Some of you may remember that when I joined the forum in March I mentioned that not only was I trying to lose weight this year, I had convinced a large portion of my extended family to join me. We were sitting around last Christmas complaining about how overweight we all were. When I got home, I decided it was time to do something about it. I knew that if I was going to make a significant difference, I was going to have some companionship on this journey. I sent an email to 7 other family members (my wife, two brothers, one sister, my mom, one sister-in-law and one brother-in-law). I offered up a $25 gift certificate to whoever wanted to compete for it this year. In my amazement, everyone not only offered to join me, but also offered to put up their own $25 gift certificate. Everyone but my wife and my oldest brother was significantly overweight. My wife was actually pregnant with our third child at the time and knew she would need some motivation to lose the weight after the baby was born. My oldest brother actually had lost 30 pounds over the last two years, so he just joined us for moral support.

The contest is simple. We had until next Christmas to lose the highest percentage of individual weight. I remember thinking that if we all lose 5 pounds this year, then it will have been more successful than any of our previous attempts at weight loss. Well, we have done a little better than that. At just beyond the halfway point in the year, we have lost an average of 25 pounds each. That is an average of 10.35% per person. I am currently in second place (losing to my beautiful bride) with a weight loss of 17.78%. As a family, we have lost 200 pounds to date. I am hopeful that we can hit the 300 pound mark by Christmas.

One thing I have learned from those of us who have done well is that even though we have different activities that we enjoy doing for exercise, all of us that have lots of weight have done with sensible eating and lots of exercise.

Glad to hear that everyone is doing so well, keep up the good work!

Congrats on your success man. I have a similar story; I started this new year at 286 pounds, and today I weighed in at 235. I can attribute it to clean eating, bicycling, and the Power 90 workout. Wouldn't mind getting down to a svelte 200 someday.....fun to think about

Wow! That is a really cool idea and I'm VERY glad you and your family stepped up to the challenge!

Keep us informed!

I'm down to ~340 from 387 at the beginning of the year.

That is great! keep up the fight. You will be at 20% in no time!