Implementing a Company "weight loss challenge" Any suggestions?!


Question: Hi everyone! We have a relatively small office (8 people) and we all can stand to lose some weight. Everyone is willing to participate. On top of the benefits of healthy living, we are also thinking about offering incentives. Does anyone have any suggestions to make it fun and effective? I am in charge of planning this whole thing so all the help would be greatly appreciated!


Answers: Hi everyone! We have a relatively small office (8 people) and we all can stand to lose some weight. Everyone is willing to participate. On top of the benefits of healthy living, we are also thinking about offering incentives. Does anyone have any suggestions to make it fun and effective? I am in charge of planning this whole thing so all the help would be greatly appreciated!

You could have monthly weigh-ins, and the person who loses the largest percentage of body fat gets an extra vacation day. (You could also do this quarterly). In addition, you could offer gift cards to grocery/health stores (they may be willing to offer a discount), gift certificates/reimbursement for gym memberships, etc. This would be an excellent question to ask the other employees - "What will motivate you to stick to a healthy eating plan and incorporate more exercise into your life?"

Don't implement the scale in the program at all. People use the scale too much to determine loss. Why not do a corporate experiment that involves healthy eating, a physical check-up, physical activity. People can have a choice of becoming moderately active or extremely physical active. Use the measuring tape to determine weightloss not the scale. Encourage a variety of diets, not just one or two.Whoever loses the most inches, not pounds is the winner. Or whoever improves their overall health the most.

First place should be a trip to a spa, second place should be a health book of the achiever's choice, third place should be a
gift card to a health food store. THEN, you should start a new challenge once the initial challenge is over.

Well hello Mrs. To-Be Evans.
That is really neat that your company is going to do that. I like the first person's suggestion of having weigh-ins every now and then. Another idea is that instead of basing it on how much weight was lost, base it on the percentage of weight. During lunch breaks you could have races up the stairs and that could be a mini competition in the big competition. The person who lost the least percent in each month could have to make a big healthy dinner for everyone else. My first idea for the winner to recieve is a treadmill. But, that is rather expensive. So, maybe gift certificate to a spa place, or a local gym.
Good luck!

I've got an idea... I did this as a fundraiser, but maybe you could do it as incentive...

My fundraiser was that I gave out $5 to each employee (total of 300 employees) and told them to use the $5 to fundraise more money. All funds raised went towards Habitat for Humanity. Some people pulled their money together and sold smoothies with their funds, some challenged their friends and neighbors, some just gave the money back... In total though, they earned just over $35,000!

So... my thought is something to the same effect. You give them $10 to combine into an activity that might be weight loss related or they do it separately. They themselves might get creative on you.

Maybe you divide them up into teams and make a challenge?

I work for a library and we do a weight loss challenge every January. People sign up and we give them a water bottle for sign up and then for coming to each of our programs they get to sign up for extra prizes. Prizes include a private yoga session, gift certificates to buy the new wardrobe, books, workout DVDs, gym memberships, weight watcher certificates, etc.





The consumer health information on answer-health.com is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.
The answer content post by the user, if contains the copyright content please contact us, we will immediately remove it.
Copyright © 2007-2011 answer-health.com -   Terms of Use -   Contact us

Health Categories