Although it may lack the glitz, glamour and $250,000 grand prize of its television namesake, the Geneva City School District’s Biggest Loser competition remains an effective weight-loss tool for staff and faculty a decade after its creation.

“It’s still going strong,” says Geneva City School District Wellness Committee Coordinator Christy VanCamp. “We just started our spring (Biggest Loser) program and we have close to 60 people. It’s great to see the interest among the staff.”  

While the Geneva School District’s Biggest Loser shares its name with the long-running NBC reality show and, like the program, groups contestants into teams with the goal of having participants drop weight, the similarities end there. Unlike the TV show, the Geneva participants have no access to a personal trainer for guidance, nor are there manipulated, drama-inducing situations that tempt contestants with high-caloric foods.

In a small way, VanCamp fills the role of personal trainer each week by emailing the participants a diet or exercise tip to follow during the six-week program.

“This week the email tip was to make sure you’re eating three meals a day because occasionally people forget to eat three meals a day or they will overeat,” she says. “A previous week the email challenged people to do 20 crunches each day, while another week it was 15 squat jumps. The goal is to get people to focus on daily challenges.”

While there are no personal trainers to keep watch over the participants, there is a monetary incentive to motivate them to follow a healthy lifestyle. Each contestant pays $20 to join the program, and cash prizes are awarded to the top three individuals and select teams.

Cindy Streber is a past winner of the Biggest Loser challenge and says it gave her the motivation to stay on track toward changing her lifestyle.

“The money can play a factor in getting people to step up their workouts,” VanCamp says. “If we have 15 teams of four, that’s $1,200 right there in play. That’s a good amount of money to distribute.”

The idea to bring the Biggest Loser to Geneva City came more than 10 years ago from school district nurses who believed it would be a fun way to promote healthy living. The nurses still play an active role in the program by overseeing the weekly weigh-ins, VanCamp says.

Cindy Streber, the Geneva City School District director of transportation, is a past winner of the competition, which is held in autumn and spring. Streber decided to participate after one of her mechanics died young from heart disease.

“That was an eye-opener and inspired me to join (Biggest Loser) and start living a healthier lifestyle,” Streber says.

She called the challenge a “life-changing experience.”

“Biggest Loser really got me on track to live healthier,” she says. “While you do need to go out and do the work yourself, it’s nice to be on a team and talk to others and encourage each other.

“The program really put everything together for me. It seemed like in the past if I was working out then I wasn’t eating healthy, or if I was eating healthy then I wasn’t working out. Biggest Loser has given me the motivation to put down that slice of pizza and, instead, grab a salad.”

Streber says she is now “obsessed with working out” and spends about 12 hours each week at the gym, with spin class and abdominal work being her favorite exercises. Although she continues to eat well and now may not be the ideal candidate for Biggest Loser, she had no reservations about signing up for this spring’s program.

“It motivates me,” Streber says. “Once you stop working out the weight seems to come back twice as fast as when you took it off.”

Geneva City School District Food and Nutrition Director Gerry Barker also found success — and a Fitbit — through Biggest Loser. Barker participated last year and lost seven pounds during the course of the program. He received a Fitbit for his efforts because he lost a greater percentage of weight than any of the dozen or so employees from the district’s Central Services and Transportation Department who participated.

“I had been in the process of losing weight before signing up and this really perpetuated what I was doing,” Barker says. “I had to make some lifestyle changes after doctors told me I had symptoms of pre-diabetes. I think it’s really a great program and a lot of fun.”

Barker has maintained a healthy lifestyle by walking approximately six miles each day. He also takes part in resistance training at Maximum Fitness in nearby Seneca Falls. He looks forward to participating in the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge 5k, to be held in July in downtown Rochester.

“Last year I walked [the 3.1-mile course] in 50 minutes, so I’d like to match that this year,” he says.

The Biggest Loser might be the most well-known healthy-living program offered by Geneva City School District, but it’s not the only one.

The district recently concluded its Pedometer Challenge, during which 120 of the portable electronic devices that track a person’s steps were distributed for free to faculty members. The employee who took the most steps during the week was rewarded with a small prize, while the person who had the most steps throughout the month-long program won a gift certificate. The district also offers faculty members the opportunity to participate in a free swing dance class for those looking to improve their aerobic fitness through different means.

The Biggest Loser, however, remains the most popular of the district’s healthy-living programs.

“I don’t foresee it going away anytime soon,” VanCamp says. “The staff really seems to enjoy it.”