Biggest Loser at Work

sock_17

So my boss wants to start up a biggest loser competition at work for the employees and she wants me to help with it!! (How awesome is it that'll I'll actually be getting my work done while being on this web sited lol) So far she knows that she wants it to run from January to June and she knows that she wants to give a cash prize away at the end (and possible smaller prizes along the way) We’ll have to weigh in on a scale in front of everyone who is participating. That part scares the crap out of me. I want to participate myself but I’m mortified to get on the scale in front of anyone! She’s hoping the cash prize will be at least a couple hundred buck so maybe that will help ease my fear. . .Well anyway, I’m in charge of getting everything together and reporting back to her with ideas and all that fun stuff. Do any of you participate in anything like this where you work? What do you guys like or not like. Any input at all would be awesome!! She wants it to be as close to the show as possible. We’re going to look into doing the pound for pound challenge too. I’m trying to find out if it’ll still be around in 2012.
Thanks for the help everyone!
~ Jamie

lorac321

Yes. We are currently doing it at work right now. We don't do it for 6 months though. I believe ours is 8 weeks. It costs $10 to join and then you pay a fine of $2 if you are the person with the least amount of loss (or if you don't weigh in). As for the weigh in, no one watches us but I wish there was one person who would verifty accuracy. I'm very honest with it and I wear the same outfit to each weigh in and it's at the same time each week. I actually hope to be the Biggest Loser

sock_17

I don't think there is going to be a cost to participate but I do like the $2 idea! Is it winner take all at the end?

abellante_0205

Biggest Loser should be continuing in 2012! They are doing auditions, I'm sure

Lunacy541

I think you'll get less people to participate if you are required to weigh in front of everyone. We have had this at work a few times. We had much better success with having two people monitor the weighing and just posting the weekly weight loss in pounds and percentage lost. Good luck to you. Sounds like fun!

yesthistime

We had a Biggest Loser competition in my department last year. Everyone paid $10 to enter, weighed in on the same scale every week with a non-participating staff member (who kept up with the numbers and reported to us weekly via email what percentage of weight loss each person had and where we stood in the rankings) and the entrance money went to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners at the end of the 3 months.

XXXMinnieXXX

wow, sounds fantastic! really wish my works did this would be an amazing way of getting everyone healthier rather than everyone just sat there typing day in day out. must create good team morale too. fantastic idea id love that! may suggest it x

sherrylwilson

I have put together six biggest loser competitions at work. We always start the first of the year and again in the summer. Each time we do it, we do it for 12 weeks. We weigh every Friday and post the one who lost the biggest percentage for the week and who is in the lead. We post the number of pounds lost too. Now, we do not weigh in front of anyone else, that did not go over well at my work. We all put in $5.00 at the start and then the biggest loser got the money at the end of 12 weeks. We also have made it when you went up a pound that week or if you decide to skip a weigh in then you had to pay the $1.00 that week. 12 weeks was usually all that they could handle at my work.

aimeeturner

I am on the Wellness Committee at work. We had a Biggest Loser Challenge last year and it was a total success. We plan on having another one this January. We only let it run for 8 weeks and there were cash prizes awarded to the winners. We had 3 female and 3 male winners. We did it by percentage lost instead of pounds because it seems to be a little more fair that way. We did have each person who signed up contribute a small fee to participate which went into the giveaway pot (which was matched by the company). We offered the option to be weighed by a doctor or gym trainer and have a form signed by that individual (along with the doctor or trainer) and turned in at the beginning and at the end. That way, they didn't have to suffer the embarrassment of being weighed by their co-workers. The forms were submitted to HR, so no one knew anyone's weight except Human Resources. Good luck and have fun!

awol88

We're doing it at work too ... Stated Oct 17th and final weigh in is on Dec. 30th! Its fun and definitely motivates you ... however it can get very very competitive!! Trust me!

Our $$ was 100 dollars each, and we weigh in every Friday. We do it % weight to make it fair for the ones that do not have a ton to lose but also fair for the ones that have more to lose.

We keep an EXCEL sheet and we plug in the formula.

GOOD LUCK, our torture ends Last Friday of the year!!!

awol88

$100 was our fee ... to make it a little more interesting ... because anyone can give away $10 bucks .... YOU don't want to lose $100 dollars seems to have us focused more! 11 weeks!

elz22

I participated in one with my friends/family and we each put in 100 and we went by percentages and used the same scale each time and we did weigh in in front of each other. Good Luck!

krysydawn

My moms work did this!! Each "contestant" put in $20 and the first person to reach a loss of 20lbs or 10% is the winner and they get all the money!! My mom won it!

MinaAriel

We had a Biggest Loser competition in my department last year. Everyone paid $10 to enter, weighed in on the same scale every week with a non-participating staff member (who kept up with the numbers and reported to us weekly via email what percentage of weight loss each person had and where we stood in the rankings) and the entrance money went to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners at the end of the 3 months.

This is how we did it when I worked. I was pregnant at the time so I was the person recording the weights since I couldn't participate. The small entry fee had more people join in so the pot got bigger. The contest was 12 weeks which was a good time. About half way through, you knew who the real players were and then the competition got real. LOL The lady who won went on to continue losing and lost 87 pounds.

tiptoeketo

$100 was our fee ... to make it a little more interesting ... because anyone can give away $10 bucks .... YOU don't want to lose $100 dollars seems to have us focused more! 11 weeks!

I agree with paying an entry fee. This way, the person who wins will have a bunch of cash to splurge on clothes for their new figure!

sock_17

I thought being in front of everyone would make it worse too. There is talk of the grand prize being $1,000 so that may just be enough to get everyone over their fear of weighing in for the world to see. As far as I know there won't be any cost to participate.

sock_17

I'm a little worried that we might lose interest since it's going to be going on for so long. . .

awol88

Exactly what we thought!

mrimike

8 to 12 weeks is much more realistic to keep people from burning out. Our company also does weekly prizes for the top male and female competitors. There are aslo small token prizes that everyone is entered into a drawing for tracking their calorie and consumption amounts.