Mahwah Gym Starting 'Biggest Loser' Like Contest

A contest inspired by the NBC hit show “The Biggest Loser” is coming to Mahwah. is running a “$10,000 Lose Weight Challenge” over the next eight weeks.

The idea behind the contest is “just like it is on the show,” Snap’s owner Jed Regen. “Everyone weighs in, and we track your progress over eight weeks. Participants are compared by weight loss percentages, so everything is fair.” The contest is national – so health conscious gym goers from most Snap franchises across the country will be competing to lose the highest percentage of weight between March 1 and April 30.

Though the number of participants is large – so is the winner’s payoff. Coming in first place will win someone $5,000. $2K will go to the second place winner, a thousand dollars to the third place winner and $500 to the fourth. Those who come in fifth through 10th places nationally will receive prizes, too, and the top weight losers at the Mahwah Snap location will win free months of membership.

To participate, locals must be a member of the Snap, but Regen said that’s not as big of a commitment as it sounds. “We have a bunch of different packages, including month-to-month memberships. So, if you want to, you can just join for the two months it would take to do the contest.” Joining allows Snap’s trainers to enter data about each participant into it’s nationwide computer database. “That’s the only way we can track results and calculate who the winner is,” Regen said.

The contest is here at the “perfect time,” the owner said. “We recently partnered with a company called True Star,” which provides members with meal plans and supplement suggestions to aid in weight loss. “We are no longer just taking care of the exercise component of overall health. Now, we are able to work on all of it.”

Regen said beginning a workout routine and diet during a contest like the $10,000 Lose Weight Challenge can be a good motivator to stick with it. “If you set realistic goals for yourself, this could be the thing to push you toward reaching them,” he said. Regen’s clients tend to take his advice, because before-and-after pictures hanging up around the gym on Franklin Turnpike show that he is an example of his teachings.

“Six years ago, I was 39 and 50 pounds overweight. One day I looked at my life and decided I wanted to change.”

Over the past six years, Regen dropped the weight and maintained a healthier lifestyle. In 2008, he opened Mahwah’s Snap location as part of his “total lifestyle makeover.” He said some of the services offered at Snap, like 24-hour gym time and low-cost personal training, made it the “perfect” franchise for him to open.

“Everyone who comes here, for the Challenge or otherwise, needs to look at it as an investment in themselves,” Regen said. “That’s how I look at it.”

More information about the $10,000 Lose Weight Challenge is available on the Snap Mahwah Facebook Page. But, if you’re thinking about entering, hurry! Participants must sign up and weigh in by this Thursday, March 1.