Help/Advice for personal challenge PLEASE!

[Hilaryblu]

I need advice from the weight loss community....

So not too long ago I participated in a blog challenge (I'm a member of wordpress) and this is how it worked:
-You checked in every 10 days
-1 point for every hour of exercise
-1 point for every pound lost
-1 point for every blog you posted about the challenge

Person with the most points won a "health basket". It was really motivating but not necessarily fair because someone weighing 250 pounds could have an easier time losing more weight than someone who was 140. A lot of people asked me about it and wanted me to make one at my school and I really want to.

I was thinking making one weightloss/fitness group where:
2 points for every hour of exercise, 1 point for maintaining your weight, 0 points for gaining and 2 points for every 2% of your weight you lose??

Do you think this is fair? Is there any other ideas on how I could do this? I'm targeting people who want to lose weight, not as much of people who are already in their appropriate weight zone.

Thank you!!!

 

[ijustwannabefit]

You could make it just a fitness group and take weight out of the equation. In Canada the recommendation is for adults to get a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week with a minimum of 10 minute increments. You could give a point for each 10 minutes and a bonus point for getting more than 150 minutes.
It depends what you want to do with your challenge and if it is appropriate for your setting (school). If you want to increase participation in physical activity you would set it up differently than if you had a group of overweight adults who are trying to make a lifestyle change.

 

[Linds2]

Some friends and I did a weight loss point challenge. We did daily points for eating so many vegetables and fruits, how long we exercised, how much water we drank and bonus points for not eating a drinking any sweets. I was the only one to lose weight but I really stuck with it, the other girls not so much.

 

[Omega]

It is a whole lot easier to do half an hour of exercise (1 point) than to lose 1% of your weight (1 point).

I would rethink the points structure to nearer 5 points for every 1% of your weight lost if you are giving 1 point for 30 minutes of exercise...

Maintenance points are tricky... It really depends on the situation of the people involved. Are some in maintenance? Are people simply trying to get healthier? If it is simply to give a consolation prize for people trying to lose and didnt manage it - I wouldn't bother...

Removing points for weight loss can work well for people trying to get fitter - where points are for accomplishing tasks (eg exercise, hitting nutritional macro targets, eating in an announced calorie range).


People can announce up front whether they are in maintenance, losing or doing a controlled gain and points distributed across the different categories at the end of the challenge depending on the weight change across the whole challenge.
eg. give points as you go for exercise and nutrition and at the end of say - 6 weeks - giving say
- people losing get for instance 5 points for ever 1% lost over the time
- people in maintenance get for instance 30 points if they are within 2 pounds of their start weight, 25 pounds if they are within 3 pounds of the start weight. 15 points if they are within 5 pounds of their start weight and 5 points if they are within 6 pounds of their start weight (Weight Watchers expect goal members to maintain a 5 pound each way range of a goal weight, Slimming World expects target members to maintain a 3 pound range of their target weight).
- people on a controlled gain can have points allocated on an individual basis depending on circumstances and medical advice. This is mainly for people like pregnant women - so may be totally unnecessary for your college (but you never know)...