Atkins, Paleo, South Beach, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and various cleanses and diets are all well-known names because they provide what people want: Help losing weight. People want the support, the guidance and the limitations to regulate what they eat, how they work out and how they can make changes to their lifestyle to improve their health, weight and appearance. Wearable technology has jumped in on this market, with fitness trackers like FitBit, Nike FuelBand and Sony SmartBand helping users track their daily activity and performance levels. However, many people still fail to lose weight after numerous diets, programs and workout schedules.
Enter Retrofit Group, a new product launched to help with weight loss through a combination of hardware, software and personalized coaching sessions.
The program uses Fitbit and Withings scales, an online dashboard and dedicated coaches available through video conferencing as its recipe for success. It just released out of a six-month beta, now serving 100 companies including Google and Salesforce.com.
The company believes in the power of human accountability – the program is designed to match users with experts based on their personality and objectives, whether that means a drill sergeant, a supportive friend or a restaurant menu expert. These experts track the data from users so they can pinpoint what works and what doesn’t, and then they set up one-on-one video conference sessions to focus on specific, customized goals, challenges and strategies.
Retrofit high achievers lose 35 pounds, and the average client loses 19.1 pounds throughout the course of the program. Fifty percent of the program’s clients are men, including Fortune 500 CEOs and professional athletes. Users can also select a group option of up to 30 people, which is great for a group of friends, relatives or co-workers. Plans run anywhere from $148 a month to $298 a month.
“We're not going to take away your wine or your pizza. We'll work to fit in what matters to you, and we'll build that into your life. Retrofit isn't a diet plan. It's a different way of living that is better for you … and sustainable for the long-term,” the company’s website reads.
The program decided to opt for video conferencing sessions for a few reasons. For starters, its typical client balances a demanding career with frequent travel, so the flexibility of video conferencing is a benefit. Since sessions are online, they can be held virtually anywhere on a wide variety of Internet-connected devices. Communicating through video also replicates a real-life scenario, allowing users to use face-to-face communication to develop relationships.
This type of program highlights the benefit and potential of online, real-time communication. It’s similar to the recently introduced Google Helpouts, which also aims to connect users with experts, but includes experts and topics from a range of industries and purposes.
WebRTC, a technology that enables this real-time communication right over a browser, aims to make audio and video communication over the Internet more accessible (no plugins, no downloads, no installations) and easy to use (click to call). Retrofit also uses other real-time capabilities on its website, such as live chat.
Many companies have already started exploring the impact of WebRTC in healthcare environments, but the fitness landscape has remained relatively untouched so far. It will be interesting to see how programs like Retrofit’s expand and grow as people and companies realize the benefits of using the Web as a value-add to services and programs.
As more organizations design programs based around video conferencing and communicating over the Web, more people will understand the potential of using video communication as part of their day-to-day lives, and the benefit of speeding up these communications and making them easier to access.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
