my company announced a “biggest loser” weight loss contest

[ResidentialBusiness]

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

My company announced a “biggest loser” weight loss challenge today and immediately my stomach sank. This was sent by the owner/founder of my small civil engineering company (about 40 employees). This is still so fresh for me I don’t even really have the words to express how many ways this is a horrible idea and would love your thoughts.

I have the words.

And those words begin with: how is this still happening in the year of our lord 2025?

It’s incredible that so many workplaces are still oblivious to how very problematic weight loss competitions can be for many people — people with eating disorders, first and foremost, but also anyone who’s trying to have a healthier relationship with food or avoid diet culture, people who need maintain their weight or gain weight (the assumption that everyone should lose weight is really weird), anyone who’s concerned about crash dieting, anyone who does want to lose weight but doesn’t want to engage with their coworkers about how it’s going, or anyone who simply doesn’t consider their diet or their weight to be any of their employer’s business.

That’s a lot of people, all told.

If your employer wants to encourage employees to make healthy choices, they’re welcome to provide healthy snacks, subsidize gym memberships, and offer excellent health insurance. Creating a contest around crash dieting isn’t the way to do it.

Are you up for pushing back about it? Ideally you’d talk to someone with some influence over it (HR might be the right place to start) and point out that experts advise against these competitions because they’re bad for such a wide range of people.

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