There are a couple of items that need to be resolved quite shortly. First is the exact formula we will use to rank everyone's progress. The initial thought was to use a 40% total weight loss plus 60% weight percentage loss formula. The fundamental problem here is that these two variables have completely different units and it becomes trickier to normalize the data between both variables particularily as the values increase. For example, if someone who weighs 180 lbs loses 10 lbs then their %W=5.6 whereas someone who weighs 300 lbs loses 10 lbs then their %W=3.3. Take the same two people and make their weight loss, W, equal 25 lbs and their %W are 13.9 and 8.3 respectively. This means that as weight loss gets larger the ratio of W to %W gets larger to the point that it becomes the dominating factor.
Now the theory to using %W as the dominant factor is based on the assumption that it is easier for someone who weighs 300 lbs to lose 20 lbs than someone who weighs 160 lbs. If that is the case then the significance of W over %W must be further minimized in order to achieve such a goal. I have created a spreadsheet with our reported intial stats to test how several formulas would play out over a small sample set where all of us lose the same increments of weight each week. My personal belief is that if person A and person B wiegh 177 lbs and 318 lbs then if person A loses 10 lbs, he should have the edge over person B if he loses the same amount. If person B loses 15 lbs, the rankings should be close and if person B loses 20 lbs, the edge should go to the later contestant.
Please see
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p6xjiT7NLvrYOCIV68kqfRQ&hl=en_US for the spreadsheet.
The second item to discuss is what the "punishment" for finishing last should be. The initial punishment was to make the loser pay for everyone's dinner (max $30/person) when we meet up in September for an NCSU FB game. Some people have issues with the severity of the penalty so here are some options I have thought of:
- Keep the same penalty, but give the loser the recourse of losing 2% of his current weight over the next 40 days to commute the penalty to paying dinner only for the winner (would mean dinner would have to be postponed).
- Loser only pays for the winner's meal.
- Loser buys up to 4 appetizers for the group meal.
- Loser becomes beer and food bitch for the entire game day. He doesn't have to buy the food/drinks but anytime anyone wants a drink or a snack he has to be the bitch and get up and get it for them. (My personal favorite penalty)
I have set up 2 polls for us to vote on these issues. Both polls are open for a month -- I figure we don't have to rush for decisions as only the final weigh-in counts and rules shouldn't change strategy, but we should set a time limit so this doesn't go on forever.
