Darren Dunlea won the competition after
he dropped 69.4 pounds in seven weeks. That’s about
the same amount that his daughter McKenzie, right,
weighs; also pictured is her sister, Aubrey.
Laura McGinnis is not shy about showing
a photo of her former (larger) self.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Lona O'Connor
Darrin Dunlea used to be a chunk. Now he’s a hunk.
He winces when he sees the “before” photo of himself, shirtless. It’s Dunlea all right, but with a cascade of body fat that started in the middle of his chest and lapped over his then-ample waistband. Ten weeks and 69.4 pounds later, Dunlea is the winner of a challenge among himself and 11 other clients of Elite Fitness, Elie Merhi’s Boca Raton company.
There’s nothing like coughing up $1,500 to focus your attention on a weight-loss challenge. That’s the amount that Dunlea and the others each committed, in the form of blank checks, at the beginning of the 10-week competition. Dunlea took home $18,000 and a huge championship belt that fits loosely on his new, slimmer waist.
Laura McGinnis, age 18, won $3,000 in the women’s challenge. Her weight loss during the challenge, 29.4 pounds, transformed her from a pretty girl to a head-turning beauty. Her resting heart rate dropped from 95 to 60 beats per minute. In two years, she has lost a total of 100 pounds.
Many of Merhi’s clients, who came to cheer on the contestants, began their drive to good health well before this challenge started.
“A friend said, ‘Listen, you owe this to your kids,’ ” said Mark Johnson of Parkland. Two months after starting his training with Merhi, Johnson was off blood-pressure medication. That was three years and 80 pounds ago.
“My doctor was amazed,” said the car salesman. “It’s about eating right and eating clean. It’s a lot of work to get it off, but we’re all here (at the gym) working in the afternoon.”
Gene Picchi had a heart attack in 2007.
“I was dead on the operating table three times,” he recalled. He lost 110 pounds in three years and is proud to show off his streamlined V-shaped torso.
During the challenge, the contestants gave up a variety of self-sabotaging eating habits: They avoided their favorite fatty snacks, or eating off their children’s plates, or chowing down on take-out food. Instead, they ate such things as lean chicken meat, egg whites and vegetables, and nutrient-packed grains like oatmeal, brown rice and quinoa.
Besides eating clean and lean, besides regular cardio exercise, the secret of taking it off and keeping it off is weight training, says Merhi.
“You burn that body fat off,” said Merhi. One pound of muscle burns at least 50 more calories a day than a pound of fat, and speeds up the body’s metabolism, he points out.
Dunlea, who works out seven days a week, is a residential builder who works in Boca Raton and Highland Beach, so his wife, Erika, made it easier for him to eat properly on the run.
“I did all the cooking, all protein and vegetables that I cooked ahead,” she said, beaming at her husband. “He never gave up. He set a goal and he had the inner strength.”
Dunlea plans to put the majority of his prize money into a college fund for his daughters, McKenzie, 7, and Aubrey, 10.
And of course some of it, he says, will go toward continuing his training sessions to keep the weight off.
Lona O’Connor has a lifelong interest in healthy living. Send column ideas to Lona13@bellsouth.net.
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