Hey you! Yes, you! Do you dream of a trimmer, fitter you, one who is healthier, stronger, more confident, better looking and for whom every little thing is slightly easier? You can make that person replace you in the mirror and be your representative in everyday life! Live longer. Live better!
It will take some work - you will need to permanently change your lifestyle to match that of the fitter, trimmer you, lest the weight come right back. It will take some time, but if you stick with it and depending on where you started, you will get comments within weeks, will notice big changes yourself within months and completely transform your body within a year.
The average person can sustainably lose about 1kg / 2lb per week while remaining healthy and without losing too much muscle mass. If you're starting heavy and have more weight to lose, this can increase to around 1% of your body weight per week, though any faster than that and you may have issues with nutrition. With a year being 52 weeks long, some of you could potentially lose upwards of 50kg / 100lb. That is a life-changing amount of weight loss.
You just need to get started. Join Era's 12 week challenge and start the ball rolling.
The Rules
In order to officially participate in the challenge and be in the running for prizes, you must sign up prior to the kickoff date, which is Friday the 26th of April in your local time zone. Having no practical way of tracking where you are though, you will have until the last moment of Friday the 26th of April anywhere on Earth to sign up. As soon as the clock strikes midnight in American Samoa, that's it.
You sign up by posting your weight in this thread (no need for a picture) before the sign-up due date:
I plan to keep track of your progress via this spreadsheet.
As you go along, I'll ask you to check in at least once a week with an update. It doesn't have to be in any particular format, but please make your current weight clear (don't make me do decimal subtractions in my head) so I can use it to update the spreadsheet. I won't make this mandatory and you can do this as much or as little as you want, but it will go nicer if you are able to check in and participate in the conversation here every once in a while. If we can make a little community in this thread, this challenge will be easier for all of us.
I will also encourage you to take a photo of yourself as you are right now, with all your bumps and imperfections. This photo isn't for sharing (unless you want to) - it's for you to look back on when you've gotten through this challenge. It will serve as your starting point and, hopefully, your inspiration to keep going once you've shed some of the unwanted weight. This way, if you're ever feeling down, you can compare it with the trimmer version of you that appears in the mirror each morning, remind yourself of what you've accomplished and tell yourself "I've got this."
If you want to know what a year of relatively relaxed weight loss looks like, here's mine:
Back to the rules.
There are two categories to compete in:
• Most weight lost by percentage body weight
• Most weight lost in absolute terms
The winner of the last challenge in either category is ineligible to be named this time around, and past winners going forward will be ineligible for first place honours, though I will give them kudos. Congratulations to our weight loss champions!:
Challenge 7: Toytown Assassin & DrSlek
Challenge 6: Nezumi & Guerilla
Challenge 5: Baby Snakes & GMM
Challenge 4: digitalrelic & Rahvar
Challenge 3: Dahellisdat & Troublematic
Challenge 2: Dhruv_Hanom & Kor of Memory
Challenge 1: FRANKEINSTEIN & DanChop12
If the same person wins both categories, that person wins the prize for most weight loss by percentage. The prize for most weight lost in absolute terms will go to the second place entrant in that category and so on.
If there is a tie in either category, the prize will default to the person with the lower starting weight. This is because it is harder to lose weight the closer you get to ideal. It may be harder to get started, but the weight does come off faster if you have more to lose.
You have until 11:59pm UTC+12 (American Samoa Time) on Friday the 19th of July to post your final weigh-ins. Final weigh-ins will need to be made some time during the final week. I will advise to start making your entries in the days leading up to the end "official" so that if you can't make it to a computer or your phone on the last day you at least have a valid entry in before the deadline. I will take the last entry you post before the deadline as the official one.
One final thing - I reserve the right to disqualify you if I have reason to suspect that you are cheating or endangering your own health. This thread is about encouraging you to live better. If I feel you are not engaging with the spirit of the competition, or getting carried away, I will give you a warning, but only once. This is not something I will do lightly. Take care of yourselves and watch out for one another, please.
The Prize
Pats on the back and eternal glory on our growing wall of fame!
