Avoiding "Cheaters" in Office Weight Loss Competition

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  • nilbogger
    nilbogger Posts: 870 Member
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    If you want people to follow certain behaviors, reward behaviors. If you want people to achieve results, reward results. 100% of your competition is a reward/punishment system based on the results achieved (pounds gained or lost). If you want people to focus on building healthy, sustainable habits, design your reward system around that. Award "points" for physical activity, eating fruits/veggies or whatever. But you can't reward results and punish for negative results and expect people to focus on something other than results.

    This makes sense, but even with that system you'll still have cheaters. People will lie about how many fruits and veggies they ate (I swear people did this when we had a fruits and veggies challenge at work), how many minutes they were active, etc. It's just a fact of life.
  • dandelyon
    dandelyon Posts: 620 Member
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    How annoying! Maybe having less of a jackpot would make it less competitive. You could still have all the good stuff that goes along with a weight loss challenge - people openly talking about food and exercise, sharing recipes, walking at lunch, etc - without feeding the greed.
  • nilbogger
    nilbogger Posts: 870 Member
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    The person with more body weight, can lose a lot of it fairly easy compared with someone who is about where they should be.

    That's why when my office does this the person who loses the highest percent of body weight wins.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
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    If you want people to follow certain behaviors, reward behaviors. If you want people to achieve results, reward results. 100% of your competition is a reward/punishment system based on the results achieved (pounds gained or lost). If you want people to focus on building healthy, sustainable habits, design your reward system around that. Award "points" for physical activity, eating fruits/veggies or whatever. But you can't reward results and punish for negative results and expect people to focus on something other than results.

    This makes sense, but even with that system you'll still have cheaters. People will lie about how many fruits and veggies they ate (I swear people did this when we had a fruits and veggies challenge at work), how many minutes they were active, etc. It's just a fact of life.

    Indeed. My point was only that if the reward and punishment (seriously, I owe you a $ because I happen to having an up day on weigh-in day?) is about pounds, then that's the focus. You can't then say "oh, but I really mean be healthy and stuff". No system in the universe can prevent "cheating" but the focus should be on what you really want it to be, and understand the pros and cons to that focus.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    You likely can't do what you want. If you say no supplements, then that would include protein supplements, nutrtional supplements, doctor prescribed supplements, etc.

    If you limit calories, then could also run into doctor recommendations that conflict, but mostly it's simply unenforceable unless plan to sequester all participants to monitor their diet.

    Even making losing the most percent of total weight has its drawbacks as those that lose more muscle along with the fat will lose more “weight”. The only real way to see would be to measure BF% loss, and that would really need to use weighted scores because of different starting points.
  • serafin366
    serafin366 Posts: 60 Member
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    Maybe add something sort of funny like "We encourage healthy weightloss, so shaving your head, cutting off a limb, or other extreme methods are discouraged"

    My opinion is that everyone has their own way of losing weight and what works for them... I also don't think necc. believe that supplements would work in the long run. I think if you are concerned about her method you should pull her aside and talk to her about it.. however, if it is what works for her, you can't penalize her just because people are upset she won.

    Think about people on MFP, everyone uses different methods, Weigh Watchers, 5/2, Clean Eating, TDEE, Beachbody, Low Carb, etc. etc. etc. I have know people to lose a ton of weight over YEARS and sustain it.

    Maybe you could add a sustaining portion to the prize... so the highest loser percentage wise wins, as long as they sustain or lose more weight over the next month. Usually extreme methods aren't good for more than a week or two
  • cfergusontx
    cfergusontx Posts: 61
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    We had a weight loss competition also and the last week, one of the guys started using diuretics and lost 10 lbs. and also wore shorts and a tank top the last day to weigh, when he wore jeans the first day. So we vowed the next time, that what we wore the first day to weigh would be what we had to wear the last day as well....
  • pobalita
    pobalita Posts: 741 Member
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    Not sure how it was "cheating" since there's no way to fake weight loss. Healthy or not, she was willing to go to extremes to win.

