mbesto, we love loseit! Met many of our best users there, and have reached reddit frontpage a couple times through posts on loseit - owe a lot to them.
In some sense, we're trying to create a more customized loseit for weight loss / fitness, with a better UX. Especially on mobile.
MFP is an awesome calorie counter where you can also add friends to share your meals. We're slightly different bc our focus is on photos and social support on all types of fitness, weight loss updates.
dchuk - i did. Wasn't all that excited when I saw the title of the article. The word selfie was meant to infer that we have a special camera tool that helps people take self progress pictures, something that really motivates people to reach their goals bc they can visualize their smallest improvements. Progress pictures can be stored privately or shared publicly on the app.
More importantly, we want to build a safe and supportive mobile community to help people reach their goals. Just getting started but off to a pretty decent start - would love for you to check it out.
It seems with the selfie because of the time taken for changes to show-up that people might get demotivated in the interim.
Have you considered doing the same for food instead ?
That is having people take photos of all their meals and automatically sharing with their friends, to encourage eating healthier (soft competition) and making people think more about what they eat because it'll be broadcast.
That would seem more conducive towards a "real-time" feedback loop.
@ig1 - Completely agree with you. The great thing about progress pics is that you can motivate yourself to shoot a better next week, and also be inspired by what other REAL people have actually achieved. Real results definitely do take time though.
Users can post food pics, photo updates, and other text updates on the app. These actually make up a higher % of the posts on the app today.
Really great to see people supporting other like minded people on all sorts of posts!
We've come across so many amazing people from the reddit community! Really love what they have going on there - we're just trying to give a bit more structure to the people who need it.
1)I spent a year doing diabetes lab research at the University of Michigan and a couple projects focused on obesity at Cornell, but admittedly the bulk of my knowledge comes from reading a lot of peer reviewed journal articles, talking to a lot of successful people (people who have lost weight themselves as well as numerous obesity specialist MDs).
2) Right on with your observations. What we're trying to do is provide the necessary ingredients (social combined with technology) to make weight loss something people feel good about. We give people a leader, which provides trust/inspiration that they are on the right path, and a peer group for support. Early signals have been good that this keeps people engaged. That said, getting new users will always be important.
One additional thought is that people who are successful as members could potentially transition to the coach role after some sustained success. This could lead to very long term engagement, but it is too early to tell.
3) Honestly, we are focused 100% on making something that actually works. Current options for weight are not great by any judging criteria, and we are confident the business model will work itself out if we are able to provide real value in the form of good outcomes.
Hey everyone, I'm Ray, one of the founders of Weilos. We just got started, but early signals are promising with active users making significant progress on the site. Very excited about this opportunity to help a lot of people! Would love to hear what everyone thinks.
Interesting approach, and congrats on the coverage. I just signed up as a coach - I've found informal mentoring (in both directions) very helpful on other sites, e.g. Nerd Fitness.
