How to run a fitness challenge for your clients: the format, the scoring, the prizes, the photos and the legal lines

A good client challenge runs six to twelve weeks, scores what people do each week instead of what the scale says, and publishes every rule, date and prize before anyone enters. Skill and effort pick the winner, never a draw, and the before and after photos are treated as the most private thing your clients will ever send you.

We are running our own judged challenge this season, the BryksBuilt Transformation Challenge, so this guide comes from the inside: before anyone entered, we had to pick the scoring, the judging and the prizes, decide who sees the photos, and read the contest law in Canada and the US. Here is what we learned, with a rules outline and a week by week timeline you can copy.

Why run a challenge at all?

Because a little competition moves people. In the STEP UP trial, 602 adults with overweight or obesity from 40 US states got step goals and were randomly assigned to a control group or to one of three games, built around support, collaboration or competition. All three games raised activity over their 24 weeks, and competition did best, adding about 920 daily steps over the control group's change. When the games stopped, activity fell everywhere, but only the competition group stayed significantly above control through the 12 week follow up.

The design is worth stealing. People in the competition arm were put in groups of three, earned points and levels for hitting their own step goals, and got a weekly email with a leaderboard of those points. The top spot did not go to the fittest person in the group. It went to whoever hit their own goal most often, which is exactly the habit a coach is trying to build.

How long should it be, and what is the goal?

Six to twelve weeks is the range to work in. Pick the length by what you want people to be able to see at the end. Ours runs 13 weeks, October 1 to December 31, with after photos taken between December 25 and January 3.

Length	Good for	Plan for
6 weeks	A first challenge, a January kick off, a new group	Score habits only; photos may not show much yet
8 weeks	A spring push before summer	A reset message at the halfway mark
12 weeks	A full transformation with before and after photos	A halfway check in and a fresh target for the second half

Write the goal as behaviour, not as an outcome: "train three days a week, log food on four days, weigh in every Monday", not "lose 20 pounds". A behaviour goal is fully in your client's control, works for the client who wants to lose fat and the one who wants to build muscle, and is exactly what you can see in their logs on a Tuesday afternoon.

How to score it on what people do

Score the habits, publish the points, and cap anything that can be gamed. This is how our challenge turns a season of logs into one consistency score out of 100:

What counts	Points	Full marks	The fine print
Training days	50	3 a week	A workout needs at least one completed set and ten minutes
Meal days	35	4 a week	A meal day needs two meals logged with calories
A weekly weigh in	15	1 a week	The number itself never scores, only the habit of stepping on the scale

• Average each person's own weeks. Ours averages an entrant's own weeks from the day they enter, so joining late drags nobody down.
• Cap the easy wins. Typed cardio counts up to three hours a day in ours. Someone will try to log a 14 hour walk; let the cap say no so you do not have to.
• Flag, do not delete. Unusual patterns get a human look, never a silent removal.

Scoring the logging also rewards a habit that works. A systematic review of 22 studies on tracking food, exercise and body weight, which it calls the centrepiece of behavioural weight loss programs, found a consistent link between tracking and weight loss, though the authors rated the evidence as weak because of how the studies were done.

Why not crown whoever loses the most weight?

Because a weight loss contest pays out for the behaviour you would normally talk a client out of. The CDC says people who lose weight at a gradual, steady pace, about 1 to 2 pounds a week, are more likely to keep it off than people who lose it quicker. A six week "biggest loser" format rewards whoever beats that pace by the widest margin.

The show that named the format is the cautionary tale. Researchers followed 14 contestants from The Biggest Loser for six years. They lost an average of 58 kilos (about 128 pounds) over the 30 week competition. Six years later they had regained an average of 41 kilos (about 90 pounds), five were within 1 percent of their starting weight or above, and their resting metabolism was still about 700 calories a day below where it began. To be fair, the authors note the group was still quite successful at long term weight loss compared with other lifestyle programs. The problem is a format that asks people to do extreme things for the biggest number, and the body keeps the receipt.

