Tuesday, Oct. 2, to Dec. 11, 2012 (10 weeks)

The UAF Chancellor and Wellness Committee thought this would be a great way to get individuals involved in a healthy contest and to get some friendly competition going.

We want to place more of an emphasis on exercise in addition to healthy eating and weight loss. Exercise has many more benefits than just weight loss. Also, this allows those who don't have a need or desire to lose weight to participate and contribute to their team while enjoying the benefits of exercise. Minutes of exercise will count for 4/5 of the score and weight loss will be 1/5. Weight loss will be calculated into the team's final score at the very end of the competition. For purposes of weekly updates, minutes of exercise will be the sole factor in determining which team is in first place, second place and so on. So if your team isn't leading in total average minutes of exercise by the end of the competition, but you've lost a lot of weight, you could still win the competition.

Physical exercise enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It strengthens muscles and the cardiovascular system, hones athletic skills, which are important to everyday life, such as eye-hand coordination, and contributes to weight loss or maintenance. Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system and helps prevent the "diseases of affluence," such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity. It also improves mental health, helps prevent depression, and helps to promote or maintain positive self-esteem.

No -- this is a fun way to get people involved and have some friendly competition among departments.

No more than 15 members -- this is a new rule for Season 2. The primary reason for this is to make tracking team member information easier for team captains. The team captain will be responsible for keeping track of their own team's statistics -- the number of minutes exercised and weight lost, and for submitting that information to the competition organizers weekly for 10 weeks. It is important that this information be sent consistently and in a timely manner every week.

NO! The only information shared will be the team name, total minutes of exercise and each week's percentage of weight loss. Team information is all that teams involved will see.

You need to assign a team captain. The team captain will then need to email your team's name and the name of each team member to the Fittest Winner Student Intern, Kayli Stanfill, at kmstanfill@alaska.edu no later than Friday, Sept. 28, 2012. Each team captain will then send Kayli the team's total starting weight on the first day of competition, which is Tuesday, Oct. 2. Do NOT submit individual team members' weight.

Each week, the team captain will report the team's total current collective weight. The team's current weight will be subtracted from the team's starting weight and a percentage of weight loss will be calculated and updated every week. At the end of the competition, the team's total percentage of weight loss will count for 20 percent of a team's final score.

On Oct. 2, 2012, the team captain will send Kayli an email with the total starting weight for your team. (Again, individual weights don't need to be shared.)

Each Tuesday will be weigh-in day. This is an honor system  so the team members can weigh themselves at home, at their gym or here and give the team captains their results. The team captain will email Kayli each Tuesday and let her know the total current weight of the team and the total minutes of exercise.

By the end of the day on Wednesday Kayli will send out an email to the team captains with a chart showing how each team is doing. It will ONLY show the team name along with the percentage of weight lost and minutes of exercise for the previous week and overall.

Physical exercise is a bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health.In general, exercise is a function designed to sustain or improve health and fitness.

Physical exercises are generally grouped into three types, depending on the overall effect they have on the human body:

• Flexibility exercises: such as stretching, yoga or Pilates. These exercises are meant to improve the range of motion of muscles and joints.
  
• Aerobic exercises: such as aerobics classes, Zumba, Jazzercise, cycling, swimming, using machines such as an elliptical trainer, stair master or treadmill, walking, skipping rope, rowing, running, hiking, cross country skiing, skating, playing basketball or playing tennis. These exercises focus on increasing cardiovascular endurance.
  
• Anaerobic exercises: such as weight training, functional training, Power 90 Extreme or P90X, shoveling snow, eccentric training or sprinting. These exercises increase short-term muscle strength.

No, for the purposes of this competition, it will not be considered as exercise. However, if you take a break and perform a sustained 15 minute or more walk around the facility (outside or inside) or go up stairs as a sustained effort for 15 minutes or more, it is considered exercise.