How much would you gamble on yourself to lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks? That’s what I am about to find out. I’ve invested, if that’s the right word, hard cash in a bid to lose weight, no, win some money…huh? Would you bet on yourself to lose weight?
I’ll explain below, this is the first post in a series to diarize my attempt to lose weight through gambling – it already sounds wrong.
I am, or was, morbidly obese – the stats:
11 January 2016 was that day. The day the scales screamed ‘get off me’. I have struggled with weight for most of my adult life, as a young adult, I was super fit – so bloody what? Who wasn’t?
Lifestyle change! I’m ‘time poor’ which is a real blocker and didn’t exercise. When I sat around the house, I sat AROUND the house.
So it started – exercise, initially at home and a gym membership. Smaller portions, no sugar, no booze (apart from odd binge – can’t go to Twickenham and not get on it), cutting down on fat and eradicating as much carb as possible. This also resulted in saying goodbye to Gluten and farting – who knew?
I am not suggesting that I followed a particular diet (Paleo maybe), although I did create a funny little excessive regime (I might cover that later), but the early results were good, very good in fact:
MyFitnessPal, graph shows that I have put a little back on, don’t get me wrong, it’s not too bad, but a worry. Plus, I never actually reached my goal weight. Ultimately – I failed!
My goal was 88kg, that puts me a 1lb under 14st. I managed to get to 90kg at best I reckon and then it crept back on – I yo-yoed a little too. I am now 95kg and want, no actually, need, to reach 88kg, but how?
It’s vice that got me in to this mess, so it can be vice that gets me out.
I’m gonna gamble, back myself to win. I’ve downloaded DietBet, a weight loss community betting app.
I did attempt a similar thing a while back with a good colleague of mine, we agreed to bet against each other – £100. It didn’t quite work out, we couldn’t quite nail how to weigh-in – which is a bummer, cause I won – he knows who he is….! It’s that incident that inspired me to download DietBet – I reckon it’ll work.
Once registered you find a game – in this case a Kickstarter (I’m playing three at the same time). A game sets a weight target over a time period – 4% in four weeks. Anyone can join and in turn they will bet real money on reaching that goal (it’s American so USD $).
Those that hit the target share the pot made up from those that didn’t, minus a rake from DietBet (they take between 15% and 25% dependent on the game). The worst case scenario for a winner is that lots of people reach their goal and they don’t win any money – they would get their money back and have lost 4% of their body weight – so that’s a massive net win, right?
I have bet a total of $235 (£179).
The ‘weigh ins’ are timed and controlled. A code is provided which you must write on a piece of paper. You stand on your scales and take a photograph of the reading and the code on the paper. You then take a full body shot of yourself, in minimal clothing stood on the scales. Sometimes videos are also required. This is then submitted and reviewed by a human referee.
Cheating, there could be I guess, but I am in this to lose weight, so I don’t need to cheat and don’t care for other that try. I’m gonna win!
All the pics and videos are confidential, but I am going to publish mine as part of this feature.
I am in three games – two @$100 each and one @$35. There are 779 people taking part with a prize pool of over $45,000 (£34,000).
I have become rather confident and motivated. I am fascinated at the prospect of this project, which is why I have gone for three games to run simultaneously. This is the maximum permitted.
Here are the three games if you want to take a look – you can even join them still – they have different names, are run by different people and often have spot prizes:
I’ll be updating on this site – please share it with anyone you think might be interested.
But also:
I am not affiliated to any of the platforms mentioned in this feature, I am not being paid by any person or organisation. This is my project, for my benefit, with my money, using my time and effort. The reward, if I am successful, is the weight loss. I don’t even care about winning any money, I don’t want to lose it either. So if any of my fellow competitors are reading this – good luck to you and I hope you win.
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