“The Biggest Loser” is Announced!

LifeScript's "Biggest Losers" for this round: From left, Jim (2nd place); Serbando (1st place); and Brian (3rd place)

They were slipping off belts, taking off wedding rings, and calculating the weight difference between wool-blend and poly-blend slacks …

The top three contenders in LifeScript’s first “The Biggest Loser” contest – Serbando Duran (Operations), Brian Hogan (Marketing), and Jim Stock (Finance) – weighed, then reweighed, then reweighed again. Brian took off his wedding ring. Jim recalculated numbers. Brian contemplated how heavy his buttons might be. But still, the winner emerged – Serbando. And second and third place were separated by a mere 0.3 lb.

The contest had been ongoing for three months, Jan. 5 to April 1. It started out as a simple conversation at the company Christmas party, when CFO Jim Stock wondered aloud if LifeScripters would be interested in participating in “The Biggest Loser” challenge. He didn’t have to wonder for long: LifeScript associates, as a whole, are outrageously competitive. Whether it’s basketball, poker, golf or Wii tennis – if someone’s playing, someone else is challenging. So it was a natural fit. The gauntlet was thrown.

Jim coordinated the event and set the rules:

• Participation was, of course, optional.
• First weigh-in was Jan. 5; final weigh-in was April 1.
• To track everyone’s progress, weigh-ins were also done Feb. 2 and March 2.
• All weigh-ins would be done on the same scale in the break room. Men would be weighed by a man; women would be weighed by a woman.
• Winners would be determined by most weight loss as a percentage of starting weight.
• Cash prizes would go out to first, second and third places.

So how did it play out?

Thirteen employees (out of our 46 on the west coast) participated. Eight completed the whole game.

At first weigh-in, after one month, Serbando was in first place (8.4% of body weight lost), Brian was in second (6.5%) and editor Emily Battaglia was in third (4.7%).

A month later, things switched around a little, with the men taking a clear lead: Serbando was still in first (26.4 lbs now lost); Brian still in second (18.2 lbs lost); but Jim moved to third with 22.2 lbs lost, which was 8.6% of his body weight. And a new success story was emerging with web designer Julio Alcantar, who had moved up in the rankings by losing 6.3% of his body weight.

Today’s final weigh-in, then, played out rather logically, with the winners being those who had been losing steadily all along. After all belts and wedding rings were removed, the final stats were:

• Serbando, first place, with a total 44.2 lbs lost (21.68% of his starting weight).
• Jim, second place, with a weight loss of 36.9 lbs (14.24% of his starting weight).
• Brian, third place, with a weight loss of 26.4 (14.16% of his starting weight).
• (Julio didn’t place but was thrilled with his 7.8% body-weight loss!)

So where were the ladies? For a website devoted to women’s health and wellness, the men sure were getting most of the coverage.

The top female winners were:

• Emily Battaglia, who lost 9.1% of her body weight.
• Laura Gaffney, who lost 4.9% of her body weight.

In total, LifeScript lost 158.9 lbs, or 9.5% of our starting weight.

Come back later for more details on the success stories – why they participated, biggest hurdles, and what their dinner was like before the contest and during the contest!