday.

He says many people create unrealistic goals for themselves, like losing a large amount of weight before the summer comes.

“People ask, ‘Am I always going to have to be concerned about what I eat?’ My retort is simply this: How long have you struggled with your eating? ‘Well about 35 years.’ Well, can we give it about four to five years for you to get this process down where you actually know what to eat and how to eat in any and every environment? It’s very important that we set realistic goals,” Thomas said.

The other advice Thomas offers, among others in his new book “Lose it fast, Lose it forever,” is to modify our diets. Understanding how much fuel your body needs is essential to knowing how to eat healthfully, he says.

“You’re taking the foods you would normally eat and you’re modifying them so they are lower in calories, lower in carbohydrates. So, you can still eat all the food that you want without going hungry,” he says.

Thomas says a diet has to be personal — based on personal habits and schedule — not on trends.

Saturday, Thomas will be at the Heart and Diabetes Expo sponsored by MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital in Clinton, Md.

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