‘Win Big by Losing’

Kristin Harty Barkley

CUMBERLAND — The Pyle family didn’t have an elaborate strategy for last fall’s “Win Big by Losing” contest, a 13-week weight-loss competition for teams from across the region.

They won the $1,000 top prize by following a simple plan.

“We got off our butts,” said Shirley Pyle, of Fort Ashby, W.Va., who joined her husband, David, and David’s brother and wife, Mike and Ann Pyle, for the September competition.

“There’s a walking track in Fort Ashby, and we would all get together and walk it,” Shirley Pyle said. “When the weather wasn’t nice, we had treadmills.”

Called the DAMS — for David, Ann, Mike and Shirley — the team combined exercise and a low-fat diet to lose 104 pounds altogether, or about 13.5 percent of their starting weight of 904 pounds.

And they’re not done. When Western Maryland Health System launches its next Win Big By Losing contest this month, the DAMS plan to weigh in.

With New Year’s resolutions still resonating full force, organizers expect around 800 people to come for initial weigh-ins Sunday through Jan. 9, though participation typically falls off as the contest progresses, said Nancy Forlifer, community health improvement manager for WMHS.

Started as an internal competition for staff at WMHS, the Win Big by Losing contest went public about three years ago, Forlifer said.

“We don’t promote any specific diet or exercise routine,” Forlifer said. “We really think if people make small changes — eat smart and be active — they’ll benefit from a healthier lifestyle.”

In the last year, more than 900 people have participated in the contests, losing a total of 8,151 pounds, according to WMHS.

So far, Lonaconing resident Paul Pryor is the biggest loser. The 25-year-old lost 45 pounds in the fall competition, or 26 percent of his body weight. He won $100 for the accomplishment.

“I was getting up to the highest weight I’d ever been before,” said Pryor, who weighed 218 when the contest started. “My legs were starting to ache a little bit when I’d get done working.”

Though he’d tried plenty of diets before, Pryor couldn’t stick with them, he said. So in September, he started doing Weight Watchers and walking on a treadmill, joining four family members to form Family Ties.

The team, which started the contest at 1,158 pounds, came in second place behind the DAMS, losing 13.2 percent of their total weight.

“That’s what gave me the motivation to lose more weight,” Pryor said of having team support. Now he’s trying to maintain his weight loss.

“It’s difficult, I tell you,” said Pryor, who’s considering signing up for the contest again this month.

To get involved, residents simply form a team of three to five people, identify a captain, register and show up for periodic weigh-ins at designated locations.

Participants can also try free fitness classes at Life Fitness Management and the Riverside YMCA and attend healthy cooking demonstrations at WMHS.

In September, 97 teams started the competition, and 64 teams completed it, including the Stubby Chubbies, The Buffet Busters, the Disappearing Divas, Fat and Furious and Weapons of Mass Reduction.

Being accountable to teammates is what made the difference for Shirley Pyle, who said she’s tried “diet after diet after diet.” Members of the DAMS shared recipes and ate together often “to keep each other from cheating,” she said.

“Our goal was just to lose weight and get healthy,” said Pyle, who lost 28 pounds. Her husband, a diabetic, lowered his glucose and cholesterol levels significantly, she said. “We didn’t want to let each other down.”

Contact Kristin Harty Barkley at kbarkley@times-news.com.