A weight loss ranking also favours whoever has the most to lose, shuts out the client whose goal is muscle, and lets one final weigh in count as much as twelve good weeks. Our rules say "Weight lost is never a criterion in this challenge", and treat extreme calorie restriction, dehydration tactics and rapid weight loss as grounds for disqualification.

Write the rules before anyone enters

Rules feel like admin until the first argument about who won, so write them first, publish them where people can read them before signing up, and change them midway only in the entrants' favour. In Canada this is more than good manners. Section 74.06 of the Competition Act covers contests run to promote a business, and makes it reviewable conduct to run one without adequate and fair disclosure of the number and approximate value of the prizes, the areas they relate to, and any fact that materially affects the chances of winning. The Competition Bureau's guidelines say that disclosure should come before a potential entrant is "inconvenienced in some way or committed" to the contest.

Here is the outline we used, in plain language. Nobody should need a lawyer to read your rules, even if you paid one to check them.

1. Who runs it. Your business name and where you are based.
2. What it is. A contest of skill and effort, judged on published criteria, with no element of chance. Say plainly whether entry is free.
3. Who can enter. An age floor (ours is 18 or older, or the age of majority where you live if that is higher), one entry per person, and no staff, judges or their families.
4. Your health. See a physician first and stop if unwell. Ours excludes pregnancy, weight loss or skin removal surgery in the last 12 months, and prescription weight loss medication unless it was prescribed for an existing condition and disclosed.
5. Dates and how to enter. Start, end, entry deadline, photo windows and announcement, with a time zone, and exactly what people do to enter.
6. Scoring and judging. The points and caps, who judges, the criteria and their weights, and how ties are broken.
7. Prizes. How many, what each one is, its approximate value, where it can be sent and when it arrives.
8. Verification and disqualification. How finalists are checked, what removes an entry, and how you will announce any change.
9. Photos and privacy. Who sees them, where they live, the deletion date and the optional marketing release.
10. Platforms and questions. If it runs on Facebook or Instagram, the release and the line that the platform does not sponsor it, plus one email address for questions.

How to judge a transformation challenge fairly

Separate the two jobs: let the logs pick the finalists, then let a panel pick the winners. In ours, a finisher needs both photo sets and a consistency score of at least 60, and the ten finishers with the highest scores go to the judges, so nobody reaches the photo round on charisma alone. The panel then scores on criteria published before entry, and on nothing else:

What the judges score	Weight
Visible change in body composition and posture	40 percent
Consistency and quality of logged training	25 percent
Consistency and quality of logged nutrition	20 percent
The story, and how sustainable the approach is	15 percent

• Use a small panel with someone from outside. Ours is three judges, the two founders of BryksBuilt and one guest coach, each giving 0 to 10 per criterion, and the final score is their average.
• Judge without names. Number the entries. Our judges never see a finalist's name, which makes it much harder to score a favourite client a point higher without noticing.
• Hold everyone to one photo standard. Same style of clothing in both sets, a plain background, good light, arms at the sides, no filters or edits. Ours are taken with the in app camera, and camera roll photos are not accepted. Our progress photo guide covers the setup.
• Break ties by a published rule, never luck. Ours go to the body and posture score, then the consistency score, then the earlier entry. The only thing a coin toss proves is that you own a coin.
• Verify before you announce. Our top three are held for 72 hours while each one joins a live video call, repeats the poses, shows their logs and signs a declaration of eligibility and a release.

Prizes that keep it a contest, not a lottery

The safest prize is one you bought yourself, announced in full before anyone entered, and awarded only on the published criteria.

• Fund it, and say what it is worth. Months of coaching or a session pack (it costs you time rather than cash, and the winner keeps training with you), gear, or a gift card the winner chooses. Ours lists three prizes, from a CAD 500 gift card with twelve months of Pro down to CAD 200 with three months, each with its approximate value in Canadian and US dollars.
• Reward finishing, not just winning. A certificate, a free check in, an emblem. Every finisher in ours gets the Finisher emblem and XP, whatever the judges decide.
• No random element anywhere. No draw among finishers, no random tie break, no mystery prize pulled from a hat. The next section explains why.
• Say where prizes can go, and send them promptly. Ours go to residents of Canada and the United States, by email within 30 days of the announcement. The Competition Act treats unduly delayed prizes as reviewable conduct.
• Think twice about a cash pot built from entry fees. It turns a coaching program into something closer to a bet, and in some places that is how the law reads it.

