Obesity rates have reached epidemic levels in many countries, with an estimated 32% of American adults considered obese. Every year, many of them try countless new dieting fads, exercise regimens, and questionable dietary supplements, but their motivation often sputters out as they see slow results.
In the last few years, many of these determined individuals have turned to YouTube to share their weightloss journeys with their peers, who often respond with heartfelt and supportive comments. But YouTube doesn’t offer a dedicated community for the weightloss crowd, so its functionality is limited.
WatchMEmelt, a TC50 DemoPit company that launches tomorrow, is looking to fill this niche with a community site dedicated to helping users chronicle their weight-loss efforts. Users are encouraged to post video updates on their current progress, exercise regimens they’ve developed, and lighthearted clips to boost morale. The site includes standard community features like forums and groups, where members can share their difficulties with other users who may be in a similar situation (for example, there’s a group for gastric bypass patients).
The site is the creation of Brian Edward Kenny, an entrepreneur who was once obese and managed to lose 50 pounds over the course of a few months. To help increase the site’s exposure, he has recruited Marty and Amy Wolff, two finalists from the television show The Biggest Loser.
At launch the site is a pretty barebones effort, but the defining element of WatchMEmelt’s success will be its community, not its easily-replicable technology. There are many weightloss destinations on the web, including Traineo and 3 Fat Chicks, but this is a vast market that could easily support a number of successes – I could see it becoming a very popular destination provided it can build a supporting community that can self-moderate negative comments and helps members reach their goals.
awesome. glad to see we’re getting posts on on the demopit companies. I have 5 or 6 that I want to write about as well.
“… this is a vast market …”.
Very droll.
This is only the beginning. This site will be on top of the online diet and fitness market. Great Job.
“an estimated 32% of American adults are considered obese” –plus, an estimated 62% are overweight… no kidding! These percentages keep going up.
Unfortunately, and although a few individuals will actually reduce their weight, a web site will not help much in the long run [meaning it will be up until they run out of money.]
The reality is that most overweight individuals would not change their eating habits, for many reasons.
A few years ago I was part of a team applying the weight loss method created by Dr. Everett C. Koop; we used to tell patients that every single day they had at least three opportunities [breakfast, lunch and dinner] to reduce ingested calories with the resulting weight reduction… However, they “just could not live” without pizza, beer, potato chips, ice cream, etc. and watching TV at least three hours a day…
Yes, maybe a web site could help the brave ones for a couple of weeks… What then? they would just forget about it, keep gaining weight, having heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and more. Now you know one of the reasons that health care gets more expensive every year…
Mike, Jason, TC & Mahalo peeps,
Wanted to shout out and say thanks for a great learning experience from the student perspective (not just the budget, which helped, a lot). I met great people, got to drink some free booz, and saw some great companies launch. Your catering to us will go a long ways. Gratitudes.
Ashot from SDSU
I’m interested in checking this out. Not a fan of the name though.
I really like how Gyminee is turning out. Their social features are supporting a good and active community. They give you a lot to do so it gets you pretty involved. The UI just gets under my skin a bit.
I get good vibes from the WMM crew. I think this’ll be a good product.
Check out Sweat365.com — we’re approaching things from a little different perspective. If you’re not looking for a diet, and don’t consider yourself an athlete, but know you want to get active and stay active, the Sweat365.com is for you.
Personal fitness blogs with integrated training journal… training plans, tips on training to run a half marathon, or triathlon, more content focused than places like traineo or gyminee… With a growing community of people supporting each other in reaching their fitness goals.
Even Jillian Michaels described it as “Sweat365.com is a great free exercise site!”
Not bad considering we never even pitched her.
…great presentation to a vast American (worldwide) problem. Hopefully will inspire millions to “melt” the lbs.
I’m not sure if having people who are uncomfortable with their self-images posting videos (and having them RATED) is a good thing. I know community support is key to good weightloss, but there’s a weird balance between privacy and openness that needs to be sought here. For me, physicsdiet.com is all I need, graphs, charts and a forum to post pictures if it’s REALLY necessary. (for me, I’d rather not!)
i love this concept. there are already thousands of videos on youtube of people working out, showing off their progress, or lack of, and many have been vlogging about their experience for months and years. i watch them all the time to get fired up. i think this is a great idea. i can see how watchMEmelt could really catch on. some of these homemade videos are hilarious! i can’t believe what people are posting on the web these days. not me, but i wish them all the best!
Fun…inspirational…informative…inspiring…healthy…life-changing! What else can i say? This is HUGE!