I proposed a light heart weight loss "challenge" to hubby, he and I starting Jan 1st. I told him about the idea to weigh in weekly, and the weekly "winner" gets a prize, like picking the movie for a stay in movie night, or whatever.

Wht hubby liked most about this idea was that there would be no push on my part for him to make any changes for weight loss...in other words, other than weighing in weekly, we are on our own. Personally I'd rather do it together but hubby perfers not to. This means I can count cals, workout, portion control, whatever, and hubby does not have to do any of those. He is free to "lose weight" without doing any of these. The only time he has to be accountable is for weekly weigh in...ummmm....

I'm hoping weekly weigh in helps though, because DH is the kind to never weigh himself, ever. Then he decides to lose weight, and one day eats 2 slices of pizza instead of 3, and expects the weight to just melt off...actually the scale is climbing for him. But I'm thinking maybe weighing in will let him see that he needs to cut back a little more to see the scale move...

I know weigh loss is a personal decision and it really needs to click with the person needing to lose weight...I'm hoping this will be the time he finally wants to lose and is willing to make changes to do so...

If my DH did this challenge with me, and his strategy was to cut out a slice of pizza here and there, he would win the challenge. Some men have amazing metabolisms. I completely revamped my way of eating, and only lost a pound a week. Oh well. At least I finally got to my goal!

We did this in our Neighborhood one year.. It has to have a beginning, a middle and an end (12 weeks is perfect).. Next, are you going to have it be for overall weight loss, or will you "reset" every week?.. Be very careful.. men DO have amazing metabolisms!..

May I suggest the Game On! diet book ~ The way they score is fair to everyone!

My dh has about 100lbs to lose...we were just going to reset every week, with a new little prize each week. Since we are going pound for pound, hubby can easily "win" each week if he tries. Cutting out one slice of pizza a week is not enough for him to lose unfortunately. He has issues with both unhealthy eating and portion control. Any healthy dinners I make he either skips and eats a pizza or covers in butter, cheese or something equally is calorific...Every morning is a fast food stop for light and sweet coffee, and 2 sandwiches...night time is fast food runs...one slice of pizza less just doesnt cut it. I'm hoping this will work though...there are other motivating factors that have come up so I'm really thinking he'll give it a go this time.

Thanks for the idea GlamourGirl! I think I am gonna try this with my husband too. What I suggested last night was whoever looses the most in a two week period gets to choose where we eat out that weekend. That way we will have a cheat meal once every two weeks... well he will, I will likely eat mostly OP wherever we go.

another idea I had was to put a small amount of money away and the winner gets the pot at the end to spend on something they want.

Inkrid- I'm gonna have to take a look at that book, thanks!

GlamourGirl,

This won't exactly fit into what you are planning. But I was in the almost exact same situation as your husband. Very similar eating patterns. If you want longterm health and success you might want to suggest this to him:

Try as much as possible to go cold turkey on fast food, junk food, bread, and pasta for 3 weeks. It is going to stink and not be fun. BUT it can reset his hunger and cravings. I tried little changes over and over and over and over when it came to eating and it didn't work. For exercise, yes little changes work.

I was a carb addict pure and simple. But what really helped me was this. I used to eat carb heavy lunch then be hungry and tired in 2 hours. And get a carb snack for energy. Then be super hungry and grumpy by the time I was home for work. Be famished again. It was awful, terrible. I was no longer willing to live like this. It just made for a not-fun existence frankly.

I did not do Atkins and cut out carbs completely by any means. I still had fruit and vegetables. I even had some corn chips at restaurants. But I cut the junk carbs out completely and stopped buying bread and pasta for the house, even whole wheat. Stopped buying potatoes also but have reintroduced them some over time. Much lower levels though.

Felt yucky at first, even kind of dizzy. BUT so worth it. A million times over.

I am now FREE. My hunger is under control. Three weeks of suck is worth it for a lifetime of awesome. Everyone is different. But let him know..3 weeks. Sooo short. 3 weeks and then freedom. Still urges occasionally but it truly is freedom, fantastic, wonderful.

I posted another thread, and someone had a great suggestion that the "loser" does a strip tease for the winner! (I need to go back and post and thank them) hubby loved that idea! Also we thought of the winner gets a 30 minute massage, or the winner gets to pick the movie for a in home movie night...I am still trying to think of ither ideas were no one really loses...Reverse rewards like loser gets XYZ chores wont work with hubby. He would just not do it, he is not totally commited as of now so the winner loser stuff has to still be kind of fun or he will bail...if I think of any other ideas I'll post them

I'm hoping he does try hard enough that I have to buckle down to compete with him. I know he's more laxed so I'm counting on his being a guy/faster metabolism to give him an advantage so the competion is fun!

I agree with you 100% but hubby is barely on board, if I suggested to cut out all his bad habits at once he'd probably backout of the whole challenge.

Understood. It worked for me because I was highly motivated. I had reached my breaking point as I said. I was no longer willing to live life the way I was living it.

If and when he gets there, try it. In the meantime I hope other things are successful.

Weight loss is easier when every person in the home is on board with it. I could've done it by myself, but having my husband running beside me on the next treadmill at the gym at 5AM every morning is very very motivating. I didn't have to prepare two seperate meals. That was the best part. And I agree, if we did the weekly weigh in before, I'd lose everytime. We're currently just maintaining the weight we're on and just working on toning and building strength. GOOD LUCK!