The statewide weight loss contest Scale Back Alabama is returning for its sixth year.
Scale Back Alabama is a 10-week contest to encourage Alabamians to lose weight. Participants must be in teams of four, and each team will be weighed and the beginning and end of the contest.
Each team that retains all four members who each lose at least 10 pounds will qualify for one of three cash grand prizes. All participants who complete the contest will qualify for individual cash prizes.
There are four weigh in locations in Lee County: Ashley Furniture HomeStore in Opelika, the East Alabama Medical Center Diabetes and Nutrition Center, EAMC Health Plus and the Opelika Sportsplex and Aquatics Center. Registration and initial weigh-in dates are from Jan. 21-27.
"I think it is a great way to take a small step towards your goal," said Christa McGurkin, Ashley Furniture employee and contest participant. "Someone with a lot of weight to lose can use these 10 weeks to lose 10 pounds, and then build off of that for the next 10 weeks."
The Opelika Sportsplex has used the contest for advertising since the first in 2007, but will participate as a weigh-in site for the first time this year. Along with Ashley Furniture, the Sportsplex will also enter multiple teams into the contest.
"We believe that this is a great event to be involved in, and more so to participate in," said Tim Gore, Sportsplex director and contest participant. "We have also sent out formal invitations to other businesses around town encouraging then to participate with us."
Participants from the Sportsplex said the cash prize was not a major incentive for entering the contest.
"We are not motivated by the prize, whatever it may be," said Billy Jackson, membership director and contest participant. "We all could afford to lose 10 pounds and that is what motivates us."
The EAMC Diabetes and Nutrition Center helped design the contest in 2007 and has been involved as a weigh-in site since.
According to the center, the number of participants has been on a steady incline every year since the first Scale Back Alabama, with the exception of 2010.
"The competition peaked in 2009 with 800 participants at this location combined with Health Plus," said Kathe Briggs, director of health promotion and disease management.
To help promote the contest, Briggs and others at the Diabetes and Nutrition Center have started a program to keep the weight loss going well after the 10-week competition.
"We call the program Stay Scaling, where participants can return every 10 weeks to weigh in with the same goal of losing 10 pounds every week until they reach their ideal body weight," Briggs said.
Briggs said the overall individual improvement and weight loss success the contest provides is the main reason it endures.
"The program motivates people to improve themselves to a healthier weight, which yields more productivity that everyone benefits from," Briggs said. "It is so much fun to watch the contestants weigh in after 10 weeks and see how they have changed physically and mentally for the better."
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