Fatsecret: For Fat People Who Want To Be Less So
Michael Arrington
50 comments »
There’s a new Australia-based social network called FatSecret - it’s designed to help overweight people leverage a network of friends and online resources to lose weight. Like Traineo, which we wrote about last year, Fatsecret focuses on building a support network around you to monitor your progress.
Users first state their current and goal weights, and are urged to report in daily with their updated weight. This data builds a graph that is included on their profile page showing progress over time. Each user is also provided with a blog/journal and can add other Fatsecret users as friends.
Users are given information on various diets (Atkins, South Beach, etc.). Diets are commented and ranked by other users, creating a top list. There is also a recipe area with a detailed breakdown of the nutritional value of the recipe, along with user ratings and compliance with various diets. Users can upload their own recipes in a very structured way, and Fatsecret will calculate the nutritional value by analyzing the amount and types of ingredients.
Fatsecret doesn’t currently have any way to encourage or track exercise, and this is a natural place for expansion.
Overall the service is a great resource for people trying to lose weight. I believe Traineo’s method of getting four friends involved who will monitor your progress via email is a a really good idea. With Fatsecret, unless you make friends on the site or get your existing friends to also join and become members, it could quickly become a very lonely place. I would also like to see Fatsecret provide the weight graph as a widget, so users can add it to their website (see Skinnyr).
CenterNetworks has a good overview of some of the other new weight loss focused websites.
“I believe Traineo’s method of getting four friends involved who will monitor your progress via email is a a really good idea. ”
Reminds me of fatblogging by Jason Calacanis. But the point is, will it attract critical mass? cant email do the same thing?
haha! I can’t believe poster #1. My very first thought when I saw the word “fat” was of Jason. Pretty sad actually.
Fortunately the movement itself Jason has ignited is pretty awesome if its helping folks become a better self.
There is like a billion sites that already do this one way or another. We get it - community weightloss, social network for for overweight people, diets you can google, recipes you can google, nutritional values you can lookup in 100 places. To top it off this particular site seems to have been designed with web 2.0 in mind yet looks terribly 1.0
It’s really becoming popular to create exact but uglier replicas of sites that have existed for ages (particularly those at the bottom of internet rankings such as countless weightloss social networks), with an extra feature or two to really show uniqueness and innovation.
Sounds like a good idea. Such topics usually have people bonding in communities (same as in pregnancy - probably a social network on that as well). Although, Like Tp says, it seems that anyone who wants to start loosing weight and sharing progress can already find other alternatives. Like many web 2.0 versions of existing implantations, I guess Fatsecret has some work cut out in order to prove its necessity and advantage, and only thus gain users.
I don’t think they will have much success with the current name. There is something off-putting about “fatsecret.”
@5: They had to settle on their second choice. Their first choice was taken: “lardsecret.com”
This is as good as deadpool. Just a prediction. But I wish them the best.
At least the target market is “BIG” must be over 100 million yanks, that’s a lot of shmulz to work with!
Now we got just another weight-loss community. No. 100?
Good luck!
I think the name (Fatsecret) is going to keep away quite a few people.
lol…there is no secret to fat loss:
it’s just to burn more calories than you intake, or consume less calories than you outtake.
well i guess you can call it a “secret” if you don’t know.
Good and noble intent; tough, crowded market. As several others have pointed out, this is a poor choice of domains; the natural and immediate “mind message” with “fatsecret is,” “Here’s the secret to getting fat!”
Better choices would have been something along the lines of (though these are taken; why not make them an offer?) SlimSecret or SlenderSecret; where they’re saying they have the answer/s to looking better, not worse.
Wish them the best nonetheless.
Good news. Bad news.
Weight challenged people are like financially challenged people.
They
1) don’t want to know that they’re fat / poor
2) like things that *lie* to them telling them they’re thinner /rich
3) don’t want to fraternalize with other people sharing the same lie
The good news is that weight loss is a billion dollar market
Watch out deadpool another obese network coming in…
That is a great website. Having a community of support always helps with weight loss. I used to use the Atkins website to monitor that stuff but you did it on your own. That is a great concept.
im skinny, someone create me a social network for skinny people that want to gain weight.
Marc, you can use skinnyr for that reason, too…
#12: You do realize that your conclusion and premises directly contradict one another, do you ? (That’s on top of the premises themselves being complete assertions that barely pass for brain farts.)
Slow news day (or month)? Is it me or has the quality of TechCrunch articles gone way down…
As always, there’s a shortcut to getting slim - this time thanks to HP
Good concept. Bad name.
Mike, I was just wondering the same thing …
I actually don’t mind the name and the keyhole logo is kinda cute. No one has done the diet market well at all (have they??) and this is an interesting attempt as it recognizes that atkins, south beach…are what people actually do to lose weight. There is room for a category killer in this space.
