What do you think?

Scott aka "Copey"

Scott Copeland is a 26-year-old freelance writer from Boston, Massachusetts. He has an unhealthy love for running, good music and new technology. He has run a number of half marathons as well as the Twin Cities Marathon full-marathon. He hopes to run another in 2011. In addition to running, he loves snowboarding, biking, racquetball and kayaking. As someone who has recently been thrust into the “real world,” he will be helping with tips on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle while keeping up with your friends and social life. Around DailyBurn, you’ll know him by his username Copey. You can also find him at www.blindcreativemedia.com and on Twitter @blindcreative.

Mac aka "fitmacdaddy"

Mac Smith is a father, husband, marathon runner and a recovering dieter. He blogs about health, fitness, weight loss and motivation at Get Fit Slowly. Around DailyBurn, you’ll know him by his username fitmacdaddy.  I love checking out the mouthwatering photos in the “What’s For Dinner?” topic on his blog.  Follow him on Twitter: @fitmacdaddy

Ashley aka "AAPFitness"

Ashley Poptodorov, fitness professional, public speaker, and author, is owner of AAP Fitness in Tampa, FL along with her husband Alex Poptodorov. Formerly 208 pounds, Ashley was miserable with little self -confidence. Seeing the immediate need to lose weight and gain back control of her life, Ashley embarked on her fitness journey losing 80 pounds!!

After tackling her health, it became Ashley’s mission to share her story and journey with others. In 2006 Ashley and her husband Alex opened AAP Fitness in Tampa, FL. Today Ashley helps to inspire others to reach their fullest potential through AAP Fitness, public speaking and her many writings and blogs. Ashley is currently working on writing her first book. Her favorite saying is “The preservation of your health is the greatest gift you can give yourself and those you love”.  Around DailyBurn, you’ll know her by her username AAPFitness. Follow her on Twitter: @aapfitness

Pamela aka "ThriveFit"

Pamela Hernandez is an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer and an ACE Lifestyle & Weight Management Coach who considers herself to be “not your average personal trainer”.  Having faced her own struggles with weight and food, she tried the fad diets and supplements without success.  Then at age 24 she realized that it wasn’t about dieting, it was about moving more, eating a bit less and eating a lot better.

“My life changed one small step at a time. Each choice I made was the foundation to the next choice. It took some time, but I found myself transformed. I was no longer the overweight girl who switched to button fly jeans because the zippers kept breaking. I was healthy, fit and full of energy and self confidence.  As a trainer, I share what I’ve learned with my clients and can empathize with them because I have been where they are.”

Today at age 35, Pamela owns Thrive Personal Fitness in Springfield MO where she focuses on weight training for weight loss.  She writes a blog for her web site, www.thrivepersonalfitness.com, sharing vegetarian recipes from her kitchen, exercise strategies, lifestyle tips and stories from her own journey. You can also follow Pamela on Twitter @ThriveFit or pick up more tips on Facebook, www.facebook.com/thrivepersonalfitness . Around DailyBurn, you’ll know her by her  username ThriveFit.

Heather aka "hmduey"

Heather Duey is a married 42-year-old mother of two boys, ages 8 and 6.  When her husband decided to lose some weight, she decided to shape up as well.  As they both were working out, they had to figure out how to keep their exercise routines as well as spend plenty of time with their sons and show up at their jobs every day.  Her goal is to teach you how to find time to exercise and still have quality family time despite your full-time job and everything else you have to do.  Heather’s blog is called Finding Time to Do It All.  She loves all things tech, running barefoot, being outside, and spending time with her family.  She lives in sunny and usually warm Tallahassee, FL (home of the Seminoles), despite being a huge Florida Gators fan. Around DailyBurn, you’ll know her by her  username hmduey.  Follow her on Twitter: @hmduey.

Kyle aka "kylepjohnson"

Kyle Johnson was a high school 3 sport athlete who went to college, got married, bought a house, and added 70 lbs to his frame.  He has recently transformed himself and lost 65 lbs by hiking, running and cycling outside, and improving his diet. “When technology or fitness don’t have my attention I also enjoy spending time with my family, friends and two little dogs”. We first met Kyle here at DailyBurn when he contacted us about using our API to build  DailyBurn for Palm WebOS. Read more about Kyle’s work here. . Around DailyBurn, you’ll know him by his username kylepjohnson.  Follow him on Twitter: @kylepjohnson

There was a malicious attack on our servers on Jan 1, and it affected our site all weekend. Since we were attacked on Jan 1 and we are a fitness website, we are sure that this attack was not random. The attack messed with FoodScanner results, food search results, exercise tracking, and account access.

Although there are still a few small issues that we are still working on, we hope that everything will be back to normal today.

You may find that at random times during the day, you will have login or search issues. We have doubled our servers to take care of this artificial traffic spike.

Again, sorry, and best of luck in 2011!

