Joy Starks participates in NSU's Biggest Loser Competition.

Selected students and staff at Nova Southeastern University have begun the new year with a challenge to lose weight and get in shape as NSU’s Biggest Loser returns for a fourth year.

Based on the popular NBC television show by the same name, NSU’s Biggest Loser takes 18 participants through a 16-week weight-loss program. Like the show, they are divided into teams and participate in team and individual workouts with trainers. Participants have regular meetings with a nutritionist and keep journals of their daily nutrition and exercise. They also receive motivational coaching from NSU’s Healthy Lifestyle Guided Self-Change Program.

An opening workshop was held on Jan. 8 and weigh-ins and workouts began on Jan. 11. The competition runs through May.

In the first three years of NSU’s Biggest Loser, the 40 employees and students who completed the program lost a total of 1,038 pounds, which represents 26 pounds per participant.

Prizes are awarded to the individual and the team with the highest percentage of weight lost and to individuals with the most improved blood pressure and/or cholesterol, most total inches lost and highest percentage of body fat lost.

“The Biggest Loser program helped me change my life forever,” said Mary Friel, NSU’s director of undergraduate recruitment. In the 2009 program she lost 55 pounds to claim the title of NSU’s Biggest Loser. “I feel better about myself mentally and physically, and people say I smile more and seem happier. I would not have been able to do it without having this program.”

The Biggest Loser program is part of NSU’s Be Well Initiative, which incorporates all dimensions of wellness – emotional, intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual – and promotes a culture of wellness at the university.