On Competition

I'll tell you the truth. I have won some money the past two years doing weight loss contests. In 2005, a friend asked me if I wanted to participate in neighborhood contest. The entry fee was $100, Winner Take All. The prize would be about $1000. Because the contest included both men and women, the winner would be decided on the percentage of weight lost. I weighed in at 233 lbs at the time. We were given 8 weeks to lose the weight. I watched my competition closely. No one appeared to be losing a significant amount of weight. I figured that 10% would be enough to win. I didn't diet at all for the first six weeks. I went to the gym about 3x/week and did about 60 minutes of cardio PER WEEK.

At the six-week mark, I cut out all simple carbs and junk food. I began doing double sessions of cardio, which consisted primarily of alternating treadmill sprints with uphill treadmill walking. Going into the last week I weighed around 223 lbs. I heard through the grapevine that only one other person had lost significant weight. It was one of the girls who had started at like 130. I realized that if she lost 13 lbs., I would have to lose 24 lbs to win. I decided to win.

I ate nothing but peanuts the last week and drank water constantly. I continued doing double cardio sessions. On weigh-in day, I weighed 212. About 3-4 lbs. over where I felt I needed to be to win. Let me make this clear: I've never wrestled or participated in a sport where I had to cut weight. But I did watch 'Vision Quest' several times over the years. I sat in the sauna for about 40 minutes and sweated out the last 3 lbs. I weighed in at 209. A loss of 24 lbs. or about 10.2%.

My competition lost exactly 13 lbs for a 10% weight loss. I won by 0.2%.

I admired my 209 lb body for a few hours and then began to pack. I was leaving on a Cruise the following day. Yep, you guessed it. One week later, I was 20 lbs heavier.

And $1000 richer.