It's halfway home for Fittest Loser's happier, healthier contestants
As this year's crop of Fittest Loser Challenge contestants - four middle-aged veterans of the Armed Forces - reached the halfway point of their 12-week adventure, one was in so much pain he could no longer exercise. But all agreed that no matter who loses the most weight, they would all be winners.
And with weekly weigh-ins showing that each had lost 16 to 22 pounds already, the contestants continued - like the good soldiers and sailors and airmen they had been - selflessly to cheer each other on.
Looking at the challenge as a contest, the score is practically a dead heat. Halfway through, 33-year-old Army vet James “J.D.” DeBouver of Schaumburg holds a narrow lead. He has lost 27 pounds. Air Force vet Russell Page, 60, of Antioch and Marine Corps vet Tony Wiszowaty, 68, of Schaumburg each have lost 25 pounds. Navy vet Penny Brown, 37, of Fox Lake has lost 18. Embedded Daily Herald reporter Dave Gathman, who's not part of the competition, has lost 11.
However, the winner will be determined in May based on how big a percentage of their original weight has been reduced, not the absolute number of pounds shed.
Looking over the results at the sixth weekly weigh-in after March 25's boot camp, the three congratulated DeBouver for having lost more than anybody else. But he modestly noted that he also had started out heavier than any of the others - 14 pounds more than Page, 17 more than Wiszowaty and a whopping 37 more than Brown.
The other contestants also comforted last-place-so-far Brown by noting that she started out lighter than any of the others and that hormones seem to make it harder for women to lose weight. She's the only woman in the contest.
Beyond shedding pounds, all also agreed that their bodies had been transformed by the six weeks of effort. That has included tough twice-a-week workouts with one-on-one personal trainers, even tougher Saturday morning boot camps, “homework” such as hiking, plus six weeks of low-carb, low-sugar, natural-foods eating.
“Don't all of you feel like different people?” one asked as the four weighed in March 25. All agreed they did feel like that.
“I'm wearing all kinds of clothes I couldn't fit into for years,” Page said.
“I feel healthier. I sleep better at night,” said Wiszowaty.
They also rejoiced like a cohesive military-style unit when they noticed that their cumulative weight loss had now passed the 100-pound mark.
“You're half done,” said Josh Steckler, the owner of Push Fitness in Schaumburg who has been supervising their training and dieting. “You can look at that two ways: 'We're already half done!' Or “We're ONLY half done?'”
Injured warrior
Ironically, DeBouver has been losing pounds faster than anybody else despite being injured for three of the first six weeks. During the third Saturday boot camp, the Iraq War vet said, he threw out a muscle in his back by jumping up too fast from the final “inchworm” calisthenic. He ended up having to call in sick from his work as a federal safety inspector and not working out that week.
DeBouver had barely recovered from that when, on the snowy Monday after the next boot camp, he slipped on some ice while clearing off his truck and hurt his back even worse. He had to skip the next two weeks of workouts and began taking physical therapy twice a week.
While the other participants sweated and panted through a grueling fifth boot camp, DeBouver's trainer teased them by saying, “J.D.'s waiting out in his truck with the heat on. He's probably taking a nap.”
Yet that week's weigh-in showed he had dropped five pounds in a week. “That's from not being able to eat,” DeBouver said. “I've been lying in bed 12 to 16 hours a day.” (A couple weeks earlier, Brown had scored a similarly impressive weight loss while sickness left her unable to exercise - or eat normally, either.)
Between the time DeBouver left the Army 10 years ago and the time he entered the competition, the combat veteran had overcome or been continuing to fight post-traumatic stress, depression, a previous back injury and fibromyalgia. He and his wife, Jennifer, also had one baby stillborn, another who died six weeks after birth and a third who was born premature but is now 8 months old.
The real payoff
All the contestants agreed that winning the competition is less important to them than improving their health and looks.
“Think about where you started, where you're at and what you'd like to do,” Steckler told the group.
“I just want to get below 200 pounds,” said Page. If so, he's right on track. He started at 250 pounds and with half the contest over, he has lost exactly half the 50 pounds needed.
Starting lighter, Brown has a similar proportion of loss in her sights. “I just hope to lose 40 pounds,” she said, which would take her from 227 to 187. Her 18-pound loss to date is just slightly short of the 20 pounds that would put her halfway to that goal.
Wiszowaty said he had set a goal of reaching 185, a drop of more than 60 pounds. With only 25 pounds shed so far, “I'm not going to get to my goal,” he admitted. “But health is priority No. 1 and fitness is priority No. 2.”
Meanwhile, he announced, the weight loss and exercising have allowed him to stop taking his blood-pressure medicine. “I felt my pressure dropping too much. My head was starting to spin.” Measuring his own blood pressure several times a day, he discovered his systolic pressure is now in the 120s, goes into the 130s in the afternoon when the pressures of his job as a real estate agent accumulate in his heart, then returns to the 120s by evening. So his doctor said he could drop the pills.
Page, the group's comedian, joked, “I have found that the walk-by exercise works well. You walk by the refrigerator.”
By the numbers
James DeBouver
Army
Age: 33
Height: 5'9”
Starting weight: 264
Current weight: 237
Weight lost this week: 5 lbs.
Total weight lost: 27 lbs.
Penny Brown
Navy
Age: 37
Height: 5'8”
Starting weight: 227
Current weight: 209
Weight lost this week: 2 lbs.
Total weight lost: 18 lbs.
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Russell Page
Air Force
Age: 60
Height: 5'10”
Starting weight: 250
Current weight: 225
Weight lost this week: 3 lbs.
Total weight lost: 25 lbs.
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Tony Wiszowaty
Marine
Age: 68
Height: 5'9”
Starting weight: 247
Current weight: 222
Weight lost this week: 3 lbs.
Total weight lost: 25 lbs.