Social gaming site effective weight loss tool, study shows

DietBet, a web-based commercial weight loss program that pairs financial incentives with social influence, delivers significant weight losses, a study has found. On Dietbet.com, players join a game to lose weight while betting money on themselves. Players all have four weeks to lose four percent of their starting weight. At the end of week four, all players who have lost at least four percent of their initial body weight are deemed "winners" and split the pool of money collected at the start of the game. To verify weight losses, players submit photo-based evidence of their weigh-ins to DietBet's referees at the start and end of each game.

Read more...