The Biggest Loser Challenge at Work

swagoner94 wrote: »

Flapjack_Mollases wrote: »

sllm1 wrote: »

Wow - all of the negativity on here - not sure I get it.

Sounds like fun, OP.

Fruits/vegetables - get a certain number of servings in a week?
Sleep is important - get a certain number of hours per night for a week?
Have a clean eating week - no processed foods? Or you could just make it "no sweets" week?

Most of us realize that this does nothing to actually help the people, and in most cases (just like the real biggest loser) the person who wins is right back to where they started within a couple months. If you want to have a REAL competition, have a competition to see who can keep their BF% loss the closest to their actual weight lost. That would be a MUCH healthier challenge. But it's not as "appealing".

This isn't a reality show. Nor are my employees obese. Nor am I bootcamp trainer making them do extreme workouts to lose excessive amounts of weight. Geez. It's an OFFICE HEALTH INITIATIVE that focuses on health. Plus, it's % of your own weight lost, not just overall lbs. Ya'll... this is seriously ridiculous. I worked on this closely with a medical healthcare provider... I think they would've advised against it if they thought it was unhealthy.

The point is - for money - for competition - a small % of people will do stupid things. That small % can google Biggest Loser "tips." It's going to center around water weight & waste elimination....not exercise. But, most people are not going to do anything stupid.

Shift the focus to health initiatives as much as possible (not weight loss). Make the $$ prizes relatively small. Give everyone a T-shirt, or "badges" for consistent behavior (steps, exercise, fruits & veggies).

If your office is large enough and the atmosphere allows it maybe have an morning and afternoon walk around the building. We did this at my old job and it was great. It only took 5 minutes but it got your 250 steps an hour you should strive for, twice a day as well as gave employees a small break. Another suggestion was if you have any scheduled walks have mangers or bosses there and that way whosoever walking has an opportunity they may not have previously had to network and get to know leadership in your office. Personally this sounds like something fun that I would love to do. Have fun and good luck!1

Also don't know if at all possible but a bunch of us had fitbits so if any of your signed up participants do as well they can have a work week challenge between them. We loved doing this and I can distinctly remember our front desk person standing at her desk walking in place trying to increase her steps and it was just a lot of fun.

Never done a weight loss challenge at my office, but I have spearheaded a couple of challenges...one was a step challenge and the other was this kind of fun thing where we picked a destination on the U.S map and participants could use any combination of walking, running, or cycling to reach the mileage necessary to reach that destination...we all had different colored pins to roughly mark on the map where we were.

We also now have a policy that allows for 30 minutes of administrative leave four days per week to exercise...all someone has to do is fill out the contract and have their supervisor sign off and submit it to HR. A lot of people have been taking advantage of that and I now see many more of my colleagues out doing something...many of them combine it with the lunch break to get additional time in.

I did one of these that wasn't company wide, just in my department. It kicked off my weight loss in 2015 and I won, losing 10% in 3 months. I've kept up with it since and I've lost over 100lbs. For me, that simple game was greatly motivating and has completely changed my life.

People are motivated in many ways. THIS IS A GREAT IDEA and you should keep on keeping on with it. What could be negative about providing motivation for people to explore a healthier lifestyle? No more attention towards the nay sayers.

Anywho, it might be fun to track miles. So for instance get out a map of the US and let people "walk" or "run" to different states by logging steps. I hope this makes sense to you. It was a lot of fun. We went from the east coast to the west and back in an adjusted step situation. It was a lot of fun.

I would change it off biggest loser and have evryone who loses weight gets a raffle ticket. Everyone who goes to yoga class or nutrition class gets a raffle entry ect. Tie more to healthy behaviors and less to % weight loss.