Is betting on weight loss taking a gamble with your health?
I recently came across two weight loss websites which encourage you to gamble on your own ability to lose weight.
One of them is Fatbet.net – Complete with catchy phrase “YOU BET YOUR ASS”. The basic premise is that you bet (or wager) against your friends about how much weight you can lose.
I registered for the free account, agreeing to the terms and conditions that I would seek some advice from a medical professional, that I would obey gambling legislation in my country/state, and that:
- I understand that the creators of Fatbet.net are not medical or weight-loss professionals. I’m not sure they’re even professionals.
- ….If someone gets upset because something I wrote was mean-spirited, I will apologize and try to make it up to them.
- I understand that all others in any Fatbet group that I join will be able to see the amount of weight I want to lose (but not my actual weight), and they will be able to monitor my progress toward my weight-loss goal.
Then you are encouraged to set guidelines for the bet. Fatbet.net encourages you to follow one of two methods.
1) Everyone picks the amount they will lose. Fatbet.net say you should pick an amount that is “realistic and safe” but go on to state that “if someone sets a goal that is clearly too easy, they should be ridiculed on the message board until they adjust their goal” (um see terms and conditions 2 above).
2) The person initiating the bet sets a target for everyone.
Betting relies on an honour system where everyone logs their own weight loss, but they do encourage you to buy some digital scales and only include people in the bet that you trust.
Like any weight loss website, Fatbet.net have some ‘research’ that they say indicates that the program works… although they admit:
We’re not going to lie and say losing weight is easy. There is suffering involved. We knew that the competition, metrics, and accountability of setting up Fatbets helped us meet our goals, so we spent some quality time on Google one day trying to find out why. Calling this research is stretching it, but we did find some material that supports why the Fatbet concept works.
They research is actually some points about weight loss from another weight loss site. They end up with a quote from Self Magazine
Women who lost weight, then got on the scale daily for the next 18 months had the lowest recurrence of regain
Fatbet response: If SELF Magazine says it, that’s all the validation we need. Research: DONE.
You can also check out other groups who have taken part in this, including the Pie Hole Rangers, Whipped Marshmallows, and the Vegas Fat Asses.
If you ask me, betting on weight loss is taking a massive gamble with your health. I couldn’t easily find any information which discouraged teenagers from taking part in this site and there were no obvious warnings about the potential impacts of setting extreme weight loss goals.
Gambling on weight loss is dumb. It is a major gamble with your health and wellbeing.
I’m really hoping that these types of websites don’t catch on.
Themocracy
Obviously my first reaction to this is *head desk*.
But if I were to look at it objectively the creators of this site, apart from wanting to make money, probably just think this is a fun way to encourage people to lose weight. But like we saw with the god-awful ‘Maggie Goes on a Diet’ book, good intentions in the hands of those with no understanding or skills in the area they seek to represent is dangerous.
Ok, so this is a group, peer pressure style of weight loss scheme. Not unlike WW or Easy Slim, but with no nutritional guidelines.
My issue is with turning it into a mini Biggest Loser style thing, which I find abhorrent. I also think it’s something people clearly see as harmless, and all in good fun. That is also worrying.
When I gained weight after losing it I found it horrifying and humiliating, it would have been worse if I was involved in this.
PLUS, given how competitive I am, I would have found all kinds of ways to eat as little as possible, to win. That would have introduced me to a wide range of disordered behaviours I may then continue with. Which is basically what happened to me anyway with the same kind of set up at places like Easy Slim and Weight Watchers. Dangerous.
Oh, and YAY to Samantha blogging again!!
xx