Biggest Loser Competition at Work

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Hey Leigh,
I've participated in one twice at work; both times it turned out to be who gained the least competition! Each person put up $50 or so (can't remember exactly, now) and we did it on total pounds lost for the 6 month period. No teams, just individual so there wasn't any group accountability. Percentage would have been better too. We weighed in weekly and posted the weigh on our bullentin board in the breakroom, so it was great humor for the rest of the staff. Today if I did it I would take it more seriously (not like, obsessively or anything) to try to win by weight loss.
Good luck.

We are about to start the Biggest loser at my work. We each pay $20 to join. The money goes into the pot and the biggest female and male loser will split the money in the end. The weight loss is based on percentages so that everyone has an equal chance. Everyone is very excited and motivated to get going!

i would love to do this! I also want to start a boot camp in my area! i am so ready!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ilove challenges like this because they keep me motivated but in our small little hick area there isnt much to do!

We are having one at work right now. Each participant paid $10 to enter. Weigh-in is weekly and weights are recorded. Ours is based on percentage. We are running this for 16 weeks. Our boss is even involved and has agreed to match the pot...Employees are excited -- and man we have some competitive people!!!

Hey i like the idea of you starting up this competition at work

I have never done it but ill just give my thoughts...

Decide an amount everyone is comfortable to put into this, this will also make sure people are serious about competing as money is at stake so im thinking like £50 - nice round number

I dont think their should be teams as maybe it might get complicated you know based on who is the heavier team - who is helping the team pull out the biggest losses (e.g if you weigh more) could get tricky. If there were an even amount of men and women then it could be the boys competing with eachother and the girls with eachother?

Some people might not want people to know their weights so maybe one of you can have a book where weekly you put in your weight loss in pounds/kilos whichever and also you would have to post if you put on and there can be a column to show total loss. If there are two teams then two books!

I would say to run it for 3 months

Also i would say if enough people do it the money would be an incentive alone!

Hi there!

I've participated at work in the past as well. That's awesome you have a wellness committee! One thing you may be able to do is ask your HR Manager to reach out to your health insurance carrier. Sometimes they have goodies/giveaways/or guidelines that they can share with you.

In my former company's plan, we had the office manager be the weigher-in-er and everyone's numbers were kept totally confidential. I wouldn't participate if my weight was on a bulletin board for all to see! Yikes, no thanks!

We did it based on % and everyone pitched in $50 to make the pot bigger and more enticing. We didn't divide up based on sex, but just had one winner-take-all. We weighed in weekly. I think our competition was 6 weeks-2 months? We would try to take turns sending out a group motivational email with recipes/diet tips/etc.

Our competition was held during the "busy season"/4th quarter at work so it kind of lost steam with the holidays and crazy work hours. I think it's good to do these when things are a little slower (if applicable) or right after New Years or before summer as that's when most are motivated to lose.

I think its great you are spearheading this! If it were me, I'd try to find a 5K run/walk during the program that you can get everyone together to participate in. Boost morale halfway through and good team-building!

Good luck!

My husband and I are in one righ tnow (4 of 12 weeks left) and I LOVE IT!
The way his comapny is doing it:
*you had to sign up in pairs and create a team name. The pairs are competing against eachother.

*weigh ins are each Monday and must be reported by noon.

*there are monetary prized for 1st-3rd (he works for a very large, wealthy corporation-you could also ask vendors/businesses to donate prizes)

*each week you report your % lost to the moderator through email, and you also keep an Excel chart for yourself.

*Teams earn points for each percentage of weight lost for the week--Im not sure how many, cant find the original e mail.. (Percentages are reported individually, but the TEAM earns the points together.)

*There is also a weekly challenge for each team--examples--Chart all calories consumed for one week (easy for us MFPers), share a recipe with the other teams (via e mail to the moderator who sent them along) with certain health guidelines that you choose, 15,000 steps/ day for a week (that one was tough but they sent us free pedometers!), take a group exercise class together with your partner, 30 minutes of exercise a day for a week, etc.) Teams got 10 points total for each challenge that both members completed.

*The moderator also sends out weekly emails with current standings, how the previous week went (the 15,000 step week he talked about how difficult the challenge was, but it was to open our minds to understand how little/much we are mobile during the day.)

The only issue I have with this system, and its not one that can really be "fixed" is that its on the honor system. Not that I automatically think that people are lying, but it would be really easy to say you did something you didnt. And with a company that is nationwide, theres no way to really monitor that.

Whatever you decide to do, I think its a fabulous idea!

I work at a medium sized hospital (about 3,000 associates) and we have a bi-annual 10,000 steps program. Since we have Cigna for our health insurance, we use their program: http://www.cornerstonefitness.com/cgi-bin/cigna/cart/ABCstore.cgi?user_action=detail&catalogno=106

Every associate who wants to particiapate is put into a team and given a pedometer. Then (using the honors system) you log your steps daily. The program runs for 6 weeks at a time and there were several employees that hit 1,000,000+ steps!