Armstrong-Indiana Intermediate Unit 28 is only halfway into its ambitious BodPod weight-loss adventure for school employees in Armstrong and Indiana counties, and it’s receiving glowing reviews from participants.

The program, brought in by On Target Health, an obesity management solution for employers, is offered at no cost, thanks to donations from Highmark and the Armstrong Indiana Trust for school employees.

The BodPod, which some people say resembles a spaceship, measures a person’s fat and muscle mass. Based on each person’s results, OnTarget Health develops eating plans designed to help people lose weight. The goal is for school district employees to attain and maintain better health, which might help lower health care costs.

Local educators Thomas Grierson, principal of Purchase Line Elementary School, and David King, a teacher at Homer-Center Elementary School, say they have lost weight and gained energy after utilizing the BodPod.

In recent years, Thomas Grierson noticed that, despite his athletic lifestyle, his clothes had grown a little more snug. He decided it was time to take action, so he got into the BodPod program.

“They use air pressure to give you a more accurate measure of your weight based on fat and muscle to get the body mass index,” Grierson says. “I’m 40 days into the program and it’s going well.”

As of November, Grierson had already lost about 15 pounds.

“I started out at 265 and want to get down to 225,” he says. “Losing the first 10 pounds was pretty easy. It’s the next five and the five after that. I’d lose a pound here, a half-a-pound there. I need to pick up the pace a bit.”

Through the BodPod program and nutrition plan, Grierson keeps close watch on the number of calories he consumes. He also has a home gym and lifts weights three days a week, which helps with the weight loss.

“The program focuses more on calories,” he says. “I try to not cash in any extra calories I may earn by exercising. I think that helps.”

On a typical day, Grierson eats oatmeal for breakfast, a power bar or Nature Valley bar at lunch and a handful of nuts now and then as a snack. That frees him up to have a bigger serving of food at dinner, but even then he tends to stick with protein, vegetables and fruit.

Grierson says the program isn’t so much about eating less, but more about making a lifestyle change.

“It’s a discipline,” he says. “The days of a big bowl of chili and chips when watching a game, I can’t do that at all. It makes it harder going out with friends, but you can plan ahead for dinner out.”

David King has three reasons for watching his weight: His children, who range in age from 2 to 11 years old.

When his first child was born, King was 100 pounds lighter than he is now, and he had more energy. He joined the BodPod program with the hope of regaining that energy to romp around with his energetic toddler son.

King started out at 345 pounds, and after being in the program for 16 weeks, he saw results. His body fat percentage as of mid-November was 36.7%.

“I started out at 42% body fat,” King says. “Gross, absolutely gross. Literally, almost half my body mass was fat.

“I’ve already lost about 15 pounds in six weeks. I have more energy. I’m able to do things I haven’t been doing. I used to eat a bottle of Tums a month. I haven’t picked up a bottle since I started. And I’m learning a lot about nutrition and removing stress from my life.”

King gets in the BodPod every two weeks for a reading on his body mass. He says the program isn’t as focused on the number on the scale, but rather the fat-to-muscle ratio.

“The program focuses on fat loss, not weight loss,” he says. “They measure your metabolism and give me an amount of calories I burn every day. I have a fast metabolism, but my problem was I was eating 6,000 or 7,000 calories a day. I was a big pop drinker. They said my body will burn around 3,200 calories a day just sitting and they wanted me to consume about 2,800 calories every day.”

When he first joined the program, King says he was often hungry, but that hunger has eased up quite a bit.

“I can’t go below 2,400 calories a day because my body will go into starvation mode,” he says. “If you eat under a certain amount, your body will think you’re not eating enough and will conserve the energy.”

King has tried to lose weight many times over the years, always without much success — until now; and that is, in part, because of the BodPod’s accessibility and easy-to-use setup.

“This is easier,” he says. “I have an app in my phone, I look up calories and find out what I can eat.”