The Biggest Loser Contest

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The Biggest Loser

(in the Neighborhood)
Contest

Here is where you'll find the latest information on our contest and how everyone is doing. We officially start the weigh ins on Sunday night, 1/2/2005. Each contestant is going to weigh in using their own scale and their spouses will verify their numbers for everyone. The first leg of the contest is supposed to run for 3 months, with the final official weigh in happening on Sunday, 4/3/2005. The second leg will run through the following quarter. The thinking there is that anyone can hop on practically any diet and lose weight. The key is keeping it off. That's why there is more than one phase to this contest.

Although there may always end up being a little friendly wagering between contestants, the most important thing to come out of this should be a bunch of healthier neighbors.

I'll be posting my own progress each week, but I don't know if I'll be able to get anyone else to agree to posting any stats on line. We'll see what happens.

Good luck to everyone!

	Starting Weight 1/2/05	Week 1 1/9/05	Week 2 1/16/05	Week 3 1/23/05	Week 4 1/30/05	Week 5 2/6/05	Week 6 2/13/05	Week 7 2/20/05	Week 13 4/3/05
Neighbor 1	300	287 (-13) 4.33%	284 (-3)(-16) 5.33%	282 (-2)(-18) 6.00%	280 (-2)(-20) 6.67%	279 (-1)(-21) 7.00%	278 (-1)(-22) 7.33%	277 (-1)(-23) 7.67%	270 (-7)(-30) 10%
Neighbor 2	218	206 (-12) 5.50%	203 (-3)(-15) 6.88%	201 (-2)(-17) 7.80%	200 (-1)(-18) 8.26%	197 (-3)(-21) 9.63%	193.5 (-3.5)(-24.5) 11.24%	192.5 (-1)(-25.5) 11.70%	183 (-9.5)(-35) 16.06%
Neighbor 3	241	230 (-11) 4.56%	225 (-5)(-16) 6.64%	222 (-3)(-19) 7.88%	217 (-5)(-24) 9.96%	217 (-0)(-24) 9.96%	211 (-6)(-30) 12.45%	208 (-3)(-33) 13.69%	220 (+12)(-21) 8.71%
Neighbor 4	196	190 (-6) 3.06%		190 (-0)(-6) 3.06%
Internet 1	188	186 (-2) 1.06%	178 (-8)(-10) 5.32%	178 (-0)(-10) 5.32%	177 (-1)(-11) 5.85%	176 (-1)(-12) 6.38%	176 (-0)(-12) 6.38%	174 (-2)(-14) 7.45%
Internet 2	175	175		172 (-3)(-3) 1.71%
Internet 3	237	237	235 (-2)(-2) 0.84%	239 (+4)(+2) +0.84%		235 (-4)(-2) 0.84%	234.5 (-.5)(-2.5) 1.05%

UPDATE - 4/6/2005
GAME OVER! We have a winner. Neighbor 2 lost a total of 35 pounds, or 16.06%. Not an easy thing to do. Between the 3 of the neighbors that finished the contest, we lost a combined 86 pounds. That's a bunch of weight. Almost 9 gallons of milk. Or the combined weight of my 5 and 9 years olds. All in 3 months. Great job everyone.

UPDATE - 2/13/2005
Stunned. That's the only word I can think of. Neighbor 3 recovered strong from his 0 loss week to 6 pounds this week. 6 pounds in 1 week, 6 weeks in to the contest. I think we need to check his medical records. He must have snuck out with Carnie Wilson and got one of those gastric bypass operations. 30 pounds in 6 weeks. That's 3 full gallons of milk. I bet he feels great. Excellent job. Neighbor 2, in a bid to prove I have no idea what I'm talking about, has lost 7 pounds in the last 2 weeks. That is an amazing feat when you consider how close he is getting to his goal weight. For me, it was yet another 1 pound week. Disappointing. Thought I was on a pretty good schedule until I started recording the neighbor's weights. Looks like I need to step things up a lot. The Wife is still hell bent on getting a recumbent bike and putting it in the family room. I just don't get how a stationary, recumbent bike is any real form of exercise. Time for more research on the subject. If I'm wrong, I'll post it here.