The real winner in this challenge though, is the person who, through this challenge, takes control of their health, sticks with it and changes their life. That's you, I hope.
It will take some work - you will need to permanently change your lifestyle to match that of the fitter, trimmer you, lest the weight come right back. It will take some time, but if you stick with it and depending on where you started, you will get comments within weeks, will notice big changes yourself within months and completely transform your body within a year.
The average person can sustainably lose about 1kg / 2lb per week while remaining healthy and without losing too much muscle mass. If you're starting heavy and have more weight to lose, this can increase to around 1% of your body weight per week, though any faster than that and you may have issues with nutrition. With a year being 52 weeks long, some of you could potentially lose upwards of 50kg / 100lb. That is a life-changing amount of weight loss.
You just need to get started. Join Era's 12 week challenge and start the ball rolling.
The Rules
In order to officially participate in the challenge and be in the running for prizes, you must sign up prior to the kickoff date, which is Friday the 26th of April in your local time zone. Having no practical way of tracking where you are though, you will have until the last moment of Friday the 26th of April anywhere on Earth to sign up. As soon as the clock strikes midnight in American Samoa, that's it.
You sign up by posting your weight in this thread (no need for a picture) before the sign-up due date:
I plan to keep track of your progress via this spreadsheet.
As you go along, I'll ask you to check in at least once a week with an update. It doesn't have to be in any particular format, but please make your current weight clear (don't make me do decimal subtractions in my head) so I can use it to update the spreadsheet. I won't make this mandatory and you can do this as much or as little as you want, but it will go nicer if you are able to check in and participate in the conversation here every once in a while. If we can make a little community in this thread, this challenge will be easier for all of us.
I will also encourage you to take a photo of yourself as you are right now, with all your bumps and imperfections. This photo isn't for sharing (unless you want to) - it's for you to look back on when you've gotten through this challenge. It will serve as your starting point and, hopefully, your inspiration to keep going once you've shed some of the unwanted weight. This way, if you're ever feeling down, you can compare it with the trimmer version of you that appears in the mirror each morning, remind yourself of what you've accomplished and tell yourself "I've got this."
If you want to know what a year of relatively relaxed weight loss looks like, here's mine:
Back to the rules.
There are two categories to compete in:
• Most weight lost by percentage body weight
• Most weight lost in absolute terms
The winner of the last challenge in either category is ineligible to be named this time around, and past winners going forward will be ineligible for first place honours, though I will give them kudos. Congratulations to our weight loss champions!:
Challenge 7: Toytown Assassin & DrSlek
Challenge 6: Nezumi & Guerilla
Challenge 5: Baby Snakes & GMM
Challenge 4: digitalrelic & Rahvar
Challenge 3: Dahellisdat & Troublematic
Challenge 2: Dhruv_Hanom & Kor of Memory
Challenge 1: FRANKEINSTEIN & DanChop12
If the same person wins both categories, that person wins the prize for most weight loss by percentage. The prize for most weight lost in absolute terms will go to the second place entrant in that category and so on.
If there is a tie in either category, the prize will default to the person with the lower starting weight. This is because it is harder to lose weight the closer you get to ideal. It may be harder to get started, but the weight does come off faster if you have more to lose.
You have until 11:59pm UTC+12 (American Samoa Time) on Friday the 19th of July to post your final weigh-ins. Final weigh-ins will need to be made some time during the final week. I will advise to start making your entries in the days leading up to the end "official" so that if you can't make it to a computer or your phone on the last day you at least have a valid entry in before the deadline. I will take the last entry you post before the deadline as the official one.
One final thing - I reserve the right to disqualify you if I have reason to suspect that you are cheating or endangering your own health. This thread is about encouraging you to live better. If I feel you are not engaging with the spirit of the competition, or getting carried away, I will give you a warning, but only once. This is not something I will do lightly. Take care of yourselves and watch out for one another, please.
The Prize
Pats on the back and eternal glory on our growing wall of fame!
The real winner in this challenge though, is the person who, through this challenge, takes control of their health, sticks with it and changes their life. That's you, I hope.