What is Scale Down Challenge?
Scale Down Challenge is an online platform that allows wellness coordinators and/or wellness committees to easily administer fun and effective “Biggest Loser”-style employee weight loss tournaments in their organization.
How does Scale Down Challenge deliver employee engagement and buy-in?
Scale Down Challenge delivers engagement because it is a desirable wellness program that uses financial incentives to motivate weight loss. We also get employee buy-in on a whole new level because your employees actually pay to use our product! Our proven weight loss tournaments feature an employee-funded prize pool that is used to motivate participants and reward the tournament winners.
Do weight loss tournaments really help people lose weight?
Yes! And Scale Down Challenge weight loss tournaments are particularly effective because in addition to competitive motivation, our tournaments use financial incentives to motivate weight loss, which have been shown in peer reviewed research studies to effectively motivate weight loss more than weight loss initiatives that did not offer financial incentives. In particular, the 2008 study “Financial Incentive–Based Approaches for Weight Loss” published by The Journal of the American Medical Association concludes that “the use of economic incentives produced significant weight loss.”
Are the weight loss results sustainable?
Just as smoking cessation is only effective when an individual keeps herself from smoking, it is up to each individual to sustain their weight loss. Unfortunately, this daily choice means that no weight loss program can claim to have 100% sustainable results. However, if a person doesn’t start by losing weight in the first place, then they have nothing to try to keep off! For this reason, Scale Down Challenge weight loss tournaments should not be viewed as a complete wellness solution, but rather as a starting point to help obese employees down the path of developing a healthy lifestyle.
Our tournaments deliver employee engagement for the duration of the tournament, and we encourage wellness coordinators to take advantage of this heightened motivation by supplementing the tournament format with general wellness education, and even activity-based goals, such as a pedometer challenge or 5k event. If employees implement specific behavioral adjustments for a 10-week period, we believe they are more likely to adopt some or all of these changes in their daily lives. Our ultimate goal is to help participants develop healthy lifestyle habits in addition to achieving a healthier weight!
Weight loss tournaments sound risky — how can I be sure the participants are safe?
Tournament participants’ health is of the utmost importance to us, which is why the Scale Down Challenge software has safeguards in place to help protect participants from becoming underweight and to ensure they are not losing weight too quickly.
We use BMI (Body Mass Index) calculations to prevent participants from dropping below a healthy weight. The normal BMI range is considered to be 18.5–25. If at anytime during the tournament a participant’s BMI falls below 18.5, their entry is suspended and they are disqualified from the tournament. Additionally, participants are not allowed to compete in a tournament if their initial BMI is lower than 21 at the first official weigh-in.
To prevent participants from losing weight too quickly, we measure how fast they are losing weight over time. if a participant loses an average of 3% or more of his or her body weight over the course of three weeks, the participant’s entry is suspended and he or she must provide written permission from their physician to continue in the tournament.
Additionally, while financial incentives motivate weight loss, we recognize that too large of a financial incentive may motivate a participant to act out of character and use unhealthy and/or extreme weight loss tactics. To prevent this from happening, the total top prize for a Scale Down Challenge weight loss tournament will never exceed $1250.
What can I do to help make sure participants are losing weight in a healthy way?
Tournament participants are motivated to succeed — there’s prize money on the line! This means they are very receptive to learning about nutrition, fitness and other wellness concepts that will help them succeed in the tournament. If participants haven’t received or haven’t paid attention to proper health education in the past, they may seek out their own solutions, or use their own ideas, which may not result in the healthiest choices. Because of this, we recommend that wellness coordinators deliver supplemental wellness education to participants while they are active in the tournament to help them develop a healthier lifestyle in addition to achieving a healthier weight. Additionally, the Scale Down Challenge software includes safety features to help detect if participants are losing weight too quickly or have become underweight (see “How can I be sure the participants are safe?” above).
Does Scale Down Challenge offer an educational component?
Scale Down Challenge provides a weekly newsletter that addresses some basic health and nutrition questions (for example, What is a calorie?, and Is there anything wrong with carbohydrates?). However, the real benefit of Scale Down Challenge is that our participants, who tend to be overweight and obese and may feel excluded by traditional wellness programs, are highly engaged in healthy initiatives for the duration of the tournament. We encourage wellness coordinators to leverage this employee motivation and supplement our tournaments with wellness education programs, activity initiatives, and other wellness programs.
What if participants are caught using unhealthy weight loss methods?
We actively discourage unhealthy weight loss methods, and they are against the rules of the tournament. Any participant found using unhealthy weight loss methods such as diet pills, laxatives or disordered eating, is automatically disqualified. Our software was designed to help detect when participants are losing weight in an unhealthy manner. See “How can I be sure the participants are safe?” above.
How much does Scale Down Challenge cost?
Scale Down Challenge has a unique pricing model that is very affordable to implement, yet has a huge impact on wellness programs. Scale Down Challenge tournament packages start as low as $300 per tournament. Individual tournament participants then pay a $25 registration fee, of which Scale Down Challenge receives $10, and the remaining entry fee funds the tournament prize pool.
Scale Down Challenge is “employee-funded” — how does that work?
One of the best ways to get employee buy-in is to have employees actually “buy in” to a wellness program, so we designed Scale Down Challenge to be primarily funded by tournament participants. Tournament fees for companies start as low as $300, and the rest of the tournament is funded by individual entry fees from your employees. Tournament participants pay a $25 registration fee, of which Scale Down Challenge receives $10, and the remaining entry fee funds the tournament prize pool.
Could this be considered gambling?
No. Scale Down Challenge is not a game of chance, and is therefore not gambling in any way. Our tournaments award participants who lose the largest percent of body weight. This requires participants to eat healthy, low calorie, nutritional diets, and increase their daily physical activity. Since no one can win the tournament by simply registering and making no lifestyle changes, our competitive tournament format ensures effective weight loss while eliminating the element of chance.
Are Scale Down Challenge winnings taxable for employees or my organization?
All prizes awarded to participants are considered taxable income and it is up to the individual recipient to report the award amount when filing his or her income tax. Scale Down Challenge does not provide participants with 1099 statements. We explicitly stipulate in the tournament rules that these winnings are not considered employee compensation and are not an employee benefit from their employer. Since the employer isn’t paying out the prizes, they have nothing to report.