Fitness Competition?

Some people I know have decided to have a fitness competition. This perked my interest at first as I remembered doing JROTC in high school (it was mandatory where I went) and having to run a mile and a half for their PT test. Well, turns out that it's not quite like that.

The challenge isn't how many situps can you do, or how far you can run. Nope. It's how much weight you can lose in two months.

Now, this sounds good at first. A lot of people getting together and losing weight. Wonderful! It's nice to see people taking an interest in their health. Only, when you make it a competition for money, I'm willing to bet that there are going to be people who work themselves too hard or try the starvation approach. It's not healthy to lose weight too fast.

Another problem is that it excludes the skinnier people from participating. Maybe they'd like to bulk up or work on their endurance. Fitness is not just about weight!

Lastly, and least importantly, fairness is an issue. If you go by the percentage of body fat dropped, it's much easier for someone who is extremely heavy and never worked out to drop weight than someone who has been working out and is currently trying to work their way off a weight plateau.

All in all, I'm just not sure that this is the healthiest idea these people have ever had. It's not like those reality shows who have doctors and nutritionists at their beck and call. There are none of those to make sure the participants aren't hurting themselves.

That said, I think I'll abstain from this competition and hope no one develops a disorder.