Hi,
We are getting ready to do a weight loss chanllege at work. My question is is it fair to have a challenge with a person weighing 115 up to a person weighing 250 in the same group?. Or should there be a weight range? The winner will be who ever looses the most percentage. Is it fair for both ends of the group?

Can you make the goal about something other than weight? It's incredibly hard for someone weighing 115 to lose at the same rate as someone weighing 250.

You can figure it on a percentage of weight loss. But still it makes it difficult for the 115 person.

Yea it's very different from one person to the next especialy with the different body types and such.

Maybe establishing some sort of a point system on how much one changes their lifestyle. Like walking to work is worth 5 points and cutting back on a daily soda habit can be 3 points.

the 115 lbs person may lose less lbs but what they do loose is a higher percentage than the 250 lbs person. the 250 lb person looses more lbs but less percentage of their body weight. In the challeges in the past the smallest person has won since they are loosing a higher percentage. Is this fair to the 250 lb person who looses more lbs?

You keep talking about "fair" ... and fair doesn't enter into it.
It is what it is. It's easier for a larger person to lose more weight faster, whether you calculate percentage or pounds or however, the more overweight person has the advantage if you're competing on weight lost.

Besides that, making contests focused on weight is unhealthy, IMO. It leads to people doing stupid things to lose pounds.

Measuring body fat, using a points system for healthy eating or exercise, or any combination of those would be a much more healthy and reasonable type of contest.

If you are focused on "fair"...yes, going by percentage of weight loss is technically fair. It is harder for smaller people to lose as many pounds, yet their percentage will be higher if they lose the same amount...but it's kinda a wash! The larger people can drop more pounds...it is what it is.

My real question...why would someone who weighs 115 even be in a weight loss challenge??????????????????????????? Unless they are very, very, very short, they should not even need to lose weight! I am 5"2" and currently weigh 114, and I think I look pretty good...even better, I am physically fit and healthy.

I agree with Kara that maybe the focus of the contest should be something other than pounds.

I suggest that you run a challenge based on the work done to deserve weight control with little to no points associated with the actual weight lost.

If points are allocated for weight lost - then a percentage can be adopted. In all honesty - if enough points are given for the work side of things - the actual weight lost becomes almost immaterial so the "unfairness" is minimised. In such cases the use of a percentage can simply add complexity to the scoring process.

If you need inspiration on how such a challenge could work - I suggest that you check the scoresheet thread of the summer shake up challenge which I ran on this forum over July and August.

http://weight-loss.fitness.com/club-...oresheets.html

I will warn you that such challenges involve a lot of work for the organiser compared to the monthly weight loss style challenge. They do tend to be a lot of fun for the participants and fairly motivating too. If the bonus topics are picked carefully they can be a valuable lesson in weight control for all participants.

I rarely run challenges these days - but will be running a points based challenge on another diet forum in a few weeks time.

I hope that you have sorted out how you are going to organise things for your challenge. I have been working hard on mine - but have finally got it finished and posted.

Attached Thumbnails