Bet You Can Stickk to Your Diet: Website Uses Gambling to Help You Meet Weight Loss Goals

The first thing you may have noticed is my spelling of the word stickk in the title. It was quite intentional. This is because I am talking about a brand new website called stickk.com.

Stickk.com is the brainchild of a Yale economics professor and a few other Yale academics. They believed that people would be better motivated to meet their goals if they had something to lose. With that said, stickk.com allows users to make bets against their goals, and if they do not meet their goals, they lose money. They can decide (in advance) to give that money to a charity, or an anti-charity (an organization they despise).

So far, the motivation provided by stickk.com seems to be working. There are rave reviews written by many newspapers and books. In addition, after just 4 months on the internet, stickk.com has attracted over 14,000 members willing to gamble against their goals.

After joining stickk.com, a user would draw up a commitment contract for achieving a personal goal. This goal can be announced to the general public or to specific people. You also have to appoint a referee to keep you honest and to make sure you are meeting your goals. You can make your agreement based on incremental goals such as one pound a week lost, or you can do an overall goal for 100 pounds in a year.

If you are not the betting type, you can keep your commitment based on a reputation agreement. If you want to up the ante, you can bet money against yourself. If you meet your goal, you get the money back. If you do not make your goal, you use money.

Stickk.com is not only for weight loss. You can use the website to help you meet any number of goals such as exercising regularly, quitting smoking, running a marathon, and other miscellaneous goals such as stop eating chocolate, paying off credit card debt, or going to church every week. (That last one is a bit of an oxymoron!)

I have to say that this is the most original idea for weight loss that I have ever come across. While I do not see myself betting money based on pounds lost, I am actually toying with the idea of using the site to force myself to exercise every day. I figure I can use stickk.com as a sort of forced savings account, betting against myself in small increments. When I meet my goal, and cash out, I can purchase a new wardrobe.
Of course you can skip using the website altogether and bet a friend or family member over who will lose the most weight, or meet another goal in a certain amount of time. Still, the people at stickk.com have certainly found a way to motivate people by hitting them where it hurts most.