Hi there!
I've read on an article about the site that adding actual money into the bets definitely increases winning outcomes, especially if you choose to donate it to an "anti-charity", an organization whose views you strongly disagree with.
With the anti-charity, the average compliance is 80%!
For myself, I would want to put my money against myself in the "worst" way possible
and I would choose an anti-charity from their lists.
And I would make it a BIG potential loss. Since they have my credit card number -- and I would use a debit card to make it even more threatening -- there would be no weaseling out.
I think I would set it up so that every week (or every month), I'd have to lose X pounds. Maybe 1.5 pounds/week, or maybe 2 pounds/week. And then, if I missed a week or a month, I'd have to pay in $50/week, or $200/month. Then I'd have a final contract too, that if I didn't lose all the weight by X date, I'd fork over, hmm, $2,000? To me, that's a really large sum, and one I would definitely not want handed over to my anti-charity.
In fact, right now, I am waiting on a replacement debit card in the mail, after having my original one used for fraud (grrr!) early this week. But my bank has been great at replacing the money... once I have my new card, I'm planning on joining Stickk.com. I should have it by September 4th.
I am an expert weasel-outer
and I find it all too easy to justify slip-ups and continue saying "I'll start over tomorrow." This way, I'll have a real financial and moral incentive to stay the course.
I think it's a great idea.