Fighting the

fat -- again

Madelia joins in weight loss effort for second year

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

MADELIA -- Cheers of ' F-I-T-E Fight The Fat' welcomed an estimated 200 people back to Madelia for another round of weight-loss challenges Sunday night.

Fight The Fat made national news last year when the Madelia Community Hospital first organized 250 local people who were interested in losing as many pounds as they could within eight weeks.

The idea behind the challenge isn't simply just to encourage more people to diet. Organizers say it's also meant to promote healthy lifestyle changes as a way to counter obesity, a serious nationwide health problem.

Many of the participants who gathered in the cafeteria at Madelia Elementary School on Sunday were returning from last year.

Each team was called by name to stand up, show off its homemade signs and shout their team cheers.

Then it was off to the scales, which were placed at three points throughout the hallway around the corner from the cafeteria. Members queued up team by team for an individual weigh-in, which would be added together for a grand total. Teams compete against each other based upon their total team weight.

At the end of the program, prizes are awarded for team weight loss and for individual weight loss. The challenge for this year is to have a collective weight of under 1 ton -- 2,000 pounds -- by the end of the eight weeks.

Melissa Fenske of Madelia is an original member of the Six Pack Lites, who placed third in last year's competition. Fenske said she and a few of her teammates came back because they wanted to lose more weight for an upcoming wedding.

Like quite a few of the teams taking part in Fight The Fat, the Six Pack Lites are neighbors who live on the same block, and they often go for walks together. To them, losing weight is just another group activity, Fenske said.

Kent and Karla Shuette of Madelia are first-year members of the Dream Team. They, too, said they wanted to kick-start their diets. Kent and Karla said they hope to be 10 to 15 pounds lighter when the challenge is over.

"We've been trying to lose weight," said Karla. "It's easier if you do it as a group."

Fight The Fat isn't just about dieting, it's also about changing lifestyles. According to Dr. Jeffrey Kotulski, diets are only effective as long as they accompany changes in the way a person lives.

"Dieting is only 2 percent effective," he said. "The first thing that happens after the diet is over is the weight is gained back. Without lifestyle changes, the chances of losing weight are minimal."

Kotulski's lecture was the first of a series of lessons about learning to make food choices and healthy lifestyle options. The weigh-ins don't just happen on the first night; they happen every night that the teams meet.

The people involved in Fight The Fat are grouped into three categories. The "maintainers" are the people who stayed at the same weight as last year. "First-time offenders" have either gained a little weight or are new to the program and "repeat offenders" have gained back most if not all of the weight they lost last year.

The 2004 Fight The Fat program has fewer teams but with more members, said Candace Fenske, administrator of Madelia Community Hospital. The challenge was started last year after a hospital employee saw a documentary about a small town in Iowa that came together to lose weight. Since then, representatives from the hospital have been on numerous radio interviews and by CBS' s "Good Morning America." The challenge also won the hospital an award from the Minnesota Rural Health Conference.