Drink your water. Lots of it. Drink it until it is the same color coming out that it was going in. Your body will thank you.

UPDATE - 2/8/2005
Neighbor 2, doing his best to prove my plateau theory wrong, loses 3 this week after only losing 1 pound last week. Still not enough to take back first place from Neighbor 3, who only lost...hang on, this just in...checking. Double checking. Got it. OK, Neighbor 3 lost a whopping 0 pounds this week. Sweet. A couple weeks ago I said Neighbor 2 would hit a plateau in a week or so, and he only lost 1 the following week. That same week I said Neighbor 3 still had a week or 2 before his plateau, and this week he loses 0 pounds. Awesome. These guys are actually making it look like I know what the heck I am talking about! I just shovel the crap out on some tiny web site in my basement and the contestants walk right in to it. I may become an "authority" on this stuff at this rate.

Everyone is still doing pretty well 5 weeks in to the contest. Even Internet 3 decided to drop the bon bons and get back to work this week. Nice job. We're going to add a little mystery to the game coming up. We'll keep posting the stats up through week 9, which is 3/6/2005. That will be the last stat published until the final weigh in on 4/3/2005. This way we will have 1 full month where nobody has any idea how anyone else is doing.

3 of us have now lost more than 20 pounds. That's a lost of weight in 5 weeks. Hasn't really been that painful of a process. But that's 2 gallons of milk each one of us is no longer carrying around anymore. I think that's awesome. I still believe weight loss is a primarily mental game. If you can get your mind focused on what you need to do and what you should be avoiding, you are more than half way there. The rest is basic math; you need to burn more than you take in. Every pound is 3500 calories. That's an extra 500 calories a day, every day, that need burned just to lose that 1 pound. 3 of us have burned more than 70,000 extra calories over the last 5 weeks to get the 20+ pound loss. I think that is incredible. But, all calories are not created equally. Carbs have 4 calories per gram. Protein has 4 calories per gram. Fat has 9 calories per gram. You need to burn fat (more calories per gram) and feed the muscle (protein) so you don't lose it. For every pound of muscle you gain, it burns 50 calories per day - at rest! Just sleeping. This is why I think it takes more than just cardio to become fit. I believe cardio will help you lose overall weight, regardless of if it is muscle or fat. It is extremely important to increase your level of cardio fitness, but I never really considered how important weight or resistance training was until I started learning about the calories it burns while at rest. That's when the light bulb went off for me. That drove the process in to my brain, which has made me mentally prepared to change how I live forever. Now I just have to maintain the physical.

Talk to you next week.

UPDATE - 1/30/2005
Iraq may have voted for the first time in more than half a century, but that can't match the excitement that comes from keeping up with our Biggest Loser contest!

Neighbor 2 has finally hit the wall as I was hoping. Trouble is he knows he hit it and has a plan for breaking through it. Will it work? Only time will tell. Until then he'll have to deal with Neighbor 3 kicking it up another notch and just kicking everyone's butt this week. One month in and he still lost 5 pounds! How the heck can he still be losing like that? Getting the stomach flu probably helps a little, but he's working hard and earning every pound. Maybe I should head down to his house and drink from the same straw or use the same soup spoon. I could use a little stomach flu right about now.

I am losing like I always do - huge first week and then 1-3 every other week. Look at the numbers. Three of us have lost 18-24 pounds in 1 month. Four weeks. I think that is excellent. My wife, however, wants more. Apparently using the treadmill once a day and then dumbbells and the BowFlex throughout the week are not enough. She's wants to buy a recumbent bike. This way I can sit and pedal while watching TV as well. News flash. You will not see my @$$ on any bike in my Family Room. Ever. I'm doing plenty, thank you very much. 20 pounds (2 gallons of milk) in 1 month is exactly where I want to be. I don't need any more help. It is nice to do absolutely nothing once in a while, you know? I think maybe she has too much time on her hands to dream this stuff up. Maybe I'll update her resume for her and help her out, you know, like she is helping me out.

