How to Host a Biggest Loser Competition at Work

Biggest Loser is such an inspiring show, and doing your own version of the Biggest Loser Competition at work can add to company morale, make work more fun, and most of all, help lots of people lose weight! Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels would be so proud. Here's how to conduct a competition.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Determine the length of time you would like to have the competition go on for. It may be fun to do it alongside a Biggest Loser season, which is 12 weeks long.

2. Send out an invitation email to join the Biggest Loser competition, and post an invite on the bulletin board or on the table in the common area or lunch break at work.

3. Create a table on a large posterboard with all competitors' names, and the date of the day of each week that you will be weighing people (for instance, if you weigh in on a Monday, put the dates of each Monday for the next X amount of weeks). I have found that it is best to weigh-in every other week in order to give people time to lose the weight.

4. If you wish, collect a $5 entrance fee to the competition, and use this money to award the winner, or to purchase something healthy for the office, such as a piece of equipment in an exercise room, or a magazine subscription to a health magazine.

5. Create a table like the one on the large posterboard on a regular sheet of paper, and put this on a clipboard.

6. Take photos of each contestant on the initial weigh-in, and post these photos around the posterboard for motivation and to see the results at the end of the competition.

7. On weigh-in day, keep the weigh-in as private as possible. You will be reporting percentage of weight lost on the posterboard so that people's actual weights are not shared (this may offend or embarrass some). Keep your clipboard locked up in a cupboard so that others do not peak.

8. Calculate the percentage of weight lost from the initial week of the competition by taking the current week's weight, subtracting it from the initial weight, and divide by the initial weight.

9. For the last weigh-in of the competition, reveal the percentage of weight loss and all at once to build suspense, such as over lunch. Then announce the winner!

Tips & Warnings

• Create an email list with all of the people in your competition so that you can periodically motivate them, remind them of the viewing of the actual Biggest Loser show on television, send along healthy recipes, etc.
• You can get creative during this competition just like the Biggest Loser producers do; during the last week of the competition, have everyone bring in a backpack. Put rocks in the bottom of the backpack for the amount of weight that they lost, and have them wear the backpack around for lunch, or carry it with them from meeting to meeting. This will really show them how much weight they have shed, and they should feel great about themselves!
• Schedule a walk as a group once a week during break, lunch, or before/after work
• Before beginning a work competition, don't forget to seek approval from your supervisors.

Resources

• http://www.biggestloser.com