OOH, DRAMA! Man wins $60K for WLS? WTF?

 A man joins a gym after his WLS.  He joins one of those weight loss contests, and WINS, never disclosing his WLS.  He gets cash and prizes totaling $60,000.  They use him for marketing, not disclosing how he lost the weight.

Best part -- he got found out -- by his blog.  LMAO.  Is this wrong? 

Toronto Star -

Extreme Fitness says Bob Richardson lost 252 pounds at its gym.

What it fails to mention is that he also had gastric bypass surgery, an operation to treat morbid obesity which shrinks the size of one’s stomach.

It’s a fact the popular fitness chain — with 13 gyms across the GTA — left out when it awarded Richardson the $60,000 grand prize in a recent weight-loss competition, and something it has not included in the subsequent promotional material.

“It’s irrelevant," said Extreme Fitness CEO Jim Solomon. “We are celebrating a guy who worked hard and got unbelievable change in his life."

Richardson joined the gym about a month after his gastric bypass in July 2010. He entered the weight loss contest last January and lost 41 pounds during the 60-day challenge. Three other people lost more than he did during the contest.

Some of the runners-up are accusing the company of false advertising and rigging the competition purely for marketing purposes.

Shane Kelly, one of the top-four finishers, has rejected his $3,000 prize package, whi*****ludes a year’s membership to the gym. He has also filed complaints against the company with the Better Business Bureau and Advertising Standards Canada.

“I feel like they undermined the entire competition and the hard work of everybody else," Kelly said.

A recently published newspaper ad and flyer for the gym features Richardson with the bold headline: “LOST 252 lbs!"

 

Even if he had been competing against fellow WLS people, it still wouldn't have been "fair"! (I couldn't have competed with him for weight loss, for example - even if I had worked as hard as he did) but yanno, that's life - I only weighed about as much as he lost ...

I do think the deception, by both him and the company, is the point here ... They should all just have been honest that he had had surgery!

I think there is little honesty in the whole diet/exercise/wls industry, so personally I am not surprised at this - anyone else? (and yes, I do think that WLS is now an industry AND that it's dishonest in a lot of ways!)

good 4 him.

The gym DID know about the weight loss surgery but it is the gym that did not disclose that tidbit on the advertising they created using the man.

I really don't think it's fair to the other competitors. My hou sing community had a weight loss challenge after I had my sleeve.. Even though I could have used the money I didn't enter because I just wasnt right. I think it's the company who is being willfully deceptive though..

 Exactly.

He did have an unfair advantage over the other competitors.  If he'd been several years postop that would have been different, but this guy is still in the Honeymoon phase.  It's deceptive advertising on the part of the gym.