This just goes on to show how hard it is choose a new domain name even though the idea itself is quite good.
I agree that a domain name with a positive outlook would have been better in this case. Possibly they could have looked at something like myslimsecret.com or something like that.
A few of you have made good points.
However
I wonder how many of you have BMI’s that are a little high. I’d be the first to say mine is. But sites like this offer (1) avenues for resolution (2) a shoulder to cry on when you’re had one eclair to many, and not to mention (3) bouquets when you achieve.
The two things I’m prejudiced against are fat people and poor people , so anything to minimize either of their numbers is welcomed. Then again, I’m kind of a jackass…
It’s Amazing how people create Web 2.0 Sites, and Social Networking sites, for something I’d never imagine would never have a social-networking-like site for it. Fatsecret: It is a bit of a strange name..
thanks for the link love Mike!
The thing that always bugs me about these type of sites is that the overhead to use them (logging everything) is so onerous that the average member’s enthusiasm seems to wane quickly and account activity tapers off rapidly.
Take a look at BIMactive as an alternative: download a java applet to your gps-equipped cellphone (like a moto KRZR, for example), and it logs and uploads your path, speed, calories etc automatically when running, biking, etc. That’s cool, and a killer differntiator:
http://techfold.com/2007/04/04.....ma-heaven/
mike have you signed up??…lol just kidding.
There name…. Fatsecret is good, but would not the idea be ThinSecret? Or they could by “shameless promotion†my domain. http://HowToLoseWeight.com seriously its for sale, give me a call. 415-750-1921, cheers Wayne
G’on you mate! It is really good to the Aussie talent.
Well done.
Prashant @9 - Yeah, I agree the name sucks.
The thing is, if you’re fat, it’s a little hard to keep it secret. And if you’re already fat and everyone can see, why would you want to keep it a secret that you’re trying to lose weight?
Does being fat mean you’re weak or bad? What if it’s genetic (my parents also eat lard sandwiches 3 times a day!)
Neato. I used to be pretty fat. When I went vegan I slimmed down and it was much easier for me to gain muscle mass without gaining fat.
The name is no good -
- If this is not older than “the secret” book then they stole it from that.
- I think a name like LetsGetFit.org or something would be soo much better.
Check out sickofbeingfat.net
hahaha fat people.
I thought FatSecret was for people who were happy staying fat. There are a gazillion weight loss sites. Yawn.
You can tell by the number of comments that it’s a topic of interest. Their success may be insured by the fact the people will remain fat.
I definitely don’t believe the chart on their home page showing their member avg. weight loss on all the different diets.
They’re all positive = > is everyone lying? Of course, there’s no scale on the graph. How do they interpret “avg weight loss”?
So if you are really looking for a 2.0 site for weight loss check out PumpOne.com. We figured that it is probably hard to lose weight while you are at a computer entering your ‘weight loss’ info 3 times a day.
We build visual workouts for your iPods, PDAs or mobiles. What makes us 2.0? Not only do our professional personal trainers build workouts, but we’ve opened it up so any certified professional can sign up and use our images to build their own customized workout programs. We have a network of PT throughout the country.
Sorry for the sales-y comment but i figured a different approach to weight loss is in order.
I’m guessing they make money from advertising revenue. I want to know who vets the ads. It must be so hard not to let a PPC chocolate bar ad go live on the site.
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More seriously, sites like this aren’t anything new. I used journaltosuccess several years ago to lose 20lbs.
http://www.journaltosuccess.com/
It’s a good idea, but far inferior to SparkPeople. SparkPeople tracks your diet, will offer you a nutrition plan (with recipes and grocery lists!) if you choose, tracks your exercise, has a good selection of articles and motivational techniques, and a great social-networking feature that’s somewhere between Myspace and Facebook, I’d say. The best part to me, though, are the Sparkpoints. While they don’t amount to anything intangible, basically you are awarded points and trophies for healthy behaviors. Like achievement points for diet and exercise.
Basically, it’s very full-featured, and, unlike a good many other sites (which I like, but which feel incomplete to me now), highly customizable.
What most people have failed to realize, even the sparkpeople slave, is that the site deals with popular culture i.e. people do atkins, are on weight watchers etcetra and that people actually CHANGE their diet, so it is smart to set it up so people can try different things. The last thing people need is another healthy living type site, aka not reality. This site says, do what you want to do to try and lose weight and here’s some tools and a bunch of people in the same boat. Eventually someone’s going to crack the online weight loss market one day in a big way.
Just what the United States needs, ha ha!
I am fat and fat enough to now that I have lost my connection between my body and the universe. Being fat is not only about eating, but it is about lying to yourself about your life. I am not emberassed for how I look like ,but I feel that I need to get to know myself better to solve my problems. I feel alone and this may be what I really need.