    If you must do this in the future, I'd suggest adding language to the rules that eating less than 1,200 calories per day is not encouraged. As far as supplements go, why bother banning them? We all know they don't work anyway. This woman lost weight by eating 500 calories per day.

    This is why I hate these kinds of contests....they encourage you to lose weight at an unhealthy rate. I once knew someone who took laxatives for two days to "win". Why not do away with the "contest" and make it a "challenge" - anyone who loses say 5 or 10 pounds gets a prize or some kind of recognition.
  • phjorg1
    phjorg1 Posts: 642 Member
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    these contests are bull****.

    One thanksgiving we had a weight gain contest. I drank a ton of water and won with a total weight gain of 13lbs in 2 hours. So lets take this to it's extreme. I can right before your weigh in for this contest drink a ton of water, and be 13lbs over my normal weight for weigh in. I can then sit on my *kitten* for the entirety of the contest, doing absolutely nothing. and then the day before stop drinking and eating, and go into a sauna wearing a garbage back, and sweat off 20lbs. End result, 33lbs of weight lost, where i didn't change one habit, put in 0 total hours of diet and exercise, and walk away with the money. thanks suckers...

    If you do these contests by weight instead of actual fat loss, then you're stupid and deserve to get scammed.
  • ChrisLindsay9
    ChrisLindsay9 Posts: 837 Member
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    Instead of doing it by weight, can you do it by measurements? Either have someone neutral take measurements or have it by the honor system. I would almost take part of the prize money and hire a tailor to come by the workplace to take starting measurements and finishing measurements. And everyone can take their own throughout the contest.

    Also, whatever you decide ... take before pictures of everyone (face and upper torso, front and side). And more progress pictures every 2-3 weeks. That way, even those who don't win the contest, will still feel good and motivated by the progress that they have made.
  • SOutdoors
    SOutdoors Posts: 3
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    Long term (~6 months)

    Max credit week 1: 5%
    Max credit week 2: 3%
    Max credit every week thereafter: 2%
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    Supplements don't work, so it doesn't matter if they're banned or allowed.

    The real problem here is turning weight loss into a competition.
  • Branstin
    Branstin Posts: 2,320 Member
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    Although the action of your co-worker wasn't at all healthy, it wasn't cheating if the rules did not exclude supplements. Unfortunately, you will not be able to control the actions of other people. Despite all rules, you will not have any way of knowing the methods those people will use to lose weight.
  • SOutdoors
    SOutdoors Posts: 3
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    Supplements don't work, so it doesn't matter if they're banned or allowed.

    The real problem here is turning weight loss into a competition.

    I think it is less about the actual competition and more about the accountability and group dynamics. Groups have been shown to achieve greater success than individuals. I join the company "competitions" all the time to either motivate me to lose a few pounds or maintain my current weight over the holidays and I could personally care less about the money/competition.
  • gemaquaries
    gemaquaries Posts: 79 Member
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    bump to read later
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    Not sure its possible to make everyone act reasonable and expect them to all be honest about it. I imagine the longer the run of the competition, the less likely people will resort to measures like dehydration and such? Or if they do, it might not be enough to catch up to those who work hard for the duration.
  • kaseyr1505
    kaseyr1505 Posts: 624 Member
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    Make a contract and put in there that unsustainable diets, or fad diets will result in automatic disqualification with no return of money put into the pot,
  • Brianne1013
    Brianne1013 Posts: 3
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    Why don't you do it in the style of DietBet. Set a certain percentage that you have to meet (DietBet does 4% in 4 weeks). Everyone who meets that goal splits the pot. That way it is more like you are competing against yourself rather than trying to "beat" everyone.
  • cardinalsfootball
    cardinalsfootball Posts: 167 Member
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    To avoid unsustainable cheating, say the winners of the contest must maintain that weight loss for an additional 6 months after end of contest, or the money reverts back to next years contest.

    That will obviously encourage everyone to be healthier long-term after the weight loss, and also help avoid people doing things that are not "lifetime" okay.

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