Need to lose 6% body fat

So I signed up for a six week challenge at a local cardio kickboxing gym. They asked for $500 down and I’ll get it back if I lose either 6% body fat or 25lbs. At the time they kept saying I would only have to loose approximately 10-12 lbs and I thought for sure I could do that and get my $$ back but now that I’m 2 weeks in, down 7lbs and my body fat has only budged by 1% according to their scale, I’m starting to wonder if it signed up for something impossible.
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Replies

  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,746 Member
    Most of your initial weight loss was probably water, not fat. I'm afraid you're likely to be out the $500. 4 lbs a week is really aggressive unless you are seriously obese.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,275 Member
    edited May 2019
    Work on this for your own health.

    Cheat for your money. Or write it off.

    They have no intention of making it easy to escape with much money.

    They have every intention of scaming your "sunk" payment into a bigger investment into their gym.

    Whether their gym is worth the final price, that I don't know (it could well be. Or not).

    Whether I would personally enjoy dealing with a gym that hard sells and scams I guess is best answered by the fact that I don't have a gym membership!
  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,401 Member
    lhagan12 wrote: »
    Yeah it felt shady right away when they advertised it as “free” but then sit you down and hard sell it as give us money then you can earn it for free. I wasn’t given a copy of the paperwork but they said for every lb we didn’t lose they would only keep $10 but I’m not signed up for lbs so not sure what that means for the body fat percentage or if any of that is even true since I don’t have a copy of what I assume would have been the rules and fine print. It was also mentioned that the whole amount could be rolled over into a membership no matter what at the end but the memberships are over 1500 a year 😒 definitely a learning experience. Guess I will suck it up and work a little harder to get as close as I can and recoup as much as I can.

    If you have the time, it might be worth hassling them for the contract, and/or checking with the local BBB or any other business regulating agencies in your area. A lot of that could depend on the laws of the state, but the contract details could be key.

    I would strongly question what the contract states you get in return for the money. And if it's nothing other than a down payment (assuming you lost no weight) then that should be specific in the contract. Also check to see if they were required to give you a copy of the contract if in fact you both signed it.

    And IF you happened to charge the $500, it might be worth speaking to your credit card company about. If nothing else this might give you time to look further into it. Often local news stations investigate shaky business practices, and combined with the unsafe weight loss goal, they might prefer to refund your money vs deal with the potential bad publicity.
  • LaraAnnCan
    LaraAnnCan Posts: 6 Member
  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
    maybe point it out to them and ask for you $ back?
  • Smacfit_
    Smacfit_ Posts: 101 Member
    lhagan12 wrote: »
    Yeah it felt shady right away when they advertised it as “free” but then sit you down and hard sell it as give us money then you can earn it for free. I wasn’t given a copy of the paperwork but they said for every lb we didn’t lose they would only keep $10 but I’m not signed up for lbs so not sure what that means for the body fat percentage or if any of that is even true since I don’t have a copy of what I assume would have been the rules and fine print. It was also mentioned that the whole amount could be rolled over into a membership no matter what at the end but the memberships are over 1500 a year 😒 definitely a learning experience. Guess I will suck it up and work a little harder to get as close as I can and recoup as much as I can.

    Report this business. Shady and unethical.
  • LaraAnnCan
    LaraAnnCan Posts: 6 Member
    Azdak wrote: »

    Yes it’s the company but not the location. I’m in Wisconsin but ours isn’t advertising the challenge anymore that I could find.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    psuLemon wrote: »
    You might be able to beat the system by going keto a few days before your big weigh in. The resulting glycogen depletion/water weight loss might help you. And its not unusual to cut 5-7 lbs of weight very quickly by doing that.

    If it was a weight loss goal I would agree, but my understanding is that this would raise bf % for a bia scale.

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    Azdak wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    You might be able to beat the system by going keto a few days before your big weigh in. The resulting glycogen depletion/water weight loss might help you. And its not unusual to cut 5-7 lbs of weight very quickly by doing that.

    If it was a weight loss goal I would agree, but my understanding is that this would raise bf % for a bia scale.

