Poker player Jaime Staples may have bitten off more than he can chew with the latest six-figure weight loss bet, which isn’t going according to plan.
Just eight months after skinny-fat brothers Jaime and Matt Staples won $150,000 from Bill Perkins for getting their weights near equal, the pair are facing the prospect of losing a third of that money back.
Their latest bet with Perkins calls for both brothers to get their body fat percentages below 10 percent, and in a recent video update, Jaime said that he’s not in a good place and actually feels less healthy now than he did during the first weight loss wager.
Ultimate Sweat 2.0
In the previous challenge, Jaime had to lose weight while his brother had to gain it in order for them to be within one pound of each other.
With Jaime starting at 304 pounds and brother Matt at 135 pounds, the task was no lean feat. However, with the help of personal trainer Mike Vacanti, Twitch streamers found a way to win.
Under the terms of the challenge this time around, dubbed Ultimate Sweat 2.0, the Staples brothers have to be under 10 percent body fat by March 25, 2019.
Because they won the last bet, Perkins offered odds of 3/1 instead of the 150/1 he gave them last time. However, the real kicker for the duo is that it’s tougher to lose body fat than weight.
As is often the case with crash diets, people will lose a combination of fat, muscle, and water. For example, a boxer will cut water weight in order to make a certain limit.
In this bet, the Staples don’t have that luxury. Undeterred, they agreed to stake $50,000 to win $150,000, which looks to have been a mistake on Jaime’s part.
In his somewhat despondent video, Jaime reveals how his trainer told him that he’d put the odds of being under 10 percent body fat by the end of March at 100/1.
Weight of the World?
Recounting his progress over the last seven months, Jaime Staples said he put on 15 pounds in the week following the last bet.
Although rapid weight gain following a dramatic diet is natural, Staples’ efforts to quit smoking compounded his struggle.
Without “a crutch to lean on,” he found himself 40 pounds heavier just two months after winning $150,000 back in March. With time running out, Staples recorded a recent Skype conversation with his personal trainer who gave a pessimistic summary of his chances.
“Realistically, for you to be 9.9 percent bodyfat by March 25, 2019, I think it’s 100-to-1,” Vacanti said. “I’d be shocked if you could get to sub-10-percent at over 150 pounds.”
Despite the long odds, Vacanti stopped short of saying it’s impossible. As inspiration, poker pro Walter Fisher won $1 million in 2017 after taking his bodyfat from 33 percent to 8.9 percent in just six months.
In closing his video update, Staples apologized for falling off the wagon and potentially sticking his brother with half the loss, but he also said the bet is about more than money at this point.
