AFMC announces biggest ‘loser’ in Team Lean Challenge Published Sept. 18, 2008 By Kathleen A.K. Lopez Air Force Materiel Command Public Affairs WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Air Force Materiel Command officials announced Sept. 15 that Wright-Patterson AFB is the biggest loser from the command's second annual Team Lean Challenge. Participants at Wright-Patterson AFB lost 2,085.5 pounds to win Team Lean Challenge, or TLC, a recently completed three-month, voluntary, command-wide wellness competition. The challenge is part of AFMC's ongoing Wellness and Safety Campaign, or WASC, which debuted in May 2006. The challenge was designed to help all AFMC Airmen lose weight, as well as be an aid in changing lifestyles for the better, said Antoinette Greene, AFMC Command Surgeon's office. Collectively, the command lost nearly 7,000 pounds, she said. Participants had the option of building their own teams with members from their unit or base. Otherwise, individuals were assigned to a team with four other TLC partners from their base, she said. The TLC recognized the highest percentage of weight loss, not necessarily the amount of weight loss, she said. Losing nearly 7,000 pounds, equivalent to nearly 25 million calories -- not ingested, due to improved eating habits, or, burned off, due to improved exercising habits -- was no passive tasking. The TLC joined 2,837 individuals, or nearly 600 teams, from AFMC's 10 bases. "Beyond the TLC Web site on the Wellness Support Center, all bases provided various programs through their Health and Wellness Centers, or HAWCs, and Civilian Health Promotion Services, or CHPS," Ms. Greene said. "With the Web site, teams could check on weight loss progress, though not individual weight losses, of their own team as well as team ranks on their base. "The HAWCs and CHPS units provided educational classes, fitness classes, weigh-ins, and screening tests for cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure," she said. The key with the TLC is that it wasn't just a single person trying to achieve goals such as weight loss or revised exercise habits for just him or herself, she said. Rather, being assigned to a team made individuals accountable to others as well. Plans are already under way for 2009's TLC, which runs March 2 through May 29. A comparison of AFMC bases and the number of pounds lost: Arnold AFB, Tenn. -- 51.5 pounds Brooks City Base, Texas -- 167.7 pounds Edwards AFB, Calif. -- 406 pounds Eglin AFB, Fla. -- 465.5 pounds Hanscom AFB, Mass. -- 306.4 pounds Hill AFB, Utah -- 821.1 pounds Kirtland AFB, N.M. -- 269.8 pounds Robins AFB, Ga. -- 1501.6 pounds Tinker AFB, Okla. -- 906.1 pounds Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio -- 2085.5 pounds Of the 2,837 AFMC Airmen who weighed in for TLC kick off, 1,174 AFMC Airmen weighed out for TLC's conclusion. Following competitor statistics based on weigh-out numbers: > 79 percent civilian; 21 percent active-duty > Average weight loss percentage: 2.73 > 1.8 percent drop in Body Mass Index (BMI) > Nearly 1 percent drop in average blood pressure