Biggest Loser Competition at Work

Leigh14

Hello all!

Just a question.

I'm on a Wellness Committee where I work. We do various things throughout the year, including a large health fair with lots of vendors.

One thing I've been interested in is starting a Biggest Loser competition at work. I've gotten support from our Wellness Committee lead and am working on a plan. I was just wondering if any of you have participated in a Biggest Loser competition at work? If so, how did that go? Were your weights posted somewhere or did you go on percentages? Were you divided into teams based on sex? What was the incentive? Did you have to pay to participate? What was the best thing about the experience? The worst? How long was the competition? What kept morale and motivation running high?

Any info you can provide would be super helpful! I have a meeting next week with our committee lead and I'm hoping to present a well-organized plan to her. :flowerforyou:

njbooklover

bump

wickedcricket

no, I work at a very small company & I'm the largest one here. But I think this sounds like an AWESOME idea and it just might catch on!
My co workers ARE eating better (more veggies & fruit)
Good luck - keep us posted

primalprime

Hey Leigh,
I've participated in one twice at work; both times it turned out to be who gained the least competition! Each person put up $50 or so (can't remember exactly, now) and we did it on total pounds lost for the 6 month period. No teams, just individual so there wasn't any group accountability. Percentage would have been better too. We weighed in weekly and posted the weigh on our bullentin board in the breakroom, so it was great humor for the rest of the staff. Today if I did it I would take it more seriously (not like, obsessively or anything) to try to win by weight loss.
Good luck.

RunningAddict

The hospital where I work has a biggest looser competition every year. Each person pays a fee to enter Weigh in's are once a week and everyone has there own competition name so that your real name is not mentioned. Weights are posted once a week and the winner wins all the cash. There was 900 dollars the last time. I think our fee was like 10.00. Everyone really likes it where I work.

ChanMay

We are about to start the Biggest loser at my work. We each pay $20 to join. The money goes into the pot and the biggest female and male loser will split the money in the end. The weight loss is based on percentages so that everyone has an equal chance. Everyone is very excited and motivated to get going!

nisijam5

I am running one right now and you can check it out....This is after our initial weighin...I can send you the guidelines if you wish

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/337536-round-3-fit-n-trim-to-win-closed-group?page=1#posts-4537522

robinso5

i would love to do this! I also want to start a boot camp in my area! i am so ready!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ilove challenges like this because they keep me motivated but in our small little hick area there isnt much to do!

boston6

They just started a 3 month competition at work. $5/wk to participate with a $5 penalty if you gain weight in a week. It's all going on percentage lost. No one knows actual weights except our trustworthy admin assistant.

BTW - our admin asst gets 10% of the pot for keeping track of the weights & $$$.

pmills60

We are having one at work right now. Each participant paid $10 to enter. Weigh-in is weekly and weights are recorded. Ours is based on percentage. We are running this for 16 weeks. Our boss is even involved and has agreed to match the pot...Employees are excited -- and man we have some competitive people!!!

MinnieInMaine

I like the idea of using either "competition names" or weight loss percentages. People might shy away from participating if their weights are displayed for all to see. I know that would be extremely intimidating for me and keep me away from joining in!

The only competitions we've had here are web based (so only the administrators saw your specifics) and were only about activity levels. For the 1st one, whoever had the most activity (individuals and teams) won prizes - but it was totally bogus. You could tell some folks were counting everything like cleaning, walking to the bathroom, etc as they had hours and hours of activity. Lots of folks, including myself, were pretty peeved about the obvious cheating...
The 2nd one was much more realistic - you were eligible for prizes as long as you did at least 100 minutes of activity the first 3 weeks then at least 150 minutes the last 3 weeks. Definitely easier to attain and got a lot of people moving from what I heard.

xAdrianax

Hey i like the idea of you starting up this competition at work

I have never done it but ill just give my thoughts...

Decide an amount everyone is comfortable to put into this, this will also make sure people are serious about competing as money is at stake so im thinking like £50 - nice round number

I dont think their should be teams as maybe it might get complicated you know based on who is the heavier team - who is helping the team pull out the biggest losses (e.g if you weigh more) could get tricky. If there were an even amount of men and women then it could be the boys competing with eachother and the girls with eachother?

Some people might not want people to know their weights so maybe one of you can have a book where weekly you put in your weight loss in pounds/kilos whichever and also you would have to post if you put on and there can be a column to show total loss. If there are two teams then two books!

I would say to run it for 3 months

Also i would say if enough people do it the money would be an incentive alone!

mrmanmeat

Hello all!

Just a question.

I'm on a Wellness Committee where I work. We do various things throughout the year, including a large health fair with lots of vendors.

One thing I've been interested in is starting a Biggest Loser competition at work. I've gotten support from our Wellness Committee lead and am working on a plan. I was just wondering if any of you have participated in a Biggest Loser competition at work? If so, how did that go? Were your weights posted somewhere or did you go on percentages? Were you divided into teams based on sex? What was the incentive? Did you have to pay to participate? What was the best thing about the experience? The worst? How long was the competition? What kept morale and motivation running high?

Any info you can provide would be super helpful! I have a meeting next week with our committee lead and I'm hoping to present a well-organized plan to her. :flowerforyou:

We're doing one on a car forum I'm apart of.

8 weeks.
weigh in (post picture of scale w/ name) on monday's
starting weight is your weight on the first weigh in day
your final weight is the final weigh in day
biggest % wins (to make it fair to everyone)

kikican82

Hi there!

I've participated at work in the past as well. That's awesome you have a wellness committee! One thing you may be able to do is ask your HR Manager to reach out to your health insurance carrier. Sometimes they have goodies/giveaways/or guidelines that they can share with you.

