Weight Loss Archive

traineo has launched a contest along with the Nintendo Wii to award a Wii package to the person who uploads the best motivational video to YouTube. I am betting many of the videos will actually use the Wii as part of the motivation.

Besides the promotion,  you can also join the Wii traineo group and become part of the community. I think this is the next evolution of Weight Watchers. Community support and tools to support your weight loss.

traineo CEO Alasdair McLean-Foreman told me this afternoon, "I think like a lot of people we were pretty surprised as to how much interest the Wii has had a 'fitness tool'. In the same way Nintendo is revolutionizing the gaming industry we're working to do the same in health and fitness on the web with traineo – the idea to setup a competition for our users made sense and we're excited to see the response."

Also check out the story of one Wii'r, Mickey, who created a video about how he used the Wii to lose weight. He has been all over the press, both on and offline, and now has a book deal! About half way down the page he discusses his usage of traineo.

Check out our other coverage of traineo and YouTube.

I have written about traineo a few times on CenterNetworks, most recently I named it my favorite of all of the current fitness applications. It is a rock solid application using lots of Web 2.0 features and a great design that works for both men and women. They just launched traineo Groups which has already become quite popular. So I put on my Richard Simmons tape, my headband to catch the sweat, a pair of trainers and gave traineo CEO Alasdair McLean-Foreman a call to discuss the site and future plans and more importantly what he believes is important to be successful when starting your business.

Highlights of our discussion include:

• Alasdair, can we start with a brief bio?
• What’s traineo all about and where did you come up with the idea?
• What makes traineo different than the other weight loss applications available?
• Can you share some information about your users?
• Who are your main competitors?
• How are you marketing traineo?
• How are you monetizing traineo?
• What are the top 1-2 things you have learned since starting traineo?
• What do you think is the biggest mistake you have made since you started traineo?
• What do you think a startup needs to do to be successful?
• What’s coming up next for traineo?

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Click the start button below to begin the audio interview (26 minutes) (or download the mp3):

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Jimmy from Skinnyr sent me a note this morning with a bunch of updates to the application. I reviewed Skinnyr as part of the Fat-Off Challenge.

Skinnyr provides a way to chart your weight, share the charts on sites like MySpace, Facebook, your blog, etc., and get your BMI (Body Mass Index) rating.

The updates today to Skinny include:

• Updated logo — I added a slight reflection to the logo and changed the little logo guy to purple, as it states on the foil-burst.
• Language support! — It will have Spanish in there very soon, but yes multiple language support is there. I’m still looking for translators for russian, chinese and japanese.
• Obfuscatr no more — The name has been changed to Weight Blurr. In addition, you can specify your own start weight in case you joined skinnyr mid-diet.
• Record paging — If you have a lot of records you now can page through them to access the old ones.
• Record My Weight form — Instead of just the JS link, there is now a form to add your weight… including the ability to select the date you want to use. Past records are now a possibility.
• Unit selection — You can now select “lbs and inches” or “kg and cm” for your weight and height. The BMI formulas adjust accordingly.

What I like about Skinnyr is that they were/are open to my (and everyone’s) suggestions to make the application better.

Go get Skinnyr!

traineo announced today that they have launched “traineo groups.” The basic idea is that you can build a group to help give you motivation, tips, help, insipiration for helping you get to your desired weight. This is a big part of SparkPeople’s success is the group concept and I think if traineo can make it pretty, it will work even better for them.

I think traineo is the best weight application currently available, I gave it top honors in the Web Apps Fat-Off Challenge.

From the release:

Users are able to create traineo Groups using a fast and simple sign-up tool that even
allows members to personalize their groups with unique color schemes and logos.
Members of the traineo community are able to browse, join and view group details via a
global group directory or directly via each group’s unique URL. Privacy options allow
groups to be hidden or invite only, making traineo Groups the ideal starting place to
organize a private family fitness team, inter-office ‘biggest loser’ challenge; or a hub for
like-minded individuals to work together towards a common health and fitness goal.

So now that the tryptophan has settled, and the holiday eating season is upon us, I want to give you some suggestions on sites that can help you battle the bulge. I call it the Web Apps Fat-Off. These are apps that really hit upon many of the new Web 2.0 ideas and really are some great ways to help you lose the weight. Everyone I talk to asks me to pick my favorite.

If I was to pick just one, which is very hard since they are all a bit different, I would pick traineo. It really is very robust and the programming behind it is also very strong. But that aside, give them all a try and make up your own mind! Let’s hit those treadmills, pump some iron and really do the Fat-Off proud! I know that I need to lose weight and will be using these apps to help me get there.

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RunFatBoy is a tool created by Jim Jones to help newbies lose weight. RunFatBoy provides customized workouts based on your weight and then you can customize the workouts from there.

Pros

• $5 per month
• Very customizable to create the workout that will work for you
• Lots of Web 2.0 goodness
• Offers both Metric and Standard
• Easy to use, functionality works well

Areas for improvement

• Ability to go back in history – appears you can only look at the current week
• Algorithm for initial workout – not sure where the weights come from but they seem heavy for an obese man (I would assume just as bad for a woman)
• Some information on where the pre-defined workout comes from – this is an issue I have with every tool I have looked at.
• Needs graphs of workouts and weights

General thoughts:

I think RunFatBoy is for someone who wants a little bit more than Skinnyr, but less than Traineo. If you want a way to track your workouts in an easy to use manner with a diary, then RunFatBoy is for you. If you are the type that needs a community for motivation, then look elsewhere. For me, the suggestions above would need to be implemented for it to be worth the $5/month charge.

Screenshots – click to enlarge

iTrainHarder is a pretty robust site in the areas of nutrition/fitness tracking and planning. The site iTrainHarder defines themselves as:

iTrainHarder is an online nutrition and fitness tracking and planning system that allows you to see your results as well as plan for new ones. Our software will allow you to track your progress using the most advanced web tools available for personal fitness.

Pros

• Very well built application, smooth and robust technology
• Site has 5 major components: nutrition, training, measurements, blog and trainer.
• No matter what food I tried, I could not find one that is not in their database
• Each feature has a tutorial video
• Usability is high

Areas for Improvement

• Design is very geeky, not easy enough on the eyes
• Appears to be set for men, not women in its appearance
• No community – could be a positive or a negative
• Explain the pricing – “as low as” – what does the pricing look like?
• Make the design more relaxed with colors that make people feel more relaxed
• Add some line height to the text – there is tons of (good) text on the site but it is a little hard to read with the lines being so tight

Final thoughts:

I think iTrainHarder really is an excellent comprehensive tool. I think it is worth the $3.75/month. Especially if you have a fitness trainer because it really rounds out what they do with you. If they could work on some of my suggestions above, then I think they could have a very powerful market leader with iTrainHarder. As with most of the other sites, having some backing from a doctor, nutritionist and fitness trainer will help add credibility and “certification” to iTrainHarder. iTrainHarder offers a free week trial. I suggest you give it a try when you are ready to manage your weight and fitness routine.

Screenshots – click to enlarge

Skinnyr is the most basic of the tools tested (it is still very useful!). The idea with Skinnyr is that you can create a graph with your current weight. You can put the graph on any site you are associated with like MySpace or your blog. Here is a test graph I just made to demonstrate:

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