The DailyBurn Team

The growth and community that we have seen on DailyBurn has been amazing to watch. A few months ago, we set out to explore opportunities that could help us to continue to build a DailyBurn that our users would love and, ultimately, would improve lives. We have tons of great ideas for better products, more tools, more content – a better DailyBurn, and we needed to expand our team to do so…

Today we are very pleased to announce that we have joined forces with IAC to create a partnership that we believe will provide the resources needed to increase our position as the leading online destination for fitness. You can read more information about the announcement here and here.

What does this mean for you? You can expect to see new features and overall improvements to the complete suite of DailyBurn products. You can expect more content, more apps, more platforms, and more partners. You can expect a better experience and a toolset that will help you reach your health goals even faster. You can expect us to be around a long time and continue to be here to motivate you toward a long, healthy life.

Nothing is changing with our team or core product. But, what you have seen so far is just the beginning, and we are very excited for what is coming in the future.

Wishing you a long, healthy life,

- Andy, Stephen, Jeff, Paul, and Kate

Christian Bale – The Machinist

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Christian dropped an unbelievable 62 pounds for this movie role, where he weighted an estimated 120 lbs! He claimed that his daily diet for the 4 months leading up to production included a cup of coffee and an apple or a can of tuna; only 275 calories. At the outset, Bale was hoping to go as low as 99 pounds, however, the producers of the film didn’t allow it. After production for this film was done, Bale quickly surpassed his normal weight of 180 pounds and added 40 pounds for his role as Batman in Batman Begins.

Matt Damon – Courage Under Fire / The Informant

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In most of his films Damon is typically his normal, suave looking self; he even earned the People Magazine title of “sexiest man alive” in 2007. But Damon has also reached both ends of the weight spectrum to fulfill his acting duties. In his role as specialist Ilario in Courage Under Fire, Damon lost 40 pounds during production resulting in his need for strict medical attention for months. More recently, Damon transformed himself into a portly pencil pusher for his role as Mark Whitacre in the 2009 film The Informant by simply eating the way he did in college without working out.

Charlize Theron – Monster

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Normally a stunningly beautiful South African damsel, Charlize hardly resembled herself after she gained 30 pounds and wore prosthetic teeth to play the homely prostitute/serial killer Aileen Wuornos. in Monster. This extreme makeover helped Theron garner praise from esteemed film critic Roger Ebert who stated that Theron’s “embodiment” of the disturbed woman was, “…one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema.” In any event, the transformation was so dramatic, that most people couldn’t believe it was her at first.

Jared Leto – Chapter 27

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In the film Chapter 27, Leto added a colossal 67 pounds to his wiry frame in order to accurately portray John Lennon’s assassin, Mark David Chapman. To bulk up for the film, Leto’s repulsive diet included microwaved pints of ice cream combined with soy sauce and olive oil every night, before going to bed. Sounds delicious, right? Apparently, the shock of the extra weight forced Leto to use a wheelchair at times, as the extra baggage proved uncomfortable and restricting.

Ryan Reynolds – Blade Trinity

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In order to resemble a ripped comic book character, Reynolds, along with the rest of the starring cast, underwent a grueling training process and abstained from fast food. Reynolds, who previously starred mostly in trashy teen films and romantic comedies, transformed his body like never before for this vampire slasher film. Many would posit that Reynolds’ transformation alone gave women a reason to see the film.

Sylvester Stallone – Copland

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For this film, Sylvester Stallone put on a hefty 40 pounds for his role as Freddy Heflin, a hearing-impaired NY state cop. While the extra baggage would look downright gruesome on some, Stallone wears it rather well. Whie, his physique in this film is a far cry from the “physical perfection” he achieved in such films as Over The Top and First Blood, it makes us wonder — is he naturally that sweaty?

Donnie Wahlberg – Sixth Sense

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Donnie Wahlberg, known originally for being the “bad boy” of 80’s sensation The New Kids on The Block, as well as the brother of “Marky Mark” Wahlberg, undertook the role of a skinny, disturbed mental patient in The Sixth Sense. His character is most remembered for being in tighty-whities and killing Bruce Willis’ character. Although his screen time in this film is limited to several scenes, his 43 lb loss makes him virtually unrecognizable.

Gerard Butler – 300

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The workout used to turn Butler’s body into the envy of any comic book hero included a brutal regimen of gymnastic, metabolic, lifting and throwing elements. Butler wasn’t the only one to turn his body into a fine-tuned machine. The whole cast did the same workout, but two weeks less than Butler. In his 12 weeks of training, Butler never repeated the same workout twice and he sustained multiple small cuts, a bunch of bruises, a pulled hip flexor, and tendonitis on both elbows and shoulders. But as the the image above shows, it was well worth it.

Benicio Del Toro – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

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For his role as Hunter S. Thompson’s drug-fiend sidekick, Del Toro managed to pack on more than 40 lbs in order to look exactly like a drug-fiend sidekick should look: puffy, filthy and sweaty.

