Mountain Hearts to Hold 'Biggest Loser' Competition

By Joel Frady

The Mountain Hearts Center for Prevention and Wellness and Ashe Memorial Hospital will be holding an open competition to find out who will be the biggest "losers" in Ashe County. The contest, based on the popular television show The Biggest Loser, will feature both individuals and teams trying to lose the highest percentage in weight over a three-month span.

This will be the third time that Mountain Hearts has held the program, according to exercise physiologist Amanda Skerbinc. She said that the contest was held twice in 2008, but will be held only once annually start-ing this year.

Skerbinc said that the idea for the contest was proposed by individuals who "wanted to lose weight and find that extra motivation to get going." Mountain Hearts then designed the program and the race was on.

"It started out as a complete team competition," she continued, "so that way you have team members that are relying on you." The contest has since been changed to allow people to compete either in a team or on an individual basis.

The program attracted approximately 150 people the first time it was held, with the group losing a total of 1,500 lbs.; approximately 135 people competed the second time, losing a total of around 1,000 lbs. Skerbinc said that around 60 percent of the first group competed in the second competition, and the weight loss was down because "losing weight is harder the second go-round. The ones that did really well the first time didn't do as well the second time."

The entry fee for the contest is $15 per person, whether the contestant is competing in a team of four or on their own. Skerbinc noted that Mountain Hearts is just the organizer, however, and that contestants must do the rest on their own.

"They're kind of on their own to exercise and pick their own diet plan," she said. "Really, all we do is a weekly weigh-in. So they come in once a week, on Thursdays, to weigh in, and we track their percentage of weight loss … and just post that." She later added that the weekly weigh-in is held at Mountain Hearts to keep things fair.

"We give them somewhere to come weigh in and be responsible, with the same scale," she said. "That way, we're using the same scale to track everybody the whole time."

Skerbinc is hoping to have a similar turnout to the first two 'Biggest Loser' contests, noting that the contest was a hit in 2008.

"They've loved it," she said. "They thought it was great, and it really got them motivated to lose the weight. They've been happy with it and are always asking when the next one's going to start."

The first weigh-in for the 2009 contest will be held on Thursday, March 5. The cash prizes offered will de-pend on how many contestants register. Skerbinc said that they will probably be awarding the top two "los-ers" in both the team and individual races.

To find out more about the contest, call the Mountain Hearts Center at (336) 846-0744 or visit their offices at 200 Hospital Avenue in Jefferson behind Ashe Memorial Hospital.