Skinnyo – Turn Weight Loss Into a Game

It’s time to make good on those New Year’s resolutions. Skinnyo is a web-application that groups of friends can use to stage weight loss challenges and fitness competitions online. Teams and individuals can create custom challenges that run the gamut, from exercising three times a week to losing 30 pounds by May.

If you and your friends are ready to make a change, then head to Skinnyo and sign up for a free account. Once you’ve gotten logged on, you can create a profile, join public challenges, connect with friends, and update your weight as the pounds drop off. Groups of friends who’ve all joined at the same time will want to start their own challenges together. When you start a Skinnyo public challenge, you and up to 16 friends can set weekly reminders and post messages that are meant to inspire each other. Team challenges are also a great way to track your friends’ weight loss progress, since each player’s updated weight and stats will show up on a team graph that anyone can view. To turn up the volume on your group competition, split off into teams or pairs and set up a reward for the team that loses the most weight or completes the most physical activities. Although public challenges are free, teams that crave a little more privacy will need to pay a $10 fee.

People who’d rather go it alone can still use the Skinnyo site. Browse through the public challenges that other people have created and join a few challenges that mesh well with your personal goals. The participants who’ve lost the most weight are listed on the challenge leaderboard, and individual milestones are highlighted on the challenge timeline. For people who get motivated by competition, Skinnyo could be an excellent way to shed some pounds before summer.

Practical Uses:

• Host a competition among colleagues to see who can lose the most weight
• Share your weight loss progress with friends online
• Challenge your family members to a fitness competition
• Get motivated by seeing how much weight other people have lost

Insider Tips:

• Users can join ongoing challenges or start their own
• Search for friends on Skinnyo by name, email address, or Twitter handle
• Users earn badges for completing certain tasks and challenges
• Public challenges are free, while private challenges cost $10

What we liked:

• Skinnyo is a great solution for workplace weight loss challenges
• Skinnyo could be the motivation that people need to finally get fit
• People can join as many public challenges as they want
• Groups of friends can motivate each other through the Skinnyo site

What we didn’t like:

• Users can’t join challenges that have already been marked as ‘full’

Alternatives:

• LifeMojo – http://www.lifemojo.com
• MyFitnessPal – http://www.myfitnesspal.com
• Shrinking – http://shrinkingapp.com

Company Info:

• Launched: November 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: United Kingdom
• Founded by: Tom Moor and Hannah Cattell
• Web site: http://www.skinnyo.com

Costs:

• Free
• Private challenges cost $10 to create