Social gaming website could aid weight loss

A web-based commercial weight loss program could help users shed some pounds.
Scientists at the Miriam Hospital Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center in the US studied the effects of DietBet.com, where players join a game to shed some pounds while betting money on themselves. 
Gamers are given four weeks to lose four per cent of their starting weight. When the time period has finished, everyone who has lost four or more per cent are crowned winners and split the pool of money. 
Lead researcher Dr Tricia Leahey and her team studied almost 40,000 players over the course of seven months. Winners were found to have lost an average of 4.9 per cent of their initial body weight and won an average of $59 (£35).
Dr Leahey said such online initiatives are accessible to many, but little investigation as to their effectiveness has been carried out thus far. 
“This study could help consumers lose weight together as part of a web-based community.”
The full findings of the study can be viewed in the open access publication JMIR Serious Games.