Why Corporate Weight Loss Competitions Don't Work!

For all that do not know who I am and the type of articles I write I would like to provide you a brief synopsis. My name is Dr. Daniel Eichner and I am the owner of Forward Motion Chiropractic and Wellness and a chiropractor/athletic trainer for a Fortune 40 company. I use wellness in absolutely every aspect of my decision making and I have successfully created a wellness culture both in the patients I see and the company I work for. My articles are written in a blog form and made to be an easy read. In a basic sense, it is me throwing out my thoughts into an article to insight discussion.

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Have you been part of a weight loss competition at your work?

These are very common ways to create a competition and also focus on a common goal. But how often do you gain the weight back and the question is always "when is the next competition". The reason for this is both habit and environment. See wellness is not a quick fix and has to be sustained in order to be successful. Let me give you a few tips to making your next wellness event a success.

Educate

More times than not people just don't know how to get well. Creating an event of weight loss may be way to broad and may not be self sustaining. Think about how many ways there are to lose weight. You can take this shake, not eat these types of foods, take this supplement, go to this gym. Create your competitions with specific guidelines that can educate the participants on how to lose weight correctly.

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Develop long term solutions

What happens after the competition is done? Are you done losing weight? This happens with many, since it is much easier to get back to the same habits if there are not long term solutions to weight loss. Start looking at the type of environment for your workers. Is it a healthy environment? If you have a cafeteria, check to see if there are healthy options. Maybe allow the option to continue the weight loss trend by individual nutrition consultations.

Pick the timing correctly

Pick the most uncomfortable times to lose weight. If you pick a time right before the holidays, then the rest of the weight loss journey is a piece of cake (pun intended).

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Never ever have prizes

I could absolutely see you disagreeing on this and that is okay. Hear me out! Having prizes makes the journey all about the goal of a prize instead of the goal of losing weight. Competition can absolutely be created without a prize at the end just by having a leaderboard. If the goal is lose weight to be healthy then the reason has more substance.

Have a reason

Why are you losing weight? Is it because you want to be more active with your kids? Have your participants find a reason that is person. That personal reason will continue to provide them a reason to continue the wellness journey.

Comment AWAY!

-Dr. Daniel Eichner DC, LAT, ATC, NASM-CNC

www.forwardmotionchiropractic.com