Has anyone done an office (work) "Slimdown"

stephfilako

Im curious if anyone has ever participated in an office "Biggest Loser" or Slim down challenge at work? Im going to be setting one up for my husbands office and would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you so much for input, troubleshooting thoughts, and ideas! I can't wait to see these guys and gals knock it out of the park!!

stephfilako

bump** anyone??

dimplez711

We just started one at work, it's 12 weeks, ends right around Easter. Basically we all agreed to lose at least 7% of our individual body weights. Those who do not lose at least 7% have to pay $70. Those who do reach the goal get to split the bucket.

The other option was to have people pay what they didn't lose at $10 per 1%. So for example, if I only lost 2%, I would have to pay $50. We figured we would all be more motivated with the "all or nothing" option.

I hope this helps.

I have roughly 16 lbs to lose, so I need to get cracking!

LittleMissAngi

I am! It is a lot of fun and everyone helps each other out. Great prizes and challenges too!

Add me if you want to see our rules, I have the posted to my blog.

MaximalLife

Im curious if anyone has ever participated in an office "Biggest Loser" or Slim down challenge at work? Im going to be setting one up for my husbands office and would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you so much for input, troubleshooting thoughts, and ideas! I can't wait to see these guys and gals knock it out of the park!!

It's a great idea, but we don't do it here.
I only hire fit people.

Our bodies are the one thing a person has complete control of, so if a man can't control his body, he can't handle the responsibilities of our work.

trudemeanor

My job just started a Biggest Loser competition last week. We are going to till the 2nd wk of May. The winner wins all the money we pay at the weigh ins. Great motivation to get in shape.

fiberartist219

Personally, I refuse to participate in these types of activities. For some of my coworkers, it is a healthy motivator and they encourage each other. For others, it is an unhealthy motivator. They will do anything to lose weight, and do it fast.

My weight loss goals are not time sensitive. I don't want to be scared into doing something unhealthy because I've plateaued. I want to lose weight on my own time. I am getting healthier by eating right and exercising, whether or not the pounds come off in a 12 week time frame.

fiberartist219

Im curious if anyone has ever participated in an office "Biggest Loser" or Slim down challenge at work? Im going to be setting one up for my husbands office and would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you so much for input, troubleshooting thoughts, and ideas! I can't wait to see these guys and gals knock it out of the park!!

It's a great idea, but we don't do it here.
I only hire fit people.

Our bodies are the one thing a person has complete control of, so if a man can't control his body, he can't handle the responsibilities of our work.

I don't have complete control over my thyroid, but that doesn't mean I don't have control at work. I handle all sorts of responsibilities even if my body is out of shape.

kkenny0146

We started one at my work a few years ago. It started strong and fizzled out towards the end. You will want to have a coach of sorts that can give good advice and will run the weigh-ins. We made ours interesting, it was $1 per weigh-in per person. So every week you paid $1, and with a few people in the challenge in a few weeks there would be a pretty good bank going. Winner takes all or you can divide it up. Very few people were diligent on putting their $ in, so at the end there wasn't much to collect with the one we did. The element of competition was great! I am a competitive person and don't like to lose!

melissanne81

We seem to have one every six months at work and I participated in the first one... Each participant paid $10 per month (for a total of 6 months) and we weighed in once a week. We were penalized if we gained or stayed the same, and didn't have to pay anything if we lost weight. I think it was $1.00 per pound gained and $1.00 if we stayed the same weight....People really got into it! We've actually held three in our office in the past year and many people who were really big before have lost a lot and are looking excellent. It's a competition but everyone started walking the stairs/parking garage together during breaks and they encourage each other to eat well. There were three winners and I think the chick who lost the highest percentage won close to $500. That's great motivation right there!!!

KareninCanada

We just started one, but it's bigger than just a group of people at work. It's actually run by the fitness staff here on base. Each week (18 weeks) we have a weigh-in followed by a 45-minute class on some topic. Tonight was meal planning and label reading. Some weeks will be cooking classes. And we have a personal trainer for each team. The prize comes out of the money we all paid to register at the start ($50 each). The winner is not the one who loses the most pounds, but the one who shows the most overall improvement based on a fitness test at the start & finish, food and exercise logs, % of body weight lost, etc.

It's an EXCELLENT program that has a great success rate, along with a really high attrition rate. A lot of people don't see it through to the end - the prize is a good motivator, but hanging on for 18 weeks is tough.

cindy4mica

We just started one two weeks ago (there are only three of us participating). You can have different incentives (we all put $50 in the pot). If the boss is up for it, he/she could offer a day off with pay. Or you could all pitch in like we did. Some offices even offer lower insurance premiums to the winner. Have fun with it. And remember, it's not how many pounds one loses, it's percentage of his/her body weight to make it fair.