Staff at Dunedin gas fireplace manufacturer Escea Ltd recently ran a month-long weight-loss competition.
It was implemented by employees and the 25 people taking part lost more than 110kg collectively over the period.
That was also about the same weight that Mr Boothby (53) finished up at after shedding 18.5kg - the biggest amount.
The suggestion came initially from Emma Dennison - ''I just said, 'Let's lose some weight'' - and then Kasee Bellamy ''forced'' people to join, Ms Dennison joked.
All participants were weighed at the beginning and then a weigh-in was held every Monday, calculated on the percentage of body fat.
At ''130-something kilos'', Mr Boothby knew he needed to lose weight. Being quite a competitive person, it seemed like a good opportunity to get his ''act together''.
He cut out all drinks except water, and walked - ''that's all'' - for a month. Previously, his only exercise was playing bowls at the weekend, but by the end of the month he was doing a 17km walk.
Taking it seriously, Mr Boothby said he had been fairly confident of losing at least 12kg to 15kg in a month.
Everyone contributed some money and Mr Boothby, as winner, received $140. The person who lost the least - who actually put on weight, but was on steroids that month - received a McDonald's voucher.
Excluding the difficulties of regular birthday shouts ''just about every week'' and the like, those involved said the team approach meant it was much easier.
Ms Bellamy said it was not all about winning, but supporting each other, and it became a conversational focus with people checking on the contents of others' lunchboxes.
Kelda Hunter, who lost 4kg, said she would never have been able to do that on her own. Knowing that weigh-in day was approaching on Monday was a good motivator.
The firm's management was amazed at how successful it had been and there was now a budget for forming a wellness committee, to keep various workplace initiatives going.