The legal lines in Canada, Quebec and the US

This is general information, not legal advice. For a contest with real prizes, talk to a lawyer where you and your entrants live.

Canada

Section 206 of the Criminal Code is the lottery section. It makes it an offence to dispose of property "by lots, cards, tickets or any mode of chance whatever", and, in paragraph (f), to dispose of goods "by any game of chance or any game of mixed chance and skill in which the contestant or competitor pays money or other valuable consideration".

That is where two familiar Canadian contest habits come from. A free way to enter removes the payment, and a skill testing question means the prize is not handed out by chance alone. The Competition Bureau's guidelines even put "the skill testing question requirement" in the short list of rules shoppers should be able to read on a contest package.

A challenge decided entirely by judging and logged effort, with no draw anywhere, sits elsewhere, because paragraph (f) names games of chance and of mixed chance and skill. The Bureau adds that section 74.06 does not directly prohibit charging to enter, though a purchase needed to enter a contest of pure skill should be prominently disclosed. The trap is one random element: a draw among finishers or a random tie break makes it mixed chance and skill, exactly what paragraph (f) names when people pay to take part. If only paying clients can enter, assume they paid.

Quebec

Quebec used to run its own filing regime for publicity contests through the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux. That ended on October 27, 2023: the Régie no longer oversees the obligations around organizing publicity contests, apart from contests declared to it before that date, and says contests can still be run in Quebec. The federal rules above still apply, and the Régie's own advice when in doubt is to ask a lawyer. If you take entrants from Quebec, publish the rules in French too; ours have a French version that governs for Quebec residents.

The United States

US lottery law starts from a three part test. In a 1954 case about radio and TV giveaway shows, the Supreme Court noted the parties agreed a lottery has "three essential elements": the distribution of prizes, according to chance, for a consideration (something of value paid to take part). Take away any one and it is not a lottery. A judged challenge takes away chance and free entry takes away consideration, so the cleanest design does both.

States write their own rules on top, and they are not uniform. Arizona, for one, defines gambling as "risking or giving something of value for the opportunity to obtain a benefit from a game or contest of chance or skill", with a list of exceptions. So "it is a contest of skill" is not, by itself, a reason to charge an entry fee and pay out a prize in every state.

Before and after photos, done right

A challenge asks clients for the most sensitive pictures they will ever send you. Canada's federal privacy law for businesses, PIPEDA, reads like a checklist for them: express consent for sensitive information, use only for the purpose it was collected for unless the person agrees otherwise, a right to withdraw consent, and keep personal information "only as long as necessary".

1. Ask for consent in writing, for one purpose. Say exactly what the photos are for (judging) and who will see them.
2. Store them privately. Your camera roll is not a filing system, and the group chat is not a vault. In ours, only the entrant and the judging panel can see the photos, and no other member ever can.
3. Set a deletion date and put it in the rules. Ours are deleted by March 31, 2027, unless the entrant chooses to share them.
4. Make the marketing release separate and optional. It should not affect judging, and people should be able to withdraw it for future use. Ours works exactly that way, by email.
5. Publish results honestly. Under the FTC's endorsement guides, an ad featuring a consumer's experience on a key attribute is likely to be read as what consumers will generally achieve. If you cannot back that up, disclose the generally expected performance clearly and conspicuously; "Results not typical" is not enough, and before and after pictures are one of the guides' own examples.
6. Count everyone who started. Another of the guides' examples finds the typical result of people who stuck with a program inadequate, because it does not tell people what joining can generally get them. So: "[Number] clients started this challenge and [number] finished. The typical result for everyone who started was [result]." Our own rules promise a statement of the results people can generally expect on any transformation we publish.

