Starting a weight loss club does not need to be a complicated or difficult task. Following the steps below will let you set create a weight loss club with little effort, and almost no time.

Using a computer with Internet access is required for the steps below. They include links to some critical tools to track calories you eat, and calories you burn, as well as resources to figure out your club-members’ target weights and daily net calories needed to lose weight at a reasonable rate. The support of a weight loss club can provide a huge boost to your weight loss success.http://ezinearticles.com/?Slimming-Clubs-are-Great-Motivators-for-Weight-Loss&id=257656

After completing this tutorial, you will have your own private weight loss club, setting targets, and measuring your progress, alongside the other members. With the support generated by making your targets public (at least within the club membership), and sharing challenges and successes, your weight loss club will make it much easier for you to stick with the program until you reach your goals, and beyond.

Today’s lifestyle seems dead set on making us obese, and keeping us that way. Full time work at a desk, in front of a computer, or behind a cash register, unwinding in front of the TV, or playing video games, these leave us with precious little time to physically move and burn calories. Add to that all the convenience foods, which seem to be designed to maximize profits at the expense of being good for a human body, and you have the perfect weight-gain storm. To top it all off, an entire industry is built to take advantage of our desire to look trim – fad diets that don’t work long-term, diet pills that don’t work, or worse, can seriously damage your health, invasive medical procedures, all designed with an eye to separating you from your hard-earned cash, rather than to provide you with the tools needed to safely reduce your weight in a way that can be maintained in the long term.

The good news is that you don’t have to give in or give up. Even without giving up chocolate or ice cream, and without becoming a marathon runner (though that will surely help if you wish to do it) you can start up your own weight loss club to support your weight loss and maintenance program, all with little or no cost.http://www.ehow.com/how_2314377_start-office-weight-loss-club.html If you prefer, there are many clubs you can join instead of setting up your own, but these usually charge a membership fee.http://weightlossclubs.com/

1. Computer with internet connection (broadband if possible)
2. MyFitnessPal.com account (free)
3. Excel spreadsheet

Going through your contacts list, find everyone you think might be interested in joining with you in their weight-loss efforts. This should include family, friends, neighbors, co-workers (skip subordinates and supervisors to avoid complications at work), members of your church, synagogue, mosque or temple, etc.

Set up a spreadsheet for your contact list. One typical software you can use for this is Microsoft Excel http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx The spreadsheet should have one line for each contact, with a cell each for the contact’s last name, first name, phone number, email address, and response. This last will remain empty for now.

Compose an invitation email. Feel free to borrow some of the text from the start of this page. Address the email to yourself, and put the email addresses of all your contacts in the “BCC” or blind carbon copy area of the email. This will provide some measure of privacy for the recipients, as their email addresses will not be visible to each other.

The email should explain that you’re starting up a free weight loss club, and that you’re inviting them to join. To inspire your contacts, include a brief description of your fight to lose weight, any successes, and especially any failures. Then state your commitment to building a supportive network of people to provide the best support group for all involved.

Make it very clear that the club will provide some record keeping and will be a support network, but will not be dispensing any medical or dietary advice. Make sure any potential members understand (and acknowledge in writing at least via email) that they are responsible to contact their doctor, a dietitian, and/or a professional personal trainer for advice on an appropriate exercise and diet program for them.

Finally, make sure to specify a time by which you request answers. This should be long enough for people to respond given their possibly hectic lives, and to account for anyone’s being out of town for a while. On the other hand, make it short enough that you don’t have to put off starting the club for weeks just to get all the answers in. A good compromise may be one week.

Don’t be discouraged if many or even most of the recipients do not respond, or decline. Concentrate on those who answer positively. Keep in mind that a small club with people who are enthusiastic is much more likely to succeed than a large club with many people who are not very committed.

As answers come in, move from the Excel spreadsheet the entries for people who declined your invitation to a second worksheet in the same file (e.g. Sheet 2, which you can rename – Declined). Those who responded positively, move to Sheet 3, which you can rename – Club Members. Those who remain in the original spreadsheet after a week will be the ones who never responded. Rename that worksheet from Sheet 1 to No Response. From this point on you’ll be working with the Club Members worksheet.

Email back to those who accepted your invitation, asking them to weigh themselves, and send you their present weight, their target weight, and the rate at which they want to lose weight. Target weights can be calculated in a variety of ways. The AskDrOz site quotes Dr. Roizen as providing a formula for men and one for women but also suggests that unless you were overweight as a child, your weight at age 18 to 20 was probably close to your ideal weight.http://ask.doctoroz.com/question/ideal-weight-women-men A weight-loss rate target of 1 pound per week is realistic for most people.www.MyFitnessPal.com Next, ask for the height and waist size. Dr. Oz suggests that the ratio of height to waist circumference should be at least 2 for an individual who is not overweight.http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/dr-ozs-ultimate-health-checklist-0?page=5

One last item to ask for is how many times a week each member plans to exercise and how many calories s/he plans to burn at each session. Suggest members use an online calculator to figure out how many calories they burned exercising. There are several very good online calorie calculators available free of charge.http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc Request everyone’s permission to share their names and email addresses within the group, and get their pledge that nobody will use the contact info they get for non-club-related purposes without getting specific permission of the individuals in question. If anyone has concerns about sharing info, remind them they’re in the club to get support from the group, but if they still insist, let them use a pseudonym and a throwaway Gmail address.http:// mail.google.com

Give a deadline of one or two days to get you the answer, and set a weekly day and time by which they should send in an updated weight once a week. In the worksheet Club Members, add cells with those numbers for each person including yourself.

Using MyFitnessPal.com (or a comparable service) record everything you eat, as well as your exercise times and calories each day. You can weigh yourself weekly, or more often, depending on what works best for you. Once a week, record everyone’s current weight, waist size, total calories eaten, and total calories burned. The day before the weekly update is due, send out a reminder email to the group.

Using the worksheet, calculate everyone’s change in weight, waist size, and height-to-waist ratio. Email the results to everyone, along with special messages for anyone who had difficulties that week (too much eating, too little exercising, weight or waist-size increase, etc.). Make special notice of those who managed to lose the 1 pound they targeted, lauding them, and asking them to share how they were able to stick with their plan. Include in your message a weekly tip on weight loss or exercise. You can find many such on the Web.http://chris.pirillo.com/50-weight-loss-tips/

You should encourage club members to send emails to the list (you can set this all up as a Yahoo! Group to make it easier, and allow people to receive a daily digest rather than an email for each posting) asking for or offering support. http://groups.yahoo.com/

When a member reaches his or her target weight, check with her or him if s/he wants to commit to a new target, and if not, if s/he’d be interested in staying on to keep getting support in retaining her/his weight.

Once you yourself reach your target, ask yourself the same question. Remember that retaining your weight is harder than getting to it in the first place so you need more support, not less.