Weight Loss Challenge Success

[Kalness05]

I'd just like to share a story with everyone...

About two months ago, I started a weight loss challenge at work. Everyone was talking about how they wanted to lose weight and the summer was a coming, so I thought it would be great to start a challenge to motivate people and myself. What I came up with was an 8 week challenge from May to July and whoever lost the greatest percentage won the prize. It was $10 to participate and the winner won the money. We had 22 people sign up, so the prize grew to $220!
????: South Beach Diet Forums http://www.southbeachdietbulletinboard.com/south-beach-diet-forums/1933-weight-loss-challenge-success.html

The first few weeks everyone was gung-ho about it, then of course people started tapering off and only the strong survived! lol We ended up with 12 people who weighed in weekly and weighed in on the final day. After I calculated everyone's losses the winner was this guy who lost 21 pounds and 13.6%...in 8 weeks!!! We had many other successes, with the greatest pound loss of 23 pounds and the highest percentage of 13.6. There were several people who's percentages were 8 or more, which is a great accomplishment in general, but especially in 8 weeks. All 12 people that participated lost at least 7 pounds in the 8 weeks.

I totalled up the overall pounds lost from the 12 participants that made it to the end, and together we lost 173.4 pounds!!! That's a whole person! Everyone was really happy with the success of the challenge and thanked me for creating it. I was glad I could help everyone out and even though I didn't lose as much as I wanted to, knowing I helped others reach their goals feels great.

[RedRox]

WTG!!! Congrats to all who participated!! How are the remaining 12 doing now? Maybe you could keep a challenge alumni group together for a monthly check-in or something to keep you motivated for either maintenance or continued progress and discuss the challenges you all face as you continue onward.

[Kalness05]

We actually are going to continue with a maintenance plan. There are a few people who still want to lose and others that need a check up every week on the scale. There are a few other South Beachers, and we talk about our diet and new recipes quite often, it's really great to have support at work to keep you going.

[RedRox]

Yep!! In some ways, maintenance is a lot harder than losing the weight to begin with, mostly because all the fun stuff like seeing the scale go down, moving to smaller sizes, getting compliments on your progress and so forth, for the most part go away. Yet you are still faced with pretty much eating like you have all along to keep from gaining weight back. So anything you can do to keep that focus and encouragement going from any source is a big plus! Hope you can keep it going!!