UPDATE - 1/26/2005
Everyone has turned in their numbers and they have all been posted. Sorry if that took me a little longer than usual, but I had to stop and figure out the percentage when someone actually gains weight! Internet 3, what the heck are you doing out there? It is a contest to lose weight, not see how much food you can stuff in your face on a Business trip! Enjoy the Bon Bons. I've marked your score in red since it was the best color I could find to demonstrate the shame that you should be feeling at this point. OK, enough screwing around. Get back on program! It's just 1 week. Don't give up.

We have a new leader this week with Neighbor 3 just barely passing by Neighbor 2. See, Neighbor 2 is getting closer to his goal weight so he is running out of steam. As predicted. It's a thing of beauty. Neighbor 3 has more life left in him and is the new person to beat. He's going to run out of gas soon as well, but it'll take him a little longer. My plan is working.

Keep working at it everyone. Work through the plateaus when they happen. It will be worth it. Your kids want you around.

UPDATE - 1/23/2005
Down another 2 pounds for a total of 18 in 3 weeks. Not too bad. Energy levels are definitely going up and my own plan for eating is working out pretty well. I do need to be careful with how much fruit I am eating. There is a lot of sugar, which is exactly what I am trying to keep an eye on. Don't let any of the fad diets out there full you - calories count! I am sticking with my prediction about everyone's plateau coming up within 2 more weeks. The neighbors are getting closer and closer to their ultimate goal weights, which they'll probably hit way before the contest ends. Me, I could probably survive just on my own body fat well in to 2007. Everyone is still kicking butt!

UPDATE - 1/16/2005
Although I didn't lose another 13 pounds this week, I feel better now than I have the entire year. Whatever was killing my energy is pretty much gone now, and was able to get back to exercising around the middle of the week. The key will be to keep it up. I'll take 1-3 pound losses for the rest of the competition. No problem. I have increased the amount of water I am drinking and should have lost weight just based on how many times I have to run to the bathroom now! I am finally in "the zone" with this and the willpower has kicked in. I like when I get like this. It's pretty hard to get me to sway from this way of living now. I expect to make it hard for everyone else the rest of the way through this. My expectation is that I will continue a slow and stead loss while the others will be hitting a plateau within the next 2-3 weeks.

UPDATE - 1/10/2005
Neighbor 2 is in the lead. 5.50% weight loss in 1 week. Think about that for a minute. Neighbor 2 lost approximately 1/20th of his weight in a week! Think about this as well - 1 gallon of milk weighs 10lbs. For those that lost 10lbs or more this week, walk around with a gallon of milk for a while and realize how much weight you have lost. That is pretty significant.

UPDATE - 1/9/2005
The race is on! Numbers are still rolling in, but we have picked up a few Internet contestants that are in it for the competition aspect, but not the neighborhood wager aspect. I went down 13 pounds, which is more than I have ever dropped in a single week in my life. I am eating more often than I am actually used to, but you adapt quickly. I've been sick for most of the week with a cold, so I have not exercised as much as I intended to. I look forward to this cold going away so I can exercise more frequently.

UPDATE - 1/2/2005
Weights are starting to come in and I am entering them above. I am Neighbor 1. 300lbs?! 300 freakin' pounds! The last 2+ weeks of bulking up have been disgusting. I am thrilled this thing is finally under way. I don't think I could have gone another week of eating this recklessly. I started my grocery shopping today. So what's my plan? Simple. My plan is to reduce the amount of refined sugars that I eat. I picked up whole wheat breads and pastas. No more white flour. The word wheat by itself isn't too much better. I need to see whole wheat. Instead of 3 larger meals, I will be going with 5 or 6 smaller ones throughout the day. The goal here is to keep the metabolism fires burning all day. More protein, tuna, acceptable fats (olive oils, etc), nuts, vegetables. Exercise. Treadmill in the mornings, weights at night (3 or 4 nights per week). Everyone easily has the potential to lose more than 10% during the first phase of the contest. This should be fun. Looking forward to tomorrow.

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