Participating in a DietBet

A few weeks ago, I heard about FitFluential‘s January DietBet. I had never heard of DietBet before and was intrigued. Here’s how it works: DietBet is a social diet game that involves $$. You cough up some mula to join or start a challenge – in this case it was $25. Everyone puts in the specified amount of money, essentially betting that they can lose 4% of their body weight in 4 weeks. At the end of that time, whoever lost the 4% splits the pot evenly.

Here’s how the weigh-ins work: You have to take a full-length picture of yourself in ”airport attire” standing on a scale, then immediately take a photo of your weight on the scale at the beginning of the bet. DietBet is pretty smart about reducing cheating, and they email a secret word to you right before your weigh-in, which you need to have present in the photo. This eliminates anyone taking the picture a month ago and pretending it was yesterday. It’s the exact same weigh-in process at the end of the bet. You have to wear the same outfit and use the same scale both times. Clever!

I debated whether or not to take part in the challenge, and then figured why the hell not?! As I talked about in my post about my health & fitness goals for 2013, I’m looking to tone up a bit anyways. 4% of my body weight is a little over 5 pounds, and I definitely think I can lose that healthily in a month. Besides, I think that doing a challenge that involves money and competing against other people will really make me stick to a healthy regime. Win money for losing a few pounds? Sounds good to me!

One Week In: Since the DietBet started a week ago, I’ve been working out most days and eating healthy as usual, but I’m just kicking it up a notch. I’m happy to report that I lost 3 pounds in the past week! It’ll probably be less in the next few weeks, but I’m still feeling great about my progress. Here’s the key to me shedding a few pounds: Everything I eat I measure out and track in MyFitnessPal. PORTIONS, PORTIONS, PORTIONS! I’ve treated myself to something sweet a few times, but it’s in moderation. I’m feeling great and am looking forward to meeting and exceeding my DietBet goal!

One reason why I was hesitant to do the DietBet to begin with was that I didn’t want to get too obsessed with the scale. I know how easy that is to do. From reading the comments on my DietBet’s message board, it seems like some people are getting really fixated by the number on the scale. Obviously this challenge is all about the scale, but if people are freaking out about every little thing they eat and drink, they’ll most likely gain the weight back. The gist of one man’s comment was this: He was at 300 pounds throughout the morning, then in the afternoon, hit the 200s, but then later on was  back into the 300s. I winced a bit when I read that. Weighing yourself a number of times in one day? Not good for your health and well-being. Your weight naturally fluctuates a few pounds throughout the day based on how hydrated you are and if you just ate a meal. Making yourself crazy by constantly stepping on the scale is extreme, and the vast majority of people can’t sustain that.

I also saw that people reached their 4% loss on Day 2. Ha! It was pretty entertaining to read the rather angry comments people left about it. Even though we’re technically competing against one another, I’m not concerned with who reaches their goal when. All I care about is making healthy choices and steadily losing my 4% (and hopefully a couple of pounds beyond). Besides, to lose 4% of your body weight in a day or two, either you gorged yourself full of water and crap right before your weigh-in, which I think is kinda sorta cheating (and if you do that, you aren’t helping yourself!); you are dehydrated on day 2; you’re rapidly losing water weight, which happens a bit at the start of a diet; and/or you’re starving yourself. Whatever the case may be, I’m good with where I’m at and am not fretting about it. I hope that people lose weight, but that they do so in a healthy manner.

My overall DietBet plan is to keep it healthy and happy, and if I notice that I haven’t lost any weight for a bunch of days in a row, I’ll figure out where I’m lacking and work to fix it. For now, I’m good to go and am going to keep on truckin’! I’ll be updating you on my progress in the upcoming weeks. If anyone out there needs an extra push to lose a few pounds, consider checking out DietBet. It just might be the motivation that you need! And remember…