By John Custodio

The SUNY Oswego fitness centers and campus recreation have changed a 21-day fitness challenge after pushback from the campus Counseling Outreach Peer Educators (COPE).

On Feb. 8, @oswegocampusrec, the official Instagram account of SUNY Oswego’s campus recreation center, posted an announcement about a “Laker 21-day challenge,” where students can sign up for a three week challenge to “get active” and “create healthy habits.” In the caption, the account said “From February 14 – March 6 we want to see YOU building healthy habits. Choose your own wellness adventure and make yourself proud!” Students could sign up for the challenge in room 133 of Marano Campus Center and receive a print out with a table to record their progress each day. The Instagram caption ended with “Check in on day 14 for a chance to win oswego gear & hidrate spark steel water bottles! If you complete the challenge, you will receive a t-shirt!”

However, the account had originally posted a graphic including a tagline of “Lose 3lbs in 3 weeks” and that participants would be weighed in Marano 133. COPE member Adriana Militello saw the graphic on Feb. 7 and said she did not like how the fitness centers were going to weigh people and use it as a metric.

“They should not be weighing people and using weight as a goal for health or wellness,” Militello said. “The goal of the whole event was to build a healthy habit.”

Militello said that focusing on weight loss can be triggering for people that have or have had weight or eating disorders, so she brought it up at a COPE meeting on Feb. 7. Militello said the COPE team emailed Brian Wallace, director of the fitness centers, and Cassandra Para, the director of campus recreation, detailing how the weight loss could be damaging to people with disorders and personal anecdotes about their beliefs. 

According to the chair of the Mayo Clinic’s division of endocrinology, diabetes, metabolism and nutrition, Donald Hensrud, in an article for mayoclinic.org, to lose one pound in one week an individual must burn 500 calories more than consumed every day. If someone was to eat 2,000 calories every day, they must burn 3,500 calories every day for three weeks to make the weight challenge. For some, the change could be an unhealthy weight loss instead of a healthy habit.

On Tuesday, Wallace communicated with the COPE team that he wanted to work with them, saying the program was created by faculty and the flyers were created by graduate students. Militello planned on going to the Student Association if the program was created by undergraduate students. However, COPE wanted to meet with Wallace before the program was set to start, but Wallace was unavailable. Instead, Wallace suggested the COPE team collaborate with campus recreation and the fitness centers in the future to support students. 

Graduate student Caroline Pace said unhealthy weight loss was never the goal of the challenge, instead promoting and focusing on healthy habits like proper nutrition and sleep schedules. 

“We had someone bring it to our attention that it maybe wasn’t a good idea to bring up weight as a main goal, because we don’t want it to seem like people have to lose weight,” Pace said. “We didn’t realize as the creators of the program that it could come off that way. You know, when you’re in the works of something you don’t necessarily always see how it could come off to someone on the outside.”

Para said the program had to be changed to be all-inclusive and not focused on anyone changing their weight, but the program would not have been changed if somebody had not brought the problem to their attention.

Pace said the post and challenge to win a t-shirt could also be misinterpreted, as participants never had to lose three pounds to get a shirt. 

“On the inside, we’re seeing this program as someone can build a skincare routine for 21 days, they can lose three pounds, they can eat a snack that is a healthy alternative to something, or they can take a walk with their friends every day or call a new friend every day,” Pace said. 

Participants are not competing against each other, nor are their sheets seen by anyone besides themselves. Militello said she is glad there was a change to the program, and the collaboration between COPE and the fitness centers was professional with a positive ending. 

Images via @oswegocampusrec on Instagram