Weight Loss Challenge Results!

Dear Weight Loss Challenge Participants,

Thank you for participating in such a fun, healthy and inspiring endeavor!

Thanks especially to Adrian, Rion, and everybody at West Coast Boot Camp for organizing an AMAZING party. They worked tirelessly to put on a worthy celebration and wow...was it ever! I was truly touched by the care, commitment, and spirit that the organizers, participants and supporters all brought to the awards party.

Now for your results! If you haven’t already picked them up, you can get them at my office during drop-in hours, listed below. We know you worked hard these past 7 weeks and we hope you are pleased with your progress! Here is some information that may help you interpret your final results.

● Total number of participants who started the challenge: 120 (48 men and 72 women)

● Total number who finished the challenge: 61 (26 men and 35 women)

● The winners were those 5 men and 5 women who had the biggest improvement in their initial body composition, which could happen via fat loss, muscle gain or (ideally!) both. The equation determining the winner was: (starting body fat % - final body fat %)/starting body fat %.

● Best results: -10.1% body fat (men) and -2.9% body fat (women)

● Worst results: +3% body fat (men) and +2.5% body fat (women)

● What are GOOD results? Body composition is not a number that changes quickly! A 0.5% change in 6 weeks is good. A 1% change is great. A 2% change is marvelous. 10.1% (like our top winner) is almost unheard-of. Past challenges have been won with a change of 3-5%.

● How can you lose pounds but increase body fat percent?! This means that you lost more lean tissue or water than you lost fat. It is normal to lose about 50% fat and 50% lean when you lose weight. It would be nice if the body would only give up pure fat, but unfortunately most bodies also give up quite a bit of lean tissue also. This is one main reason that weight loss is difficult to maintain. It is also the reason we used body composition (instead of absolute pounds lost) as the gauge. Extreme weight loss practices (i.e., losing weight too fast, undereating, skipping meals) promote the loss of more lean tissue.

Some participants—despite healthy habits—had this disappointing result, which can also happen because of dehydration at weigh-out, illness, stress, sleep-deprivation, age (older people lose more lean), gender (women lose more lean than men), type of exercise (weight-lifting preserves lean tissue more than cardio), diet, and, of course, genetics. If you were unhappy with your results, please make an appointment with one of us so that we can advise you on a program that will get you the results you deserve!

No matter your results, we hope this challenge helped make the last six weeks healthy, motivating and fun! Keep up the good habits you have developed!
All my best,

Jill Brook, M.A.
Nutritionist & Owner

Drop-in hours:
6:30am – Noon M, W, F
3-5pm T, Th
1-3pm Sat