Product Review: Have You Got the FitBug Yet?
I can almost hear everyone saying ‘FitBug? What on earth is a FitBug – and is it catching?
Well, don’t worry too much, FitBug has been around since 2005 and claims to have helped over 100,000 people. It is a smart on-line system designed to help people achieve their fitness goals. FitBug themselves market their product as ‘your personal health and well-being coach’, but how does it work?
FitBug is a simple little gadget, similar to a pedometer, that tracks your calories and steps – it has been designed to help you achieve your weight, fitness and healthy-living goals. It brings together on-line health pages and the ‘Bug’ as they call it which plugs into FitBug’s coaching website and tracks your steps, calories burned and more. Fitbug then sends you realistic activity and healthy-eating targets each week based on your progress, feedback and encouragement to keep you on track, and provides access to your very own pages. They say that the system does not ask you to make dramatic lifestyle changes or live on a diet of lettuce leaves to get the results you’re after, but it encourages small changes.
How it works:
- You buy into the programme.
- Complete a short online questionnaire to provide your personal information and confirm what you’re hoping to achieve
- Keep the Bug with you so it can record your activity
At the end of the first week, the programme will have enough data to start putting together a personal plan for you. From then on, you continue to keep your Bug with you – you can clip it on your waist or keep it in your pocket.
Your Bug connects to your PC or Mac and it sends your achievements directly to FitBug which then allows you to see your progress on your personal pages. FitBug analyses your progress from the previous week and contacts you by text message and email to give you the next week’s healthy-eating plan as well as the number of steps you should be aiming to achieve.
You can log in to your personal area on FitBug at any time to use the easy to follow charts and track your progress and see results. You can also access leagues, challenges and competitions just for fun.
FitBug is quite clever as it has latched on to the fact that effective weight-loss comes from managing the right balance of food that you eat with the activity you do to create the perfect energy balance. They state that FitBug adapts your plan every week according to your progress and it promises that the healthy-eating plan and the activity programme will leave you full of energy and health whilst dropping those additional pounds you may be carrying and all while you carry on with your normal day to day routine.
FitBug also works with companies including Tesco, BP, Ford, Channel 4, etc and on their website they share information about how they are working to promote health in the workplace – something I think should be commended.
So, how much will it cost?
There’s always a cost!
FitBug is no different, it is a system that we pay a monthly fee for, but they do offer two price plans to help you pay for it.
Price Plan 1:
This is called the Flexi Plan. It has no contract which means it gives a little more flexibility for you. The first months coaching costs £29.99 followed by a monthly fee of £4.99.
Price Plan 2:
This is called the Premium Plan. It gives more value for money as it includes 12 months coaching membership and costs a one-off payment of £64.99.
FitBug is compatible with Windows and MacOS and when you choose to buy into the system, you will first chose your payment plan, then you have a colour option for your Bug and they ask for your personal details for delivery of the Bug and also whether you have a Nectar Card – Nectar are currently offering 1000 points when you sign up and offer other incentives for number of steps achieved and other goals. You need to create your login and password for your personal area on FitBug and you can also name your Bug.
- Other incentives offered for signing up include:
- £10 Sainsbury’s giftcard for each friend who subsequently joins FitBug’s 12-month plan
Prudential Insurance also offer a Vitality programme to their members which includes data from your FitBug – worth a look as it offers money off vouchers for points.
A bit of background to FitBug
Last year FitBug signed four new agreements with new and existing customers which extended its customer base in both the US, the Middle East and Europe. The deals were among the early successes of a strategy to ratchet up Fitbug’s sales and marketing efforts following several years of product development. In April 2011, the company hired ex-Bupa director Fergus Kee as executive chairman, who ploughed £200,000 of his own money into the company and set about expanding its presence in key territories, including the all-important US market. Mr Kee said that the recent deals demonstrated the market potential and strengthening interest in the proven capability of Fitbug’s services to deliver effective health behaviour change with an appropriate price and promotional strategy.
Among the agreements was a new partnership with Anxa, a major provider of wellness and nutrition products and services in Europe and Asia. There were also deals to provide workplace health programmes for two major US corporations, where the Fitbug service was offered to a total of 16,000 employees. In addition, the company secured an order worth £200,000 from existing customer Holmes Place International, the health and fitness club operator, in the Middle East and Europe. Fitbug also signed a partnership agreement with Vitality Healthstyle Pty Ltd, which is the rewards subsidiary of South Africa’s largest private medical insurer, Discovery Health.
Fitbug’s services as we have learnt, combine online health and wellness coaching with a device that allows users to track their achievements. The company is one in a portfolio of health and fitness oriented businesses run by AIM group Add Leisure plc, which was restructured and renamed in late 2009. Since then the company has finished developing its platform and turned its attention to establishing more partnerships as part of its business-to-business strategy.
Paul Landau, Fitbug’s chief executive, said: “After significant results in product development these recent transactions confirm the role that Fitbug can play as both a stand-alone Fitbug.com branded proposition and also as a white-label solution that sits behind our clients’ own web portals. Importantly, the international nature of these deals also highlights the versatility of what we have created and the role that Fitbug’s technology has the potential to play both at home and abroad.”
Fitbug’s partnership with Anxa will see its technology marketed by Anxa’s subsidiary, Aujourdhui.com, which is France’s leading diet club and boasts 60,000 members. Meanwhile, developments in the US, where Fitbug has been active with numerous small programmes since 2010, will see it roll out two large employer schemes through its US strategic partner, The Vitality Group. More than 16,000 employees from both companies will clock their steps to earn Vitality Points, redeemable for merchandise and other rewards. The first of these companies is a supplier of services to healthcare providers in the US and the second is a pharmaceutical company. Finally, Fitbug’s £200,000 order from Holmes Place International will involve a phased launch over the next 18 months targeting the group’s new membership category, Holmes Place 2Go, which was launched last year and is now achieving significant traction and sales. The Fitbug share price responded with a 21% rise to 4.25p.”
I look at it this way – if a company’s financial success can be taken as a reflection of it’s product’s success, then I would say this product is worth a second look.
If you would like to find out more or simply look at the product, go to my website at www.easiestwaylose10pounds.com/members complete the registration form with your name and email (I need your email address so that I can send you my FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER) and then you have full access to my website and shop.
Well bye for now, I’ll be back with more articles, reviews and posts soon
Best wishes
Chezzy Mac