Running it on Instagram or Facebook

If you announce a challenge on social media, announce in public and run it in private: entries, photos and weigh ins go where only you can see them, and any public leaderboard shows consistency scores and first names, with permission. Both of Meta's apps have rules for promotions, and the FTC has one for the posts.

• On a Facebook Page, group or Event, you are responsible for complying with the law, including giving entrants the official rules. Entrants must release Meta and acknowledge it does not sponsor the promotion, and the promotion "must not require or incentivize participants to share, repost, tag others, or in any other way publicize your promotion". "Share this post to enter" is the oldest trick in the book, and there it breaks the rules.
• On Instagram, you are responsible for the lawful operation of the promotion, it needs a complete release of Instagram by each entrant and an acknowledgement that Instagram does not sponsor it, and you must not encourage people to tag content inaccurately.
• If people post to enter, the post needs to say so. The FTC says a branded hashtag like #XYZ_Rocks does not tell readers a post was part of a contest, and that making the word "contest" part of the hashtag should be enough. #JanuaryChallengeContest should do it; #JanuaryChallenge on its own may not.

A 12 week timeline you can copy

When	What you do
4 weeks before	Pick the dates, the goal and the scoring. Buy or price the prizes. Write the rules
2 weeks before	Publish the rules where people can read them before entering, then open entries
Week 0	Health screening, the photo consent, before photos and a starting check in
Weeks 1 to 5	A weekly check in, a weekly consistency leaderboard, one personal message to each entrant
Week 6	Halfway check in. Shrink the plan for anyone who has slipped, so they can still finish
Weeks 7 to 11	Keep the rhythm. Celebrate the effort in public, never the weight
Week 12	A final check in and after photos, inside a fixed window
Week 13	Finalists by score, judging without names, a verification call with the top finalists
Week 14	Announce, send prizes, and send every finisher a recap and one honest offer
Your deletion date	Delete every photo nobody signed a release for

For the health screening, use your usual new client process (our consultation guide covers the PAR Q+). For the weekly check in, our check in questionnaire template is free to copy.

How a challenge turns entrants into clients

A challenge works like a trial of your coaching: people experience it instead of hearing about it. The offer belongs in the final week, and it should rest on what they can see, not on a countdown.

• Send every finisher their numbers. Days trained, meal days logged, check ins on time, and one sentence about something you noticed. It is the most honest sales pitch you have: their own last twelve weeks.
• Make one offer, once, to everyone who finished. Not just the winners: what the next block looks like, the price, and a real start date. "The next group starts on the 5th" is fine. "Only three spots left" is not, unless you can name the three spots.
• Let the no be easy. Thank them, delete what you promised to delete, and invite them to the next challenge. For the ones who do want to talk, our consultation guide covers the call, and our client retention guide covers keeping them once they sign.

How BryksBuilt helps

Full disclosure, this is our product, so here is the honest version: there is no challenge builder for coaches in BryksBuilt today. What it does is put the numbers you would score a challenge on in one place, for every client who has linked their app to you.

• Every client's logs on one page, on every tier. On the coach portal at bryksbuilt.com/trainer, each client's page has Training, Nutrition, Progress and Cardio tabs: their logged workouts, food, cardio, weigh ins and measurements, and progress photos with a Compare view that puts the oldest next to the newest. Included on Trainer Free (up to 5 clients, free forever).
• Check in forms on your cadence. Build your own and ask for progress photos, a video or a body weight with each one. Also on every tier.
• Most of a consistency score, already counted. On paid tiers, each client's page carries a Progress card with four numbers: days trained against their plan, check ins on time, days with food logged, and the weight trend, over the last 4 or 12 weeks.
• A roster briefing when you ask. On paid tiers, Bryksy, the built in AI assistant, gives you a briefing of who needs attention, who had a win, whose check ins are due and who has gone quiet, each linked to the client.

What it does not do is pick your winners. The judging, and the honesty, are still yours.