Vincent D’Onofrio – Full Metal Jacket

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At the time of filming, the 70 lbs D’Onofrio put on for his role as Gomer Pyle in Kubrick’s 1987 war film, Full Metal Jacket, earned him the record for the most weight ever gained for a film. It took D’Onofrio seven long months to put it on and nine longer months to take it off. That’s some serious dedication.

Robert De Niro – Raging Bull

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Perhaps the all-time classic example of weight change for a (during?) film can be witnessed in the last half hour of Scorcese’s masterpiece Raging Bull. Towards the end of the film, Robert De Niro’s Character, Jake LaMotta, is portrayed as a fat and washed up has-been. De Niro gained nearly 70 pounds for the role by going to Italy for a four month eating binge. What’s more impressive, is his transformation from the incredible shape that he was in during the first half of the movie.

Kate lives in Denver, CO. A self-proclaimed “triathlon geek”, Kate has been an endurance athlete since she could spell the word “track”. With a background in nordic skiing, running, open-water swimming, and cycling, Kate has always incorporated weight training into her endurance programs. She has also dabbled in Bikram yoga, rock climbing, field hockey, ultimate frisbee, snowboarding, spinning, tennis, and more . . . if it’s active, she’s into it. She does admit, however, that she is “a very bad golfer”.

Born and raised on the coast of Maine, Kate began working in the specialty food industry in Portland, ME. Portland was named “America’s Foodiest Small Town 2009” by Bon Appétit’s Andrew Knowlton, and is home to some of the pioneers of the American Farm to Table movement. Inspired by the chefs, bakers, and farmers in the community, Kate learned how to cook healthy meals that tasted as good as they looked.

She is passionate about helping people get excited about getting fit. For her next personal challenge, Kate is thinking about giving CrossFit a try.

Fun fact about Kate: She can shuck a lobster in under a minute. Did you know that the average lobster has 43 grams of protein? Just make sure you skip the butter.

I hope you will join me in welcoming Kate to our community!

On August 17, I invite you to join me in changing your life.  For 90-days, we are going to eat right, workout hard, and get fit.

Here is is my official welcome video:

Anybody can participate in this challenge.  It doesn’t matter if you are 18 or 80.  You just have to commit to get fit and do something about it over the next 90 days.  We aren’t going to recommend a certain workout routine or diet plan.  People are different and we all have different goals.  There are plenty of books and web resources that you can use to build out your plan of attack.  A great place to start would be to look through the DailyBurn workouts section.  I’ll be explaining what I plan to do over the 90-day challenge in a follow-up post.  You can join me or do your own thing.  It doesn’t matter – just do something!

To officially join the challenge (and be eligible for the prizes) you will need to do the following:

1. Join one of the official DailyBurn Challenges:
   • Weight Loss Challenge
   • Body Fat Loss Challenge
2. Create and upload a YouTube video that does the following:
   • Mentions that you are officially joining the “DailyBurn Fitness Challenge”
   • Explains the goals you have over the next 90 days. Creative videos are highly encouraged.
   • Shows or describes your initial starting stats (weight, body fat, age, etc.). Showing the actual scale and “proving” the date will help with judging, but is not totally necessary. Update: If you are sensitive about your weight/bodyfat, you don’t have to say it on camera.  You can just send it to us as in #4 below…
3. Post links to your video in the comments and in the forums of the DailyBurn challenges that you joined.  This will serve as “proof” of the beginning of your challenge.  Look for the quick way to include YouTube videos in the comments, it looks like this:
4. Email ceochallenge@dailyburn.com with your Name, Address, Email, DailyBurn User account, and YouTube entry video URL.
5. At the end of the challenge, on November 17, 2009, you will need to submit another YouTube video with your final results.  We will give you instructions on final submission on this blog.

To officially “kick things off”, I have uploaded my YouTube entry video. Here is my entry video, and you can also see it in the comments.

We highly encourage you to track your weight, food, workouts, and other activity on DailyBurn during the challenge.  Keeping up with this information will help you stay honest and allows the community to help keep you motivated.  We also encourage you to tell lots of people about your 90-day commitment!  Positive peer pressure is a great motivator.

I’ll be describing specific steps I am taking during the 90-days along with other tips and tricks I learn to this blog, so be sure to subscribe by RSS, email, or twitter.

After the end of the 90-day challenge, the DailyBurn staff will view the results and pick one winner for each challenge.  We will also have a prize for the “best transformation story” during this challenge. We will explain the prizes in a follow-on post.

OK, and now for some legal mumbo-jumbo:

1. Do the right thing.  Don’t do some crazy diet that hurts you.  Ask your doctor before beginning any exercise or diet changes.
2. We are limiting prizes to United States only.  Feel free to participate wherever you are, but we can only ship prizes in the USA.
3. Don’t enter this competition if prohibited by law where you live.
4. Here is a link to the full terms and conditions.

This challenge wouldn’t be possible without the help of our sponsors. Please visit these fine organizations and also let them know you appreciate their support of this challenge.

August 17 is right around the corner.  You have about two weeks to prepare yourself, clean out the kitchen, get your workout plans in order, and enter the challenge.  Let’s do this!