Weighing in for the challenge

The challenge has been set – photographer John Bisset and reporter Emma Bailey are taking part in the 12-week Community Weight Loss challenge, which means meeting once a week for classes on nutrition and lifestyle choices. The group of 40 will go head-to-head to see who can lose the most body fat.

By John Bisset

I should have noticed the warning signs. Sore back, lack of energy, difficulty reaching my shoes and winding myself tying the laces. There were external signs I should have noticed too. Spokes breaking on my paper-run bike, all my clothes had shrunk and my single-seater microlight had trouble getting me into the air.

It all happened so quickly really, one minute I was young active and slim, then 30 years later I ended up like this. I didn't think anyone else had noticed the extra pounds until the editor suggested I sign up for the Community Weight Loss Programme. As soon as I finished my pie I signed up and missed the first meeting. My belated first meeting was on Wednesday. Only two men there and I was one of them. The room was full of bare-footed women with tape measures and scales. I thought the 104.7kg wasn't as bad as the 106.5kg I was a month ago. Next was the measure up, neck 42.5cm, chest 114cm, waist 116cm and hips 110cm. I have to make sure these measurements don't increase before the next weigh-in.

This week I will be concentrating on drinking at least two litres of water and eating five times a day. Going to the March Hare Motorcycle rally this weekend – so two litres of fluid will be no problem, as long as I don't have to remove the alcohol!

By Emma Bailey

If you're biting, you're writing – thus began my introduction to a food diary.

Life has not been the same, instead of my Pacman modus operandi, I have to consciously recall what I am eating, and make sure I am still within the recommended daily allowance of 1200 calories ... maybe I could chew on the food diary.

The first meeting for the Weight Loss Challenge group kicked off two weeks ago. It was much better than my vision of a scene from Little Britain's Fat Fighters. Weighing in at 70kg, I am there to lose 5kg and the junk in my front trunk, a visual reminder of the ghost of too many red wines past, which incidentally are 125 calories a glass. Dang.

Week one: The importance of protein was extolled with the guideline of 80gms to 100gms a day. On an average day I eat half that. Protein not only helps you feel full but helps build lean muscle mass, which is important for a journalist – that pen and notebook isn't going to hold itself.

Week two we were taught the importance of water. Again, I'm only drinking half what I should. Six coffees a day, it seems, don't count.

Then the trauma. We weighed in and I was half a kilo heavier. I waddled out of class feeling quite dejected. Time for a sensible solution. I should swap places with the family's sponsor child in Malawi.

- © Fairfax NZ News