Seeing is Believing with WeightView
WeightView is a digital and personalized motivational tool that uses the power of visualization to help to achieve weight loss success! The site basically works like this: You submit your before photo, they send you back an after photo. You then use that as your motivation. Sounds pretty simple to me.
My first impression of WeightView is that it is a genuinely useful program. Looking at their results page shows many individuals that have submitted their before photos for editing. In one video interview a lady mentions how it actually helped her stay motivated, leading to weight loss. WeightView clearly states that “Seeing is Believing.” This is something that I strongly believe in. It’s the reason I have my old in-shape photos on my fridge and why I have my in-shape before pictures on my about page. I’ve actually considered PhotoShop-ing some photos.
They are clearly proud of the number of people that use their service, which is an impressive 60,000 and growing! That’s a lot of photo editing. I took the time to submit an old picture of my heavier days and am pleased to say that it only took them about 12 hours to turn around a digitally altered after photo. Here it is:
It’s supposed to be me 50 lbs lighter. It’s not ideally how I would want to look, but it’s a damn good start. To be honest, it’s uncannily close to how my real after 50 lb loss picture looks. The See Results section shows all of the folks that have tried the free service. Some are more stunning then others. I would like to see a member page where a member can add their REAL after photo. That would be cool.
Speaking of which, the site needs a more social aspect to it. With all of the press they have been getting, it would be a much stickier site if they had some form of user interaction on the site. As it stands right now a user submits their photo then leaves the site only to return when they get an email saying their photo is ready. Then they leave forever after saving the photo to their computer or printing it. There is no real reason to stay, unless you are curious how the site is evolving or want to submit another before photo.
The viral nature of the site is slightly touched upon with the tell-a-friend feature, but they need way more user/community interaction. Possibly adding a forum or some other social network type of functionality would help take the site to the next level. This would also help cover some of the costs of the site and the free nature of it. I’m not saying to charge for the service, free is good. What I am saying is that with more traffic they can turn themselves into a weight loss social network of sorts and make money from their traffic. Aside from some banners, they are relying on the online shop where you can find diets and other weight loss solutions and aesthetic products. You can find them all at the WeightView Mall.
Ultimately a website like this can only do so much, it is up to YOU to take action to lose weight. WeightView is a great motivator and could be all you need to get started losing weight and getting in shape. It’s a useful website presenting an innovative idea: the power of self-motivation through your own modified images, picturing yourself with considerably less weight.
Fake it till you make it, right? What do you think of the site? Have you heard of it or uploaded your own before photo?
Sweet jeebus, that sound file on the main page was enough to put me off.
I should have warned about that. My bad.
I reackon its a great idea! I kinda doesn’t look quite accurate but close enough to give u a bit more motivation and I think that i the main thing.
If it helps, why not? It certainly doesn’t hurt.
Personally, I don’t find it motivating, more frustrating really. I get impatient when I see pics of my younger, thinner self. I want to get there faster, but I remind myself working to get there slowly is the right way and much healthier. Photos of my recent improvements motivate me the most.
Definitely looks interesting. I’m going to send in a picture of me a year ago and see what the results are.
I guess they just cut the fat and don’t add any muscle?
I’ll email it to you. 🙂
Yeah, would be cool if they had some definition and more details.
I wonder if they use photoshop or some automated program…. Very interesting!
It’s most likely a human editing the images. Not sure though.
I think I’ll take a peek over there sometime soon, they seem to have a great service. I agree that they do need some kind of social aspect to keep people interested and to make people feel connected with each other.
I only wish I would have taken a picture of me 5 months ago and 2 stone heavier. I want a before and after for my header, shame they can’t do it in reverse 🙂
(Know what you mean about the after pic, you seem to have lost a larger than expected amount from your arms)
This sounds like a great tool for the lazy ones that don’t want to lose the weight before searching for a date online. Just get the service to fix you up, then submit your photo to your favorite dating site.
But at the same time this could be very motivational.
I tried it out. I am waiting to see the results.
Cool. Let me know how it comes out.
putting a picture of yourself in a more desirable “hotter” fashion right up on the refrigerator or cabinet will def. work wonders 😛
Very interesting. I havent heard of this site….60,000 is a huge number! I totally agree with the forum. Its a very quick way to increase return visit rate of the site. Also a forum/ community would also fuel the referral system they are putting in place. Banners, adsense could could help give some revenue to have some content developed which leveraged could give some good organic traffic as well.
That’s nuts didn’t know you could get such a thing.
The picture looks really good. Do they charge for this, because I wonder how they make money.
WeightView is CRAP… I sent in images of my before and after photos. Neither image was accepted… They would have gotten some good promotion out of doing my photos. Instead they proved that they are just a silly parlor trick… WTF why not reduce my before pic 50lbs. it is not like I didn’t send them the 50 pounds lighter photo to help them…
Just caught this comment in the askimet spam section, good thing I go in there once a week.
Sorry you feel that way about weightview, I wonder why they didn’t accept the images.
I think you went too far in saying they are a silly parlor trick, they have had several thousand submissions, my sister included. It only take them about 2 days to turn hers around.
I would try again if I were you, or better yet, I will hook ya up. Will send you an email.
perhaps I was a bit harsh… I was just so fired up about my idea on how to promote weight view that when they rejected my images I was a little pissed…
I submitted both my before picture… And my current published picture (after losing 53 pounds)…
I was going to compare the original to the actual and then project with the 2nd… It would have made a great blog post…
I cannot go back and retake my 391 photo nor do I ever intend to be there again… and for that matter I am not super interested in taking a photo in tight clothing…
I would be very interested in having them process the photos I sent though…
That does sound like a good post, would love to see it. Check your email.
It looks like a good program but i think i don’t need it, i love visualization and do it all the time for all things in my life so i think i can do it on my weight. ^^