“I hit a milestone birthday this year, the big 5-0,” said Pip­pin, the promotions manager for television station WJBF. “I’ve got some work to do.”

In five years, more than 7,400 people have lost more than 67,000 pounds in the Y’s 12-week weight-loss competition – an average of 9 pounds.

This year, Weight Watchers is joining with the Y to help the participants.

“We are the nutritional, good life partner of it, and they are the active part of (it), and it is a good marriage,” said Weight Watch­ers leader Mary Ellen Smith.

Participants can go to Weight Watchers meetings and take advantage of its Web site and free apps that allow people to scan products to see how many points they account for in the Weight Watchers system, Smith said.

The Y is putting together community health presentations that can help teach people how to eat well, even dining out, and how to increase exercise, said Millie Schumacher, the Y’s community relations director.

Team Lean competitors can earn bonus points by taking part in community events, beginning Saturday with the Trot to Adopt 5K walk/run at Blanchard Woods Park in Martinez, where registration is free for those wearing a Team Lean 2013 T-shirt.

“We kind of build in some extra fun,” Schumacher said.

Abigail Bowles, a loan processor at First Bank of Georgia, will be competing as part of a team, but she has already had great individual success. In about five years, she has lost roughly 100 pounds but is now wanting to do even more.

“I want to get out of my plateau,” Bowles said. “I think it will be a good push.”