Over 600 health seekers began the Team Lean weight loss program in January. After shedding over 6,700 pounds, local health seekers gathered Thursday to find out who the big “losers” were in the 10th annual Team Lean weight loss challenge. 

Team Lean is an eight-week weight-loss program sponsored by the Thomasville YMCA, Archbold Memorial Hospital, Barberitos, Nature’s Own, Chick-fil-A and the Thomasville Times Enterprise. Final results were announced at an awards ceremony held at the Butler-Mason YMCA. The big winners were the team “Guts to Dust,” who lost over 21 percent of their team body weight. The winning team took home a total cash prize of $2,000  Team members were Kirby Salter, Tim Hurst, Obey Salter, and Lahomia Hurst. 

The top female winner was Lahomia Hurst from the team “Guts to Dust,” who took home a cash prize of $400 for her 25 percent weight loss. Tim Hurst of “Guts to Dust” was the top male winner and took home $400 for his 29 percent weight loss. The team “Guts to Dust”  not only swept the leaderboard, team member Tim Hurst set a new Team Lean record for the highest percentage weight loss (29 percent) in the history of the program.

Rounding out the top five in the female category were: second place, Kim Weckwert (17 percent), $300 cash prize; third place, Julie Brewster (16.2 percent), $200 cash prize; fourth place, Tory Schofill (16 percent), $150 cash prize; fifth place, Ashley Stephens (16.04 percent), $100 cash prize.

Rounding out the top five in the male category were: second place, Kirby Salter (24.7 percent), $300 cash prize; third place, Art Anderson (21 percent), $200 cash prize; fourth place, Louis Schofill (19 percent), $150 cash prize; fifth place, Michael High (18.5 percent), $100 cash prize.

Cash prizes were awarded to the top 10 percent of teams, eight teams in all, that finished the program in good standing. Rounding out the Team category winners were:  second place, “Thinning the Blue Line” (15 percent), $1,500 cash prize; third place, “I Pity the Food” (14.8 percent), $1,000 cash prize; fourth place, “The Insane Flying Monkey Space Invaders From Mars” (13.5 percent), cash prize $800; fifth place, “Dump the Rump” (13 percent), cash prize, $600; sixth place, “The Go Figures” (12.8 percent), $400 cash prize; seventh place, “Pass the Rolls” (12.4 percent), cash prize $350; eighth place, “Phat Chance” (12.3 percent), cash prize $325.

In addition to the weight loss incentives, Team Leaners were also competing for two $500 cash prizes from Archbold Memorial Hospital  for health screenings. Winners were determined by the greatest reduction in cholesterol levels between the first and last weigh-ins. Health screen winners were Kyle Register and Jenni Brock.

The team “Accounting Calories” took home the award for Best Team Name and won a $100 cash prize. Team members were: Allison Bass, Ashley Dieckmann, Tom Harrison, and Ashley Mitchell. 

The 2017 edition of the weight loss challenge included several new wrinkles. Advantage pounds were introduced as a way for Team Leaners to participate in healthy community activities to earn extra credit.  Activities ranged from health screenings to boot camps to a community stair climb. Also new in 2017 was a “Couch to 5K” running program. Over 40 participants completed the running program which culminated in a 5K run last week.