weight loss competition.

My gym does a weight loss competition where anyone who wants to throws in $10, weighs in, and then weighs again at the end of the month. The person who loses the highest percentage of their total weight gets all of the money which is usually $100 - $120. I thought this was pretty neat and motivating. My coworkers and I talked about this at work also. Just an idea for anyone looking to spice things up.

Has anyone else done this sort of thing and how well did it work?

I sure hope I win!

I wish I woulda done something like this. I probably would have whopped all kinds of butt! Too late for that now though. I only have a little bit left to lose.

It's not a competition, because it's about you as an individual. I would worry that "competing" would promote unhealthy behaviors.

I'd find it more acceptable if there was a limit to how much the winner could lose--like anything more than 1.5% of their weight, and they are disqualified that week. Also, really big people and new dieters have such an advantage. There should be a handicapping system for longevity. . .

Can you tell I'm not thrilled with the idea? :)

Original Post by rtsandlin:

My gym does a weight loss competition where anyone who wants to throws in $10, weighs in, and then weighs again at the end of the month. The person who loses the highest percentage of their total weight gets all of the money which is usually $100 - $120. I thought this was pretty neat and motivating. My coworkers and I talked about this at work also. Just an idea for anyone looking to spice things up.

 

Has anyone else done this sort of thing and how well did it work?

 

I sure hope I win!

They only weigh you once at the beginning and once at the end?  What if you were to retain a bunch of water the day before the weigh-in? Seems like they should be taking weigh-ins the last few days to get an average.  They did something like that at my workplace over the course of three months, and one guy basically starved himself for the money.  Good luck to you!

I view it more as motivation i guess. And I'm not talking about unhealthy weight loss. More like you are more motivated to say no to the things  you shouldn't eat when there's money on the line.  It is an individual thing, but a nice way of motivating I think.

My boyfriend and I are doing this right now.  Just the 2 of us... We pick a date or event, pick a prize, and then weigh in once a week. 

The final weigh in for this "round" is this Friday (7/18) for our friends' wedding.  Right now, I am winning by 5 pounds.  So, unless he loses something ridiculus or I retain a bunch of water, I shoud win $50, Dinner cooked for 1 week, and Dishes washed for 1 week (this is a BIG deal in our house b/c we live in a tiny apartment in Atlanta and don't have a dishwasher). 

Sometimes, we do it for long periods of time (like this one, which is why it's $50) and sometimes we do it for like a month.  We usually start when one of us is having motivation issues or we have a big event that we're trying to hit a goal for.  For those of you who are technical, I do have the advantage here b/c I have more weight to lose, but he loses weight faster as a guy (or so we've heard).  He won the very first one, but if I win this one, it will be my 2nd win in a row!  GO ME!

If we do it again, I think it will be for Labor Day.  Haven't discussed this one yet, though.

I think it is good. We have a group that weighs is every week and you pay $3. The money is then used to buy gift certificates for massages, salon visits, items from nice stores (like B&B Works) and at times it is just placed in a jar and you can when the money. At the end of 6 weeks the person who has lost the most wins. It is a wonderful motivation and mostly nice to have the support of others. We share recipes and advice. It is also good because we are not all on the same program. For example a lot of us are using CC and others are using weight watchers. If some one is not loosing weight on the program they are using (given a good time period) then they might want to try one that is working for antoher member. And none of us are trying to go days with no food to win. We have fun and that helps keep our mind off that we are on a diet and it is a blast!

Good Luck!

Where I was working a few years ago was doing this and my best friend and I almost joined but then didn't because it was weight based. There were some ladies in the office that were joining that were quite a bit bigger than us. So they did it and my friend and I dieted on our own. I used CC, and she used whatever method she used at the time (she is on CC now). At the end of the 3 months, the other ladies lost no more than 7 pounds and my friend and I KILLED them! I lost 25 pounds and I think she lost a few pounds more. We kick ourselves for not entering!

EDIT: they had a first, second and third place prize!