Losing weight is harder than it sounds. While many stigmatize being overweight or obese, the fact of the matter remains that we live in a society that expects you to be slim but then spoon-feeds you sugary drinks and foods at every corner.

Worth His Weight in Gold

Now, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) Player of the Year, Bill Perkins, has arranged a wager with fellow player Shaun Deeb. Deeb argues that he can achieve 17% body fat on time for the 2024 WSOP tournament which is a little more than a year away. If Deeb proves to be successful, he will get $1 million. Perkins has been happy to accept the bet, giving Deeb odds of around 10:1. Not too bad.

Deeb is keen to win the wager, and he has already made sure to book a DEXA scan which will be able to accurately determine his current level of body fat. An online calculator estimates that this is around 41.3% as of right now. The player weighs 306 pounds and is 5 feet 11 tall. Now, though, there is a rub.

Weight loss is not only difficult because you need to shed pounds – it’s hard because you need to also stay in shape after you are done with the process. People who get motivated to lose weight can usually do it, but many backslide within a year of having done so. It’s even trickier to get rid of fat, though, as it lingers on after you have shed the actual pounds, too.

Besides, the safe amount that Deeb can lose is around 2% of body fat a month, so even if he was to do that, he would still shed around 28% of his body fat, enough to help him win the wager. Once again, starting from a high baseline makes it easier to see results sooner, but it gets tied down in prolonged plateaus when results are not coming and people get demotivated fast.

Perkins Has Won Health Bets Before

Deeb though has been optimistic, nevertheless. He posted a video on Twitter in which he said that he is coming for Perkins. The poker fandom has embraced Deeb’s transformative journey and cheered the player for his choice to get healthier. Some of the comments were ironic, arguing that Deeb should top off his working sessions with a slice of pizza.

But is Perkins going blind here? Not at all. He won a $200,000 wager from Doug Polk who was unable to reach his own body fat target by just two percentage points. You may think Perkins is out there to make people healthier – and perhaps he is. But as a good poker player, he knows how to make out of every hand he is dealt.