Slim line between weight loss and falling off the treadmill

25 September 2016 - 02:00 By SUTHENTIRA GOVENDER and NIVASHNI NAIR

Fathers and daughters, husbands and wives - even unfit doctors - are signing up for rigorous fitness challenges to shed kilos in super-fast time. And they're not doing it only to get slim - most challenges also offer monetary rewards for the biggest losers.Run by gyms and supplement companies - and accessible online - the challenges have resulted in thousands of kilograms being lost through intense exercise and strict eating plans.But some fitness gurus say the results achieved during the challenges, most of which run for between eight and 12 weeks, are often not sustainable.Celebrity wellness and fitness expert Lisa Raleigh said: "One of the reasons these challenges are effective is also their chief downfall - they're short term.block_quotes_start We are all well aware of what it takes to get quick results - intensive training and restrictive eating - but what we really want is to maintain weight loss block_quotes_end"Amazing results are often attained in the short challenge margin because it's doable to buy into a few weeks of restriction for the promise of an incredible physical transformation."The problem, of course, is that it's not sustainable," Raleigh warned.However, those who have taken on the challenges say they have been able to maintain their new-found figures by tackling more challenges.Personal assistant Michelle Mackenzie, 48, lost 5.6kg, or 7.5% of her body fat, when she did her first Getfit 12-week challenge last year."I was chubby at 61kg and not completely fit," she said.Mackenzie lost a further 2kg doing a second challenge - which included exercise and a low-carb diet."I've seen my body literally transform before my eyes. I'm addicted."For Zani de Wit and her father, Hendrik, it was a family struggle."We would lose weight and then put it back on and it was years of being in a yo-yo situation. So when I won a challenge as a prize I thought this would be perfect for my father and me to lose weight together and bond at the same time."mini_story_image_vleft1Zani won Sleekgeek's Winter 2016 Ultimate You Eight-Week Challenge by losing 24kg. Her father shed 11.7kg and they claimed the Buddy Challenge prize.Denver Subramany, who has a degree in sports science and founded the Original Getfit Challenge with personal trainer Neil du Plessis , said the aim was "to help motivate and educate clients on nutrition and exercise".He added: "It was put into competition format were the incentive was winning prize money for the clients who had the most dramatic transformation at the end of 12 weeks."People always work their hardest when they set goals and challenge themselves. The success rate is higher than one-on-one personal training and dropout rates are less than 30% - it's completely the opposite for signing up at gyms."More than 17,000 people in KwaZulu-Natal, Johannesburg and Cape Town have signed up for Getfit challenges, which include full body assessments, dietary guidelines, eating plans, personal training workouts and advice on the use of supplements.USN's Anneke Colangelo said between 2,000 and 4,000 people entered the nutrition and supplement company's 12-week makeover challenge each year.A police officer who did not want to be named was among the first South Africans to take on the 12-week challenge 10 years ago, losing 22kg in three months and winning R25,000. A year later, he fell off the wagon."I have gained almost all of the weight back. The challenges work, but it's the maintenance that's the hardest part."Raleigh said: "We are all well aware of what it takes to get quick results - intensive training and restrictive eating - but what we really want is to maintain weight loss."That means avoiding prescriptive, intense challenge stints, and instead focusing on making realistic, healthy change daily for slower but more sustainable progress."..

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