It seems the weight loss industry has tapped into the reality television market and has gained many fans. The weight loss competition craze is bringing in great ratings and has proven to be exciting viewing by most critics. For most of us sweating and crying on TV is not our idea of the best weight loss plan. But what better motivation than a little friendly competition and a little cash prize to make us work harder toward our personal goals. Online surgical tech courses,

1) Decide on a start date and length of time that the contest should last. Four to six weeks is fine for a fun friendly challenge. One to two months is for a more dedicated group. Draw up clear rules that include the amount of dues for participation, no diet pills or temporary anorexia allowed. All members can follow any diet of their choice as long as it is healthy and safe method of losing weight. Designate one person to collect dues, for example $5.00-$10.00 a week, or a larger amount that is due just once when people sign up. This way if anyone withdraws from the competition their dues are still in the total to sweeten the pot.

2) Find a group of friends, family, church members or co-workers willing to participate in the challenge. Make it official by posting a flyer or sending an email invitation to participate. Make it sound like fun so that people will want to participate. This email or flyer should include a start date, end date and clear and concise rules of participation. In a work place it may be hard to get people to participate since weight can be a sensitive topic but keep at it and people will want to join when they see how much fun everyone is having and how much weight they are starting to lose.

3) Designate a private area and one person for weigh ins. This is for fun, not meant to embarrass or stress anyone out so let one designated person be the only one to see and record the participant's weight. Weekly weigh ins and updates keep the group motivated, every week someone new might be in the lead and it might get pretty exciting as you get close to the end date. The easiest way for this person to determine the winner is by total pounds lost. You can certainly do percentage of total body weight loss or any other criteria but try to make it as uncomplicated as possible.

4) Support each other, this isn't a cutthroat competition so leave the reality show drama for television. Get together and go to the gym, have healthy pot lucks or pick a healthy restaurant to try after each weigh in. Share diet and fitness tips and keep encouraging any participants who aren't losing as much as they had planned.

5) Make your game plan. Yes you organized this challenge but you did it to meet your own fitness or weight loss goals. Don't get so wrapped up in the organization and management of the game that you forget to make your own diet and fitness plan. You want to win right? The great thing about this challenge is that if people participate, whether they win the cash prize or not, everyone who participated is going to feel and look better than when they started.