Hello team Gutbusters.

I will be your coach for this month. Amy ( @GoBlue1981. ) is captain, Sandra ( @smc92079. ) is continuing as co-captain. My role here is to help motivate, encourage and help Amy keep this team as the best performing team in The Biggest Loser challenge.

I am also the primary moderator for the TBL challenge. I rely heavily on the support of the team captains to make this successful as it is too much for one person to do alone.

Amy ( @GoBlue1981. ) has been a great captain for the last month and I am glad she is continuing for this month. Captain is a big job and requires a daily time commitment of about 30 minutes reading and responding to the thread and entering weights into the spreadsheet. The motivational role a captain plays cannot be underestimated in the success of all members of the team.

As coach, I am running an optional mini-challenge within the Gutbusters team again this month.

Now an introduction:

I am a happily married 49yo father of one. I live in Melbourne Australia. I am passionate about helping people. Late August I passed my minimum goal weight (70kg - down from 91.5kg) and am now trying to maintain without bouncing back too far. I achieved the reduction in 4 months (so 40+ lbs in 4 months).

As I am now actively trying to NOT lose weight. At BMI 22.4 and less than 11% body fat, it would be crazy (if not dangerous) for me to try lose more weight.

(Why would someone not losing weight want to run a weight loss challenge? Because it helps so many people and I feel I have so much to share. I learned so much losing weight that I seems a shame to not have it benefit others.).

About the mini-challenge.

First and foremost is that participation in this challenge is optional. It's up to you as to whether you want to try this. (If you take the attitude that "this is not what I signed up for", that is up to you).

I used the principles of this challenge to win July (6.29% - down 10.8 lbs) and August (6.44% - down 10.4 lbs). Following this challenge does work.

The challenge is based on another challenge on MFP called UAC (ultimate accountability challenge). The way UAC works is that the aim is to follow 5 basic rules.

1. Track EVERYTHING you eat that has calories on MFP.
2. Stay inside your allocated daily budget.
3. Do at least 20 minutes of activity a day (anything: walk, run, cycle, swim, gardening, housework, yoga, gym, etc.. As long as it gets you active and off the couch)
4. 1 pass day permitted per week (went over calories, could not track, not enough exercise, intentional pass)
5. Check in daily (tracking yes/no, calories yes/no, exercise yes/no).

End of the week. those who have managed to keep to plan for 6 out of 7 days are recognised in the thread as being part of the weekly "winners circle".


Using this strategy of consistent tracking and minimal exercise I have set a lifestyle plan that should keep me in my target weight range. (has for the last month )

I liked this strategy as:

• No dietary restrictions. (fine for vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, paleo, carnivore, etc...)
• Works with whatever strategy you may want to follow. (keto, 5:2, 16:8, atkins, etc..).
• You set your own daily budget (MFP helps with this).
• You choose you own exercise and intensity (no step limit, no exercises you cannot or should not do, 20 mins of gardening counts as much as a 10mile run).
• Is not weight based (as weight fluctuates day by day).
• Can continue beyond weight loss.

Daily check in keeps you in touch with those doing similar. Longer term weight management is hard to do on your own.

It also has frequent resets (as in a circle each week).

It works on an honor system. Being honest with yourself and others is a key to making things work.

Consistency and new habits have been shown the only long term successful way to change weight. We all want the progress made here to last a lifetime.

You will find out more from me as the weeks go on. I have done A LOT of research into weight loss, diets, health and strength. I will happily share what I have learned with the group.

My commitment to this group is to post my daily results for this accountability tracking (and help out where I can).


I also post a daily strength challenge.

The daily strength challenge is additional to the 20 mins exercise in the mini-challenge. It is designed to:

• build lean muscle (not bulk).
• be quick (5 mins).
• use no equipment (bodyweight only) and minimal space.
• no impact so gentle on joints.
• cycle through arms, legs and core with enough recovery time to get best results.

Building lean muscle is one of the best ways to lose weight as lean muscle burns energy while at rest (sleep and lose weight ).

I will start cross posting my daily status posts into this thread.


So Welcome February Gutbusters.