Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993                   TAG: 9305180007
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

TRIMMING FACULTY FAT

Doug Martin said that.

And worse.

"We have less-broad horizons now," Martin said of the results of the school's recent Spare Tire Reduction Incentive Plan - STRIP for short. "We're no longer working with round figures."

The truth is, some of Tech's faculty and staff, Martin included, had got a little out of shape.

In fact, when the health-care folks came to set up a fitness program for Tech's faculty and staff last year, they found - well, about what they expected.

"High cholesterol, high blood pressure, stressed out," said Bridgit Mitchell of Continental Health Promotions, the Richmond-based company administering Tech's new fitness program, CommonHealth.

"Faculty are always highly stressed," Mitchell said. "They're pressured to publish, teach, do it all."

Some of them don't use seat belts either, the health folks found.

And a lot of them were fat.

How fat?

Of the 2,700 or so people screened in the summer and fall of 1992, 616 were 20 percent or more above their ideal weight - which is the medical definition of "mild obesity," Mitchell said.

Martin, who is Tech's benefits manager, had a kinder phrase:

"Pleasantly plump."

Did he qualify?

"There's speculation that the benefits manager may have been among them," he admitted.

But people misunderstood, Martin said. "I'm short for my weight."

To fight the fat, Mitchell set up STRIP, a low-pressure diet and exercise program. STRIP divides participants into teams whose members strive together to reach weight-loss goals.

Some 410 Tech employees signed up, including Martin - which may explain some of the team names:

The Diminished Capacity. The Lard Guards. Fat Chance. Tons of Buns. Fat Legs and Butts - or FLAB.

It was laid-back weight loss. Mitchell did not press, or preach. "Everybody knows how to lose weight," she said. "They just need to get motivated."

In the end (no pun intended), the group as a whole lost half the pounds its members wanted to.

Which was still a ton of blubber.

"You might say it was a big load off," Martin said, piling it on.

In fact, Martin has calculated that the 2,600 pounds lost through STRIP is the equivalent of 17 entire Tech employees, at 152 pounds per.

At STRIP's end was a celebratory breakfast - complete with low-fat muffins, fruits, high-fiber and low-sugar cereal and low-fat cream cheese. Top teams were rewarded with duffel bags, sweat shirts and bath towels.

Other programs in aerobics and stress management are now in the works, Mitchell said. Meanwhile, some STRIP participants are proceeding on their own with their new, healthier lifestyles.

Some - like Lois Quesenberry of personnel services - slips out every day at lunch for a walk, then comes back to scarf down a sandwich before returning to work.

"It makes the day go faster," Quesenberry said of the exercise break. "You don't have to be overweight to gain from this."

Some of the teams will weigh in again in several weeks to see how well they've done at keeping off the weight.

Martin summed up their hopes:

"We're hoping to see less of each other," he said.