    Maybe.. it would show lean body mass loss.
  • LaraAnnCan
    LaraAnnCan Posts: 6 Member
    While I am not morally against cheating the scale I’m pretty sure I can’t physically do that without vomiting 😂 I’m just gonna hope for the best and keep on with the diet and unlimited use of facilities for the rest of the challenge. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I may not get all or any of my money back. But it is a fun and effective program. Thank you all for your insight and advice.
  • HulkV2
    HulkV2 Posts: 32 Member
    Most places like that prey on people's insecurities. "You gotta put some skin in the game to motivate you", it's all bs they usually make the goals unrealistic and nearly unattainable. Depending on what you BF is 6% could be tough. I'm trying hard to lose 3% at this point.
  • pierinifitness
    pierinifitness Posts: 2,226 Member
    Here’s my two cents. You work their program 100 percent and achieve some respectable results that gives you momentum once your short membership period is over. You may not win the bet but gain something worth greater than your down payment investment. You also learn a valuable lesson about hastily signing on the dotted line.

    Guess what? You’ll be a winner.

    Something to think about.
  • Beckenzahler
    Beckenzahler Posts: 26 Member
    Is this type of offer common?
    Just a couple of days ago I watched a fitness video on youtube, where the guy was promoting his site,that had the same money-back offer, if losing 25lbs/6%bf as long as you followed his training plan (and probably meal plan, I forget).
  • Spadesheart
    Spadesheart Posts: 479 Member
    i mean, if they're gonna be shady, you can be somewhat shady back. When you do the final measure do it in the lightest clothes possible, hit the sauna for a bit before hand... laxatives or something if that's safe. That would probably amount to like 6 pounds.

    If you cut out carbs and and a lot of salt intake over the next couple weeks, you'd also likely shed a good deal of water weight as well.
  • ncl78
    ncl78 Posts: 1 Member
    I happened to sign up for the challenge in Boston as well. And I feel pretty stupid that although I knew it was impossible, I was bought into that diet. I guess I just wanted to believe that I can lose 25 lbs [or 6% of the body fat] in 6 weeks. My first InBody measure showed my body fat % 25.3.

    Their diet is pretty strict and typical to a bodybuilding diet, only less calorie intake. Macros are 50% lean protein, 30% carb, 20% fat which adds up to about 1300-1400 calories a day for my weight [180 lbs]. You have to attend 3 sessions of kickboxing, where I burned 500 exercise calories in each session. I also do additional workouts-3 more 60 min workout during the week that is either HIIT or water rowing.
    The question is, is it really possible to lose 6% body weight? They said their success rate was 87%. Lame?

  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    Not the first time we've seen someone fall for this scam here. Won't be the last.
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    LaraAnnCan wrote: »
    I shouldn’t have googled the place. The franchise even seems like they scam the location owners.

    https://www.ilovekickboxing.com/transformation/studio/668

    https://www.ilkbuniversity.com/p/ilkb-6-week-transformation-training

    So, tell them you'll go to the media with information about this scam if they don't refund your money, all of it.

    They are also legally obligated to give you a copy of any contract, signed by both parties.

    Stand up for yourself.

    Sadly, common sense seems to have died with the Baby Boomer generation.
  • flutatious1
    flutatious1 Posts: 120 Member
    edited September 2019
    I’m at the end of my 6 week challenge. My husband and I did it together to kickstart our lifestyle change. The workouts are mainly circuit training with kettlebells and kickboxing on Wednesday. He lost 23 lbs and and at week 4 for me I had lost 3.7% fat. If I make 5% I reach the goal. Drink lots of water and stick to the plan. We cut out all grain, dairy and alcohol. Good luck!
  • Justin_7272
    Justin_7272 Posts: 341 Member
    edited September 2019
    LyndaBSS wrote: »
    Sadly, common sense seems to have died with the Baby Boomer generation.

    My intellectual response to OP's post while also stating Lynda's post was rude was removed for being inappropriate.

    1) OP; apologies for trying to help, I should have posted separately so it remained.

    2) Attacking the "common sense" of a generation is derogatory of a group.