Household Weight Loss Competition

HealthyByHeidi
HealthyByHeidi Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,

Everyone in my house is getting extremely worried about my brother. He is obese (we all are) and is having a hard time doing anything active, even walking a short amount. He had no drive to lose weight but our mom keeps nagging him about it. My sister and I started talking about how she isn't helping him, but if he doesn't do something soon he's going to die of a heart attack at a young age :(. Obviously that's a possibility with any of us but my brother is the most sedentary and doesn't try to make any improvements.

Since we're all competitive, we decided to do a weight loss competition amongst the 3 of us. Winner gets to pick a movie that they like but the other 2 have to suffer through haha.

My brother got very excited for this idea. I know there will come a point where we will probably stop losing weight and start building muscle but I think this will be a great way to get us all going. I was just wondering if anyone else on here has ever done something like this with their friends or family and what the outcome was. If anyone has any tips, they would be appreciated.

The competition will be every 2 weeks, starting November 1st. We all weigh around the same (I weigh the least at 285, my brother probably weighs the most, around 330 if I had to guess). Looking forward to the competition, and comments.

Thanks for reading! Also, I'd anyone wants to send me a friend request they can :)

Replies

  • Kimegatron
    Kimegatron Posts: 772 Member
    edited October 2015
    We did this on my team (12 people) at work. It was supposed to only be 8 weeks, and was supposed to end in August, but we are busy at work and haven't had the final weigh in. I think that only 3 of us (myself included) actually really did it, and 2 of us are still doing it. I just can't wait for the final weigh in to see if I win the money.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    It's hard not to say anything when someone you care about is hurting themselves, but most of the time it just doesn't help. Kudos on finding something that will inspire all of you!
  • gaelicstorm26
    gaelicstorm26 Posts: 589 Member
    You can calculate by percentage of body weight lost instead of just pounds lost to make account for the differences in your weight.
  • HealthyByHeidi
    HealthyByHeidi Posts: 8 Member
    Gaelicstorm - I thought about calculating the percentage (Thank you, Biggest Loser haha) but it's only really me that will be disadvantaged. I don't really care if I'm not a winner - not that I don't want to try haha. I just want us all to lose weight. So I think we will be keeping it simple by just going by pounds lost for now. Thanks for the suggestion though. :)

    Kimegraton - My old work tried something like that too, most of the people dropped out by the end of the week :( I hope you win the money! Good luck!

    Jennifer - yes, very hard to watch. Thank you, I just hope it works!
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
    Only issue I can see is if your too competitive and end up starving your self just to win.

    Maybe agree on a max weightloss per week. That way if you all lose say 1% in a week it's a draw.

    That way no one is incentivised to do anything too extreme.
  • MsJulesRenee
    MsJulesRenee Posts: 1,180 Member
    edited October 2015
    Ah, sibling rivalry :) If there was situation I would be most determined to win, it would be against my siblings! lol keep us updated and let us know who wins!!
  • HealthyByHeidi
    HealthyByHeidi Posts: 8 Member
    We all love food too much to starve ourselves, trust me haha. I will keep the updates coming!
  • jcow84
    jcow84 Posts: 75 Member
    Good luck to you! It seems like a fun idea to take some of the pressure off a serious situation.
  • thunder1982
    thunder1982 Posts: 280 Member
    Good luck with it. Nothing like a bit of competition to get you into the groove.
  • siluridae
    siluridae Posts: 188 Member
    You're not just gonna start building muscle. Especially not in a calorie deficit, that is really hard.
  • HealthyByHeidi
    HealthyByHeidi Posts: 8 Member
    I didn't mean start gaining muscle right off the bat, I meant after a lot of competitions, once our weight loss slows but we're still losing inches. It happens sometimes (has to me in the past) and I didn't want anyone to think I hadn't thought of it lol
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,178 Member
    Do you all live together? Who is doing the shopping and cooking? If all of you are very obese, there are basic things that need to change in portions and choices and I am guessing, that no matter how worried your mother is, she does not know how to go about it. Make sure to educate yourselves, so you can make changes that count and not get exhausted after a few weeks. Good luck :)
  • HealthyByHeidi
    HealthyByHeidi Posts: 8 Member
    Yes, we all live together along with our parents, who are also obese. But my dad has been making changes to fix that, and hasn't been big his entire life like we have - just in recent years.

    We all shop and we all cook but my dad does most of the cooking for dinner. We actually have fruit and vegetables available at all times, and our meals always consist of at least 1 meat (protein), 1 veggie and 1 starch. The problem would be in portion control, because a typical serving is only 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup for a lot of starches, and we eat a lot more than that. And too much junk food. Way to much junk food. You're right, my mom knows nothing about it. But slowly, over the years, she's been learning more and more. I actually know a lot about losing weight, and not by crash dieting. My problem is something will change in my life and instead of adapting I just go back to my old ways of eating. Last year, for example, it was getting a new job and a boyfriend at the same time lol. But I know I need to make changes I can live with, I just take the lazy way, which I think is too true for a lot of us obese people.

    An update though: We decided to do it by percentage lost after all. Yay!

    Thank you all for the good luck and positive thoughts :smiley:
  • clh72569
    clh72569 Posts: 280 Member
    We did a Biggest Loser contest at work in Jan 2014 to Easter. We all failed miserably. The up-side is in 2015 I started MFP again with determination. I have lost 50 lbs, off all prescription medication and currently maintaining. 1 of my co-workers is on Medifast lost 20 lbs and still going, another joined Weight Watchers, another joined MFP, another joined Livestrong. The morale of this story is; people make decisions at different times and for different reasons and motivations. As long as you are moving toward your goal, that is success.
  • HealthyByHeidi
    HealthyByHeidi Posts: 8 Member
    I love that! Thank you for sharing.

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