Very good questions!

The week before the challenge starts I'm going to talk with the moderators to get the new teams stats thread made into stickies so they do not get lost. The biggest thing I want to stress is participation. So rule # 1 is please participate for the entire challenge if you start! All you have to do is update your weigh in each week and stay on top of it so the team leader's can be timely posting results.

If in the event that something comes up and you can't post, rule # 2 please let your team leader know! This can be done either by private message or a post on the forum. If notified, we can take some things into consideration. If you don't tell anyone, then we can not count you in on our weigh in. Rule # 3, Falling too far behind (usually a week or more) without notification can result in removal from a team. It sounds like a nasty rule, but remember there are other people counting on you.

The challenge will last for 12 weeks and starts on December 31st, 2006 when everyone will turn in their starting weights. I don't want to start taking weights right now because it's too far in advance. The earliest you can post your weight is December 31st, 2006, which is when I'll make the official post.All weigh ins for week one are due by January 7th, 2007 at 10:00 pm EST at the latest. Then you have an entire week to weight in. The absolute last day that you can weigh in is the Monday after the week you are weighing in for. Take for instance, you want to weigh in for week 2 which is 1/7/07 to 1/13/07. You have until 1/15/07 to weigh in. Results will be posted the following day.

Everyone will be split into teams. There's no particular pattern that I will be following. My main objective is to make the teams as close to even starting weight as I can. For those of us that are currently in TBL challenge, you may end up on the same color team as before, but this would be pure luck. It's all based on weight.

There will be winning teams and an overall Biggest Loser. Between the results posted weekly, one of the two teams will win weekly. Both teams will also have an overall comparison at the end of the challenge to see which team won. Each team will then take their highest losers and compare to crown the overall winner. I'm not sure about prizes.... I'm still considering it.

Hopefully this answers a lot of your questions. If you have anymore please feel free to PM me or post them below.

This sounds great! I especially like Rule 3. At some point, if alot of people drop (which of course they will, stuff happens) we may even need to reshuffle teams to keep everything balanced, which I also would be fine with. They do that on the real show, right?

Oh, and I nominate Rosario to be a team monitor - she has been great helping to tabulate the red team's results over the last few weeks. I can't volunteer myself bc of a major work project I have each winter/spring. My time will be tight and I don't want to commit and then be sparse around here.

Great job Chell!

I am looking forward to this

thanks for thinking of it and getting it started!!

Standing By!

Ipa

Wanted to bump this up so people posting in the other thread can find the frequently asked questions and rules for the next challenge.

If you have any other questions feel free to PM me or post them here.

I'm going to try and get the mod's to make all of the new challenge stuff a sticky so that way its easy to find instead of constantly searching through posts.

bump! hope to make this a stickie today so we wont have to move this up anymore!

thanks for the info. can't wait to get started

im so excited i feel like im gonna bust. however, last nite, did you hear bob say "dont put off til after the holidays what you can do right now."? well, i am doing it right now. that show gives me such inspiration!!!

Count me in! I have 20 lbs to goal weight--this will help me see it through!!

this is the FAQ.... you need to post in the Interested In Another Roud? thread

I've received tons of PMs and posts on how to weigh in. Here's a quick overview on how (and when to weigh in.)

There will be two posts created on December 29th. One will be titled "TBL NY/NY Blue Team Stats" and the other "TBL NY/NY Red Team Stats." You will post in the thread that corresponds to the team you are on. When you get into the thread, you'll see something that looks like this:

Week 1 (12/31/06 - 1/6/07) :
Week 2 (1/7/07 - 1/13/07) :
Week 3 (1/14/07 - 1/20/07) :
Week 4 (1/21/07 - 1/27/07) :
Week 5 (1/28/07 - 2/3/07) :
Week 6 (2/4/07 - 2/10/07) :
Week 7 (2/11/07 - 2/17/07) :
Week 8 (2/18/07 - 2/24/07) :
Week 9 (2/25/07 - 3/3/07) :
Week 10 (3/4/07 - 3/10/07) :
Week 11 (3/11/07 - 3/17/07) :
Week 12 (3/18/07 - 3/24/07) :

Now to some this looks familiar, to others it's plain jibberish.

Basically you copy/paste the chart into a reply post to the team's thread. You'll then enter your starting weight which is considered Week 1.

Once you enter a weight you can not change it. I'll be logging daily what everyone posts because it makes the final week weigh in quicker. So, to help prevent yourself from the temptation of changing the number, make sure you weigh in on a day that you feel you won't have so much fluctuation afterwards. Personally, I weigh in on a Thursday - Saturday. But it's different for every person. Some people have to weigh in on particular days especially if you are attending meetings. But you only weigh in once a week. Even if you lose or gain after entering your original number. The loss or gain will show on the next week.

My personal advice is not to make weighing yourself an every day routine. It's discouraging and that's not the idea of this challenge. Just weigh in once a week and you'll be ok. Just think about how excited you'll be if the number drops by a lot!

So now you have your starting weight and your Week 1 weight. Now what? How do you finish the rest? It's simple.

To reduce clutter and having to search through tons of pages, I ask that you edit your original post with your weigh ins. There's an edit key in the lower right hand corner of the post you made. Simply click it and type in your weight for the week then press submit. Voila! You have weighed in for another week!

It is very important to keep in mind that there are deadlines in this challenge. The Weeks run from Sunday to Saturday, but I allow the following Sunday and Monday for people to have time to weigh in if they haven't already. I log all the weigh ins all week long and I take the last one at 10 pm EST the Monday after the week you're weighing in for. Here's the list of the Mondays so you can mark the calander!

Week 1 (12/31/06 - 1/6/07) : January 8th
Week 2 (1/7/07 - 1/13/07) : January 15th
Week 3 (1/14/07 - 1/20/07) : January 22nd
Week 4 (1/21/07 - 1/27/07) : January 29th
Week 5 (1/28/07 - 2/3/07) : February 5th
Week 6 (2/4/07 - 2/10/07) : February 12th
Week 7 (2/11/07 - 2/17/07) : February 19th
Week 8 (2/18/07 - 2/24/07) : February 26th
Week 9 (2/25/07 - 3/3/07) : March 5th
Week 10 (3/4/07 - 3/10/07) : March 12th
Week 11 (3/11/07 - 3/17/07) : March 19th
Week 12 (3/18/07 - 3/24/07) : March 26th

Just like I've mentioned before, you don't make the deadlines, you can't be on the team. The rest of us are depending on you.... remember that.

Hope this helps! If you have any questions about weighing in please PM me.

I have a question. Are our starting weight and week 1 weight the same? Or, do we post our weight as of Dec. 30 (day before challenge starts) as our start weight? Sorry, I guess I am just a little confused.

Can't wait to start the challenge!

Hi Everyone
Happy to Be on your Team.
I am doing LAWL and have been on it for about 13 weeks. I have lost 35 lbs and now need some new energy to get back on the ball after the holidays. Look forward to doing this with all of you!!!!