MINNEAPOLIS—More than 400 Minnesota employers and other groups are competing in a statewide weight-loss challenge they hope will improve the state's health.

Inspired by the popular reality television series “Biggest Loser,” the challenge was organized by the Alliance for a Healthier Minnesota, a group formed by nine of the state's largest employers that competed against each other in a similar contest last summer.

Because of the success of last year's 12-week challenge, in which more than 10,000 contestants collectively shed 35,000 pounds and logged tens of millions of minutes of exercise, the alliance expanded the competition this year to include any employer or group of individuals in the state that wants to shape up and slim down.

As a result, more than 400 teams have been sponsored by local chambers of commerce, churches, schools, families—even the Minnesota Vikings and members of the state legislature are competing in the Minnesota Biggest Loser Challenge, which began Jan. 23 and runs through April 15.

The challenge is the latest of several wellness initiatives spearheaded by the alliance. The organization also has produced a TV documentary on the state's obesity epidemic and conducted statewide polling to gauge public opinion about health and wellness.

But the Minnesota Biggest Loser Challenge probably is the most visible of the alliance's campaigns because of its connection to the TV show and to Minnesota's own General Mills Co., which is donating a pound of food to charity for every pound of excess weight lost by challenge participants.

The winners of this year's challenge also will have the opportunity to visit the “Biggest Loser” set in Los Angeles, said Rick Kupchella, co-founder of the alliance. He said the alliance's objective is to encourage all employers in the state “to work in concert around the idea of improved health and wellness, not just within their own workforces.”

In the first alliance-supported Biggest Loser Challenge, contestants could measure their individual progress against that of other individuals, other teams within their company and against other employers.

Similar benchmarking is available for the latest competition, though the number of contestants increased from 10,000 last summer to nearly 25,000 this year.

Because of the large number of participants and the volume of information being collected, the alliance has contracted with RedBrick Health Corp., a Minneapolis-based health and wellness company that offers a “challenge engine” as part of the software product it sells to employers.

RedBrick CEO Kyle Rolfing said the company recently enhanced the product in response to customer demand.

“They were having internal competitions, but they were being conducted and tracked manually,” Mr. Rolfing said. “It was old-fashioned and labor-intensive, so we built a "challenges engine' and embedded it into our core offering. Employers can still define the focus areas they want, such as weight loss, nutrition, exercise, preventive care or any combination.”

The program operates similarly to the popular website Facebook, allowing individual employees to set up groups, or teams, and then send invitations via e-mail to their co-workers asking them to join or be “friended.”

“Employees get an e-mail asking them to join and they can either ignore it or accept it, just like on Facebook,” Mr. Rolfing said.

The software, which has been adopted by several other RedBrick clients in addition to the Biggest Loser Challenge participants, “has dramatically increased engagement” in wellness programming, Mr. Rolfing said.

Even though the focus of Minnesota's Biggest Loser Challenge is on weight loss, there is a greater objective, said Dr. Marc Manley, chief prevention officer at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Minnesota. “It's also about physical activity and healthy eating. It cuts across the whole spectrum of people who need to make changes.”

The Minnesota Blues won last summer's challenge by losing more than 3,780 pounds, or 2.8% of body weight per employee, and logging nearly 1.73 million exercise minutes. The prize was “bragging rights” at the Minnesota State Fair, where the insurer presented a check donated by General Mills for $25,000 to Second Harvest Heartland, a Minnesota food bank.

This year, BCBS of Minnesota has more than 800 employees competing.

Aside from losing weight, the contest also is sending the message to employers throughout the state that “managing health overall is good for our employees and for our companies' bottom line,” Dr. Manley said. He cited a study the insurer and the Minnesota Department of Health conducted that found obesity and modifiable behaviors of physical inactivity and unhealthy eating increase risk for chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes (see related story).

“We're interested in building a community of healthy people,” said Jill Hamilton, manager of Hennepin County's HealthWorks wellness program, articulating her employer's reasoning for joining this year's challenge. Hennepin County, which includes the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, has 1,243 participants vying to win Minnesota's Biggest Loser Challenge.