Weight loss programs have notoriously low long-time success rates. As far as we know, for most people losing a substantial amount of weight and then keeping it off over a couuple of years is practically impossible.
So I wonder if the Beeminder crew has made statistics about the clients’ success. Does everyone lose some weight, then stay on a plateau for a while, and then start gaining back (at which point they archive the goal and start over or something)? I suppose this would be expected if beeminding worked similarly to regular weight loss programs. But perhaps the money penalties make beeminding much more successful?
The graph is mostly red because I use the feature allowing to expand the lane width in order give myself time to get back on track without altering the goal.
On the one hand, as Mark Forster noted, you’ve been “let off the hook” with each derailment. Conversely, we don’t maintain the fiction that you’re on track, so you restart where you actually are, and go from there.
Yeah I get why the graph is behaving the way it does, I just haven’t gotten serious enough (or been highly motivated enough at the $30 pledge cap) to behave in a manner that will make for success.
I appreciate the link to @bee’s post. I’m starting several more proactive weekly steps (and goals) today.
My own weight graph is set at a modest down slope of ¼ kg per week and is capped at a $0 pledge.
For me it’s all the other goals that make it the success that it is. Success in this case is that I don’t weigh 20kg more than I do today, not through having lost very much, but through not having gained very much.
