Reviving something I did back in 2002, I invited a variety of friends to do a weight / body fat contest to try to get in shape. A few entered. Periodic Updates will appear here as the contest progresses. This contest goes from Dec 1 2003 to Mar 31 2004. Full rules and explainations of scoring are included below the score chart.
| Data as of:
31 Mar 2004 23:59:59 UTC |
Chart
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Contestant Scores
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Weight Contest
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Marilyn: 60.0
Mike: 57.9 Reb: 20.0 Sam: 4.3 Randall: DISQUALIFIED (36.6) Kelly: DISQUALIFIED (19.5) Brandy: DISQUALIFIED (4.6) |
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%BF Contest
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Reb: 20.0
Sam: 14.5 Brandy: DISQUALIFIED (-1.7) Randall: DISQUALIFIED (-13.5) |
Brandy, Kelly and Randall were disqualified from winning because they did not provide any readings subsequent to March 21st 00:00:00 UTC. Since they did start the contest however, they are still required to pay the winners as per the initial contest rules. Based on their last provided readings however, these disqualifications would not have affected the final outcome.
On the weight contest Marilyn took the lead in early January from Mike, and never again gave up the lead, although Randall came close in the middle of the contest before falling back, and Mike put up a final charge and came close at the very end. But Marilyn stayed ahead regardless. Marilyn won the contest with a score of 60 (meaning she made it 60% of the way to her goal). So according to the rules, each of the losers (Mike, Reb, Sam, Randall, Kelly and Brandy) should each send Marilyn $15. So Marilyn wins a total of $90
On the body fat contest, Sam took the early lead, but Reb pulled ahead in mid January and retained it until the last couple of weeks of the contest, where the lead passed back and forth between Sam and Rebecca several times. (Well, judging from interpolated curves between actual data points.) Sam took a plunge in the wrong direction two days before the end of the contest however, and Rebecca ended up taking the win. Rebecca won with a score of 20 (meaning she made it 20% of the way to her goal). So according to the rules, each of the losers (Sam, Brandy and Randall) should each send Rebecca $5. So Rebecca wins a total of $15.
The winners are responsible for collecting their winnings.
And that is that.
There will be two contests, one for weight, and one for percent body fat. People can participate in either of the two contests, or both. (To participate in the percent body fat contest, a body fat scale such as those found on http://www.tanita.com/BodyFatOverview.shtml is needed.)
The time period of both contests will be four months. They will begin at December 1st 2003 00:00:00 GMT and end at March 31st 2004 at 23:59:59 GMT. To be eligible to play, anybody interested must submit their first reading (and "targets") by December 11th 2003 23:59:59 GMT. To be eligible to win the person must submit a "final reading" between March 21st at 00:00:00 GMT and the end of the contest. The "prize" for each of the two contests will be each of the non-winners sending the person with the highest score their score divided by 4 in dollars (a maximum of $25). Note: The winner will be responsible for contacting the non-winners and collecting the prize.
For each contest, the player must send to me along with their first reading a "target". The score for the contest will be based on how close the player is to the target with their "final reading" in March. The goal is to be as close to the target at the end of the contest as possible, NOT to overshoot. So choosing a target well will be very important.
The actual score will be the percentage progress the player has made from their first reading in December toward their target, decreasing again at the same rate if the target is overshot. So, for example. If I start with a weight of 180 and have a goal of a weight of 170, then if my weight is 180 my score is 0, if my weight is 175 my score is 50, if my weight is 170 my score is 100, if my weight is 168 then my score is 80 and if my weight is 183 then my score is -30. The maximum score is 100 if the player submits a reading exactly equal to their target.
Just as a mathematical necessity for this scoring mechanism, the players target can not be the same as their initial reading. (The goal can not be to maintain exactly where one starts.... however the scoring mechanism allows players to have targets either above or below where they begin, depending on where they are compared to where they want to be.)
The same scoring mechanism will be in effect for both weight and percent body fat contests.
As a target setting tip... if one is purely playing for health and fitness and the player wants to measure that, then the targets should be set at the true "ideal levels" for the person... the level at which they are "perfect" and either gaining or losing would in fact be bad, and the healthy thing to do would be just to maintain. However, if that target is not realistic in a four month time period, then the strategy for choosing a target to WIN would be to set a target just past the best one things one could possibly do in an ideal situation, so that one gets as close as possible, but is never confronted with actually meeting the target and overshooting.
Players should submit readings to me at least once every 10 days to keep track of intermediate progress. The raw readings can be provided and I will do the calculations, or if someone is sensitive about sharing the actual readings I will provide the formulas needed and they can submit to me their actual scores only. Readings will be official only when emailed to me and will be noted as being the reading as of the timestamp of the email.