Tom Venuto sent me this article about a Weight Loss Contest for the Summer. Tom as you may know is the creator of Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle. For the last couple years in the late Spring he has been putting on a big weight loss contest for the summer.
Weight loss contests, especially the Biggest Loser, where obese people drop insane amounts of body weight – like 10, 15 or even 20 lbs in a week – have become extremely popular. Many people say they get incredibly inspired and motivated watching these huge weight losses take place right before their eyes.
Weight Loss Contest for the Summer
I agree that fitness contests are a powerful motivational catalyst. But I also believe that there are some fatal flaws in contests that encourage rapid “weight loss.” That’s why I finally decided to host my own body transformation contest – the “Burn The Fat Challenge”…
But Our Contest Was NOTHING Like The Biggest Loser…
Our fitness contest is different because it’s a “body composition transformation” contest – not just a “weight loss” contest.
If you’re not hip to what “body composition” means, then the results of our first contest are going to blow your mind: Josh, the men’s champ, and Ryan one of the top finalists, both only lost one pound.
You might be thinking, “what kind of weird body transformation contest were you running where the winner and the finalists only drop a pound?”
Well, it might seem weird if you thought success at body transformation ONLY meant dropping large amounts of weight on the scale, but…
What About The Difference Between Fat Loss and Weight Loss?
What if you gain muscle while losing weight? Think about this – if you gain muscle in a weight loss contest, you get penalized, right? But shouldn’t you be REWARDED for gaining muscle as well as burning fat? Wouldn’t that be the ultimate prize?
That’s the fatal flaw of “weight loss” contests: Most people are obsessed with scale weight but don’t pay any attention to their body composition – the all-important fat-to-muscle ratio.
Of course, some of the contestants in our last Burn The Fat Challenge contest DID drop a lot of weight – 14, 19, even 26 lbs in only 7 weeks (49 days). In our upcoming 98 day challenge those amounts could be double that. But the person who drops the most pounds is not necessarily voted the winner in the Burn The Fat Challenge.
Weight Loss Contest for the Summer
Some contestants became winners because they made astonishing improvements in their muscle to fat ratio, even though they didn’t lose much weight.
For example, Josh lost LESS than a pound because the solid new muscle weight replaced the fat weight. He looks leaner AND more muscular, but the scale hardly changed at all!
How Gaining LEAN Muscle While Losing Fat Helps Women Get Fit, Sexy and Bikini-Ready…
The Burn the Fat System works for women too, and replacing fat with muscle is EXACTLY what most women need, but aren’t getting, because most women are worried about getting “bulky.”
Women who don’t train for more muscle are making a BIG mistake! What most women don’t realize is that if you strip off fat AT THE SAME TIME as you put on lean muscle, you don’t get bulky – you get strong and sexy!
The idea that women who gain muscle will look bulky or masculine is completely false (except for women who take anabolic steroid drugs, and I would NEVER recommend that!)
One of our female champs, Sarah, gained an astonishing 7 pounds of muscle during one of our previous Burn the Fat contests. Her body transformation puts to rest the idea that women get bulky from gaining muscle. They also reveal why the scale can play tricks on you…
Sarah actually GAINED a pound of bodyweight according to the scale, increasing from 119 to 120 pounds, BUT her body fat decreased from 19% to a ripped 12.6%.
These results are definitely not typical. Most people don’t lose 7 pounds of fat weight and replace it with 7 pounds of muscle weight in 7 weeks. More typical results might be 1-2 pounds per week of fat lost (7-14 pounds in 7 weeks) and, if you do everything right, 2 or 3 pounds of muscle gained at the same time.
However, these body composition transformations do show what is possible with hard work, a goal, support and accountability.
3 Things You Must Know To Make Body Transformations Like These
My fat burning programs have helped dozens of men and women lose over 100 pounds, and up to as much as 256 pounds. I’ve published their success stories on the Burn The Fat Website, in the burn the fat newsletter and in our famous success story interviews at the Burn The Fat Inner Circle.
Why then, did I share the success stories above, where there was virtually no “weight loss”, instead of 100+ pound massive weight loss stories – the kind so popular on TV shows today?
There are 3 major reasons:
1. I wanted you to see real-world proof that it IS possible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time…
2. I wanted you to realize the difference between weight loss and fat loss…
3. I wanted you to finally give up the notion that weight loss is the only goal that matters
You may have a lot of weight to lose (body fat), but weight loss is not all there is to a body transformation.
Some people are not seriously overweight, but they are seriously unhappy with their bodies.
Whichever is your situation – you want to drop 40, 70 or even 100+ pounds, or if you don’t need to lose a lot of weight but you want to firm-up, lean-out and re-shape how your body looks, here is the perfect chance for you to do it.
We hold two Burn the Fat Body transformation contests per year. Our winter contest (the holiday challenge is only 7 weeks (49 days) long and takes place over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New year’s Holidays.
We are running another transformation contest over the summer of 2011.
It’s NOT a weight loss contest – it’s a “BODY COMPOSITION TRANSFORMATION CONTEST.”
If you choose to enter and accept this challenge, you will take a “before” photograph of yourself no later than May 25th
You will also record your body weight AND your ULTRA-IMPORTANT body fat percentage. The body fat test will then tell you how much of your weight is fat and how much is muscle.
You may lose a lot of weight, or you may lose only a little. However, the winners of the Burn the Fat challenge will be chosen based on the following:
1. The improvement in your body as seen in your before photo compared to your after photo.
2. The improvement in your body composition (the fat-to-muscle ratio)
3. The essay you will write about your experience at the end of the 98 day contest.
For full contest details, including information about the grand prize trip to MAUI, check out this page of the burnthefat.com website:
http://www.fitnesstipsforlife.com/goto/summer-challenge
The contest entry deadline is May 30th – mark your calendars now!
Tom Venuto
Author, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle
P.S. Register before Wednesday, May 25th to get in the best shape of your life and a for a chance to win a trip for two to Maui, Hawaii:
http://www.fitnesstipsforlife.com/goto/summer-challenge