Our Story

Three pudgy guys, three Fatbets, and a combined 90 lbs. lost

In February 2007, our three-family vacation to Hawaii inevitably involved stripping down to swimsuits. One of us peered over his beer at his two friends, and a deep conversation ensued:

"You guys are getting kind of fat. How much do you weigh?"

"Screw you. What do you weigh?"

While jogging and wheezing one morning in the semi-tropical heat, two of us challenged each other to drop at least 10 lbs. over the next 3 months, and the first Fatbet was hatched. The third pudgy guy remained skeptical and opted out.

Back on the mainland, we stipulated the terms of the challenge. We set a weigh-in date and our individual goals, put up a wager, and then began emailing each other our daily weights along with sarcastic bits of encouragement. One of us graphed our progress against our goals and sent daily charts to the other. The Fatbet model began taking shape. (Note the graph below plots our actual weights. On Fatbet.net, we only show what you want to lose.)



At the end of three months, we both made our weight-loss goals, so neither of us had to pay the Fatbet wager.

Next we cajoled still-pudgy guy 3 (who had become our scientific control group) to participate in a three-person Fatbet lasting four months. By the end of it, we had collectively lost 70 pounds and celebrated by running a half marathon.



The third and final Fatbet of the year introduced a maintenance weight concept of simply not gaining weight. Yet again, we all met our weight loss or maintenance weight goals.

The declaration of goals, combined with regular tracking and the fear of losing a group Fatbet worked better than we expected. We also maintained reasonably healthy diets and exercised much more throughout this period, which didn’t hurt either.

Now we are sharing our weight-loss competition system through Fatbet.net. Join us.



Why Fatbets Work: The Research
Fatbet Rules