I hope they didn't just do the simple BMI calculation...that is really inaccurate.<p>It's not hard to lose weight if you are just trying to lose pounds: you just stop eating as much and don't do any weight training. Your body will burn away your lean muscle mass and you'll lose water weight depending on how you cut. The thing is though that without the muscle your metabolism goes down and you just gain it back...
Sounds like a cool idea for a startup. Anyone interested? I've been looking for something not completely "web toolish" and something that actually matters (it would make people healthier). This seems to fit the bill.
I'm familiar with the effectiveness of monetary incentives, and I've often wondered if I should use it on myself. For instance, should I sign up for a hosting service even though I don't have anything to launch right away? That would give me the incentive to (a) get done, and (b) not wait until everything is perfect before launching.
Fascinating possibilities. Note that for some of the folks who participated it was excitement about the <i>competition</i> not just the money that drove them in the weight-loss bet.<p>In any case... great innovation: applying old principles (competition & financial incentives) in new ways to new realms. Like with smoking cessations, sometimes you have to just try several different strategies until you find one that works for your mind/body system.<p>I am reminded of the maxim, "Insanity may be defined as continuing to employ repeatedly the same strategies and expecting to get different results.
I'm working on a site to help people lower their cholesterol using similar money/group/contest techniques. Hoping it helps as a vegan, very low oil diet isn't very appealing to meat eaters. Too bad some people wait to have a heart attack before changing habits. (Open to working with others on this project)
Perhaps it just me who's a food nerd, but from the title I thought the article would be about substituting cheap unhealthy fat, like fries, for expensive stuff such as avacados. Which, incidentally, is great way to live healthier.
For me, the money wouldn't do it. I need competition. It actually works and I was winning until yesterday. <a href="http://zealog.com/zealogs/the-smaller-losers" rel="nofollow">http://zealog.com/zealogs/the-smaller-losers</a>