When celebrity chef Harlan Goldstein visited his family in New York earlier this year, he was hit with a sobering realisation. "You're a walking heart attack," his sister said.
Goldstein weighed 134kg at the time. Although he was a member of a gym, he hadn't been training especially hard, and because of his status as a culinary celebrity in Hong Kong, he was always surrounded by the finest, most scrumptious, food.
"The lifestyle of a chef - always tasting food - can lead to easy weight gain, obviously," he says.
The words of his sister - who practically raised him - struck a chord. So on his return to Hong Kong, he told his two trainers about his desire to lose weight. The trainers, Parfait N'donda Gnorol and Alvin Cooney, two veteran fighters at Impakt gym in Central, told him they had just the challenge.
"They said they had another client, this big-shot banker, who was also looking to lose weight," Goldstein recalls. "And they suggested that we did a Biggest Loser-style challenge to see who could lose more weight."
Goldstein met with the banker and they decided to take on the challenge - on the condition that money was put on the line. After all, what's a bet without cash?