The winning team, Stay Fit Stay Happy, lost a total of 33.5 percent of body fat in the ten-week challenge

Dubai, UAE: du has finally announced the season two champions of its companywide weight loss contest entitled ‘The Biggest Winner’. The second edition of the competition – which was launched in June 2014 – saw more than 270 du employees go head to head for the chance to lose weight and enhance their personal wellness. Winning teams Stay Fit Stay Happy, Weigh to Loose and 7 Wonders of Finance finished in first-, second- and third-place, respectively. 

The contest – held across du’s UAE offices – also featured an individual category, which was won by Waleed El Shennawy, Rehan Yasin and Lubna Husain. 
Remarkably, the Stay Fit Stay Happy team – comprising Pankaj Jain, Aarthi Kasi, Arun Kumar, Huzefa Ali, Tahir Bashir, Susan George and Baber Shehzad – lost a total of 33.5 percent of body fat. Weigh to Loose team members Sufiyan Khan, Aziza Swaleh, Shabeer Muhammad, Bilal Ahmed, Ramaz Faisal, Peter Samy and Zubaida Syed managed to get rid of an impressive 22.6 percent of body fat in total. 
The 7 Wonders of Finance team, composed of Michael Insong, Taimur Iftikar, Faiz Faizee, Roydin Mascarenhas, Muhammad Jumshaid Khalid, Madhavi Ashir and Arlene Asaldo shed a total of 13.3 percent of body fat.
“’This competition taught us alternative ways to build group cohesion,” said Pankaj Jain on behalf of his team. “We also learnt to celebrate both individual and group achievements. We used Mobile apps to track our progress and continued to motivate and push each other throughout the contest. Our meeting place was always the gym as we felt that this would perfectly capture our ‘Just do it’ spirit. All of the team members are married with children and have serious work obligations; despite these distractions, we remained steadfast in our commitment to winning.”
Dr Mansoor Anwar, Director - Medical and Occupational Health, du, also added: “The second season of ‘The Biggest Winner’ competition proved to be an immense success. The challenge served as an ideal platform for du employees to join forces to optimize their health and personal wellness. Improved health is strongly linked to increased productivity; through this contest, we wanted to empower our employees and provide them with the right tools to get healthier so they can excel both in and out of the workplace.”

‘The Biggest Winner’ was first inaugurated in October 2013; the first edition attracted 225 employees, forming a total of 45 competing teams. The contest was launched as part of du’s Employee Wellness Programme under the umbrella of its Every Step Counts national wellbeing campaign. The wellness initiative was designed to promote a healthier lifestyle amongst the company’s employees through engaging activities. This, in turn, enables them to set a better example for their family, friends and community, and ambassadors of Every Step Counts campaign. 

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