In my former company's plan, we had the office manager be the weigher-in-er and everyone's numbers were kept totally confidential. I wouldn't participate if my weight was on a bulletin board for all to see! Yikes, no thanks!

We did it based on % and everyone pitched in $50 to make the pot bigger and more enticing. We didn't divide up based on sex, but just had one winner-take-all. We weighed in weekly. I think our competition was 6 weeks-2 months? We would try to take turns sending out a group motivational email with recipes/diet tips/etc.

Our competition was held during the "busy season"/4th quarter at work so it kind of lost steam with the holidays and crazy work hours. I think it's good to do these when things are a little slower (if applicable) or right after New Years or before summer as that's when most are motivated to lose.

I think its great you are spearheading this! If it were me, I'd try to find a 5K run/walk during the program that you can get everyone together to participate in. Boost morale halfway through and good team-building!

Good luck!

paniolo5

My husband's department has done a Biggest Loser-type competition the past 3 years (without people being eliminated - you are in it for the whole time). They even allow spouses/significant others to participate, as long as they can get in for the weigh in days.They typically put in $20-$25 per person so the pot is around $200. It runs 3 months with a monthly weigh-in to hopefully help keep everyone on track. I would personally appreciate bi-monthly weigh ins - I think competitors would want to know how everyone else is doing to help keep themselves motivated. They don't post publicly what everyone weighs, but participants know how their competition is doing. I guess someone in the competition could talk about what every weighs, but they haven't had an issue with that yet. At any rate, the winner is based on the overall percentage of weight loss.

If the company is sponsoring it & willing to put in some money, I think it would be great to come up with some other minor contests where other prizes could be won - workout gear, a pedometer, etc. - so hopefully more people have a chance to win something in the process.

Good luck!

awelch79

My husband and I are in one righ tnow (4 of 12 weeks left) and I LOVE IT!
The way his comapny is doing it:
*you had to sign up in pairs and create a team name. The pairs are competing against eachother.

*weigh ins are each Monday and must be reported by noon.

*there are monetary prized for 1st-3rd (he works for a very large, wealthy corporation-you could also ask vendors/businesses to donate prizes)

*each week you report your % lost to the moderator through email, and you also keep an Excel chart for yourself.

*Teams earn points for each percentage of weight lost for the week--Im not sure how many, cant find the original e mail.. (Percentages are reported individually, but the TEAM earns the points together.)

*There is also a weekly challenge for each team--examples--Chart all calories consumed for one week (easy for us MFPers), share a recipe with the other teams (via e mail to the moderator who sent them along) with certain health guidelines that you choose, 15,000 steps/ day for a week (that one was tough but they sent us free pedometers!), take a group exercise class together with your partner, 30 minutes of exercise a day for a week, etc.) Teams got 10 points total for each challenge that both members completed.

*The moderator also sends out weekly emails with current standings, how the previous week went (the 15,000 step week he talked about how difficult the challenge was, but it was to open our minds to understand how little/much we are mobile during the day.)

The only issue I have with this system, and its not one that can really be "fixed" is that its on the honor system. Not that I automatically think that people are lying, but it would be really easy to say you did something you didnt. And with a company that is nationwide, theres no way to really monitor that.

Whatever you decide to do, I think its a fabulous idea!

maemiller

Our company started the BL competition back in 07 and had it for 2 years. It was fun at first, i was really gungo-ho and thats how i started getting into running.

There were cash prices (1st/2nd/3rd places) between the different office, but most people did it for the money, not for the long term basis. Weigh ins were done monthly, but a lot of people were out of town so the weigh ins could take up to 2 weeks before we could get a total result. A lot of people at the beginning ate & drank alot for the first weigh, which i thought was really unfair, and it was managers that were doing it. The 2nd year there were less than half the people signed up from the first year because of the fiasco on weigh ins that our company stopped doing it.

I would have the people that want to participate put in some money and the company put some in also. At least the people that are participating have an incentive to work for their weight loss since they have $ in it...if that makes sense. Youre gonna have people that are gonna lie and cheat at the beginning of the weigh ins, so I hope you have a plan on controlling that. That was the demise in our case because that made the honest people that really wanted to compete in it lose motivation and quit.

Good luck

Leigh14

Thank you all for your replies!! I've got tons of things to consider in making our plan, but I'm really anxious to get started!!

I appreciate all the help! Good luck to each of you in your journey. :flowerforyou:

thamre

We did one where I work almost 2 years ago. We started mid-January and ran thru beginning of April. We would have guest speakers like nutritionist and local club owners that would give up tips and stuff. We used % lost for each week. We were not charged for this competition and we had great prizes to work towards (top 3). We also had little prizes along the way to keep us motivated. To me - because I was so ready for this - this challenge made a huge difference in my weight loss journey - it was a great jump start. During the competition I lost 31 pounds, came in fourth and have continued since then to lose the 85 pounds lost I am currently at. Top prize in our competition was a WII fit. The guy who won it did awesome during the competition but gained it all back - I should have won that

AshleyNRi

I work at a medium sized hospital (about 3,000 associates) and we have a bi-annual 10,000 steps program. Since we have Cigna for our health insurance, we use their program: http://www.cornerstonefitness.com/cgi-bin/cigna/cart/ABCstore.cgi?user_action=detail&catalogno=106

Every associate who wants to particiapate is put into a team and given a pedometer. Then (using the honors system) you log your steps daily. The program runs for 6 weeks at a time and there were several employees that hit 1,000,000+ steps!