It’s no longer just about counting your points in the good old Weight-watchers’ style. A couple of years back when Nintendo Wii first came out it was advertised as a good game console for your health: It gave its users a weight-control application (where one could follow the progress of their weight curve) and some sports-related games that made them move physically.
Some employers and fitness centers have also started to use motivation programs where one could collect points for visiting the gym a certain amount of times per week or performing a certain set of exercises per day.
Then along came the Facebook- and mobile apps that encourage people to move. HeiaHeia let’s one brag with their accomplishments concerning running, swimming, walking the dog, or anything that is in some way sports-related. Then the motivation started to include some gamelike elements: Nike+ motivates one to move by keeping track of their actions and Zombies, Run! motivates one to run by scaring them off with the threat of some brain-craving zombies at loose. Suddenly, it’s all a game.
This guy actually lost a hundred pounds, thanks to this kinds of apps, he claims. Doing sports is not so hard, but gaining the motivation to do them can be. With game-like mechanics one can get inspired to move and lose their weight in healthy ways. Motivation can do miracles, huh?
