Weight loss competitions are used in a variety of settings outside of television, such as the workplace and gym facilities. These competitive events can increase revenue and member retention. However, before you create a competition for your facility, I would like to challenge your thinking on how you design these programs.
Imagine being in a weight loss competition. If your goal wasn’t weight loss before, it is now. You are excited, you payed the extra fee to the gym and you are exercising more — at the end of the program, you gained 5 pounds. How do you feel?
I’ve seen the results of the members who participate in these competitions. I’ve seen a good amount of people have success, but I’ve seen even just as much have a lack of success. For every winner, there is a loser (and not in a good way, such as weight loss).
I recommend taking time to market research and speak to past participants of weight loss competitions — feedback is business. I asked one of those individuals, Kristy Farmer, from San Antonio, Texas, to talk about what she did. Kristy wrote: “I participated in a ‘Biggest Loser’ competition at my desk job. It lasted 10 weeks and I owed a dollar for every pound gained per week. I only joined because I was looking for motivation to lose 10 pounds.”
She added: “It’s really hard to lose that ‘extra five pounds!’ This fact, coupled with being a woman whose weight can fluctuate a few pounds week to week, I started to not care about the dollar here and dollar there. I still made it to the gym, but definitely didn’t push myself anymore. My advice would be if you’re not looking to lose significant weight, don’t do these kinds of competitions! Counting inches instead of pounds might be a better measure of success for someone like me.”
If you want to really keep your members energized after the program, I would like to suggest any of the following:
Offer a service to help those who didn’t succeed, or aren’t succeeding. Every time I’ve helped execute a weight loss competition, I got a client out of those who did not succeed. This is a huge financial opportunity for your facility as there are obviously going to be members who want to give up and would desire additional support. Offer something to give that support.
I asked Kristy if it’d benefit her to have a service that would help her get through her dreadful weight loss process. “Absolutely,” she replied. “Getting myself to the gym is easy for me, but I may have seen better results if somebody could push me to do more than just the elliptical.”
Find a way to involve teams.
See if your staff can brainstorm a way to get members to team up with each other. Studies have reported that teams in weight loss challenges can lose a significant amount more weight than those who do it individually.
Jamal Thruston is a certified personal trainer in Louisville, Ky., who specializes in weight management, behavioral change and health coaching. For questions, e-mail Jamal at jamalthruston@gmail.com or visit www.jamalthruston.com.
