Summer Survivor: Sign Up and Getting Acquainted Forum

Welcome to SUMMER SURVIVOR!!

This challenge is designed to help you lose weight and shed inches and fat! It will run from the first official day of summer, June 21, to the last official day of summer, September 21. That's three months of competition to see who really wants to get in shape, and how bad they want it. Assuming we have enough players, I'd like to have two teams: one that will focus primarily on losing weight, and one that will focus primarily on losing inches and body fat. I know what you're thinking: What's the difference??! Well, there are plenty of people here on Buddy Slim who have 100 or 200 lbs to go before they reach their goals. I would LOVE for you to join this challenge! The weight loss team will have winners each week based on who lost more pounds. Then, there are those of us who are merely 10-20 lbs away from our goal weights, but who still have lots of work to do before we can really say we are in GREAT shape. The body fat loss team will have winners each week based on the percentage of body fat lost. I really thought long and hard about this, since the MOST accurate way of measuring body fat is pretty unavailable (it involves being completely submerged in water) and the second most accurate way is a skinfold test using calipers, which most people do not have, and even if we did, the chances that we'd have a person available to measure us who knew what they were doing isn't too great, either. So I'll be using a rudimentary calculator that involves weight and waist measurements. It seems to be fairly accurate, though there is a definite margin of error. Even so, it'll be a fairly accurate way to judge who is making the most progress in the challenge. Maybe at the end of the challenge we'll be so proud of our bodies that we'll run out to the nearest gym to have a skinfold test done by a professional. And for anyone in between: maybe you have more than 10 or 20 lbs to lose, but not quite 100, and aren't sure where you fit in. Well, just think about what you'd like to accomplish this summer. Is it more important to you to lose weight, or would you rather focus on building muscle? Just pick a team where you think you'll have more support accomplishing your goals. If at any point you'd like to switch teams, that'll be fine, since the teams are technically competing within the teams, instead of against each other. Or pick the team you think you'd do the best against.

Anyway, each team will have a captain. For the first week, we'll take volunteers or let the teams vote. Each subsequent week, the weekly winner will be team captain. The captains duties involve motivating and providing extra support for your team that week, tallying up the team's challenge points for the week, and sharing tips for success.

Each competitor should be willing to commit to exercising most days of the week, and including both cardio and weights in your routines. There will be 1 group focus exercise per week, which will be like an exercise challenge, with the team doing the most of that particular exercise winning the challenge. There will also be a diet or healthy eating challenge each week, for example, give yourself 1 point for each serving of fruits or veggies you eat, with the winner being the team with the most points. The individual person with the most points will be that week's challenge MVP.

This is a pretty involved challenge, but there won't be any eliminations, so if you don't keep track of your points or don't exercise, you can get back on track the next week. The only bad thing about coming in last place on a given week is that unfortunately, you won't be eligible for the ultimate title of Summer Survivor. From the point of being on the bottom any given week, that player will be competing against other players who have been at the bottom for the title of Comeback Queen (or King, if we have any guy players ) That just means, yeah I was at the bottom at some point, but I came back to lose a significant amount of weight or body fat. In other words, down but not out.

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So... for anyone who would like to play, please sign up here! We'll be using this thread for the next several weeks to take new players and get to know each other a little. I'll need to know which team you'd prefer to play on, but there's no need to post weigh ins or inches or anything like that yet. Eventually, sometime before the actual challenge starts, we'll start talking about team captains, weigh in days, and things like that. Also, if you have any questions about things I haven't addressed, please feel free to post them! This is my first time starting a challenge, and I probably haven't thought all the details through, so if anyone has any questions or suggestions I'd love to hear them!

Looking forward to getting to know everyone and spending the summer together getting into better shape.