In The News
12/8/14 - The Most Popular Diets of 2014Choosing a weight loss plan isn't easy … while we know that the best healthy eating focuses on whole, real foods and plenty of fruits and vegetables, this year certain ways of eating proved more popular than others-at least on the Internet. In fact, Diets in Review (DIR) culled their site to see which diets were the most popular among their readers this year, coming up with the 25 Most Popular Diets of 2014. … more »
8/26/14 - Retrofit Bulks Up Corporate Weight-Loss Effort with bswiftChicago's Retrofit Inc., a tech-enabled weight-loss startup backed by J.B. Pritzker, Larry Levy and Jai Shekhawat, is teaming with BSwift, a Chicago-based health insurance services company. BSwift LLC will offer Retrofit's weight-loss program through its Springboard Marketplace, an a la carte private health exchange that will roll out this fall to hundreds of employers to offer benefits to workers, as well as benefit brokers. "With the corporate market, you get dozens or hundreds of customers, versus one at a time," says Retrofit CEO Jeff Hyman. … more »
7/7/14 - Staying Productive While Staying ActiveWhile keeping active in the workplace is a big component of workplace wellness, it is not the only one. Retrofit, a corporate weight loss company also based in Chicago, has designed an app to complement your fitness tracker. The company provides additional encouragement through live, online training sessions with wellness teams consisting of registered dietitians, behavior coaches and exercise physiologists. While not exactly in the category of devices, it nonetheless is offering a valuable workplace solution for time-starved workaholics, et al. The overweight problem in the U.S. is at crisis levels, no doubt exacerbated by poor diets, but a contributing factor is the rather sedentary nature of knowledge-based work. It's no surprise, then, that innovation is coming to the workplace to address this perpetual problem. … more »
7/2/14 - Medical Myths: What Doctors Thought They Didn't Need to Say
Common knowledge when it comes to all things health and medicine might not be so common after all …CNN reached out to health care providers, seeking stories of patients armed with surprising medical misinformation. … Exercise alone isn't enough to lose weight "The patient tells me he or she has been on the elliptical each day for 45 minutes, and that the machine says 700 calories have been burned. They get on the scale, and find there's been no weight loss." It's a common myth that exercise alone will help a person lose weight, said Brad Saks, a clinical psychologist who serves as science adviser for Retrofit, a data-based weight-loss program. People tend to overestimate the number of calories they burn and how hard they worked out. … more »
Common knowledge when it comes to all things health and medicine might not be so common after all …CNN reached out to health care providers, seeking stories of patients armed with surprising medical misinformation. … Exercise alone isn't enough to lose weight "The patient tells me he or she has been on the elliptical each day for 45 minutes, and that the machine says 700 calories have been burned. They get on the scale, and find there's been no weight loss." It's a common myth that exercise alone will help a person lose weight, said Brad Saks, a clinical psychologist who serves as science adviser for Retrofit, a data-based weight-loss program. People tend to overestimate the number of calories they burn and how hard they worked out. … more »
6/2/14 - Employers Tackle Obesity, Boost Bottom LineRetrofit CEO Jeff Hyman on new ways employers are creating healthier workplaces. … more »
3/24/14 - The Next Big Thing You Missed: The World’s Best Weight-Loss Technology Is ShameJeff Hyman has a message for anyone trying to lose weight with mobile apps and tracking gizmos: Without a human in the loop, you’re probably going to fail.New mobile technology that tracks your daily behavior certainly can help you lose weight and keep it off, he says, but you also need face-to-face support from real live experts who can provide tips, moral support, and accountability. … Excess weight and diabetes are huge contributors to medical costs, and organizations can drive down these costs with app like Retrofit. Hyman and company have already signed up Google, Salesforce.com, the NFL Players Association, and the American Medical Association. Using GoToMeeting video conferencing software, employees can elect to meet with their advisers as part of support groups, driving costs down to $56 per month … more »
1/16/14 - Retrofit Helps Trim Different Kind of Corporate FatJeff Hyman, CEO at Retrofit, explains how his company works with corporations to create a healthier workforce on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg Surveillance" … more »
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1/6/14 - Up-And-Comers: To Your Health! Jeff Hyman RETROFIT - A visit to a weight-loss resort inspired Hyman, 45, to start a service that gives its users personalized programs to lose 10% to 15% of their weight in 12 months, interacting with coaches through Skype. He says more than 90% of his clients have shed an average of 20 pounds within a year, and half of them are men. Retrofit has raised $15.7 million, and it nearly tripled its customer base in the past year. … more » |
1/2/14 - Retrofit Targets Corporate Flab, Weight Watchers, and 'Stupid Diets'We all started the year full of resolve, didn't we? 2014 is going to be THE year. Those extra pounds are gone, baby, gone, starting today! Promises like these are at the core of the $20 billion weight loss business. But one stumbling block to success is the speed at which these promises are broken. After all, recent studies show that just 8% of people actually keep their New Year's resolutions. But this year, remorseful overindulgers have a new option – one whose early results ought to worry the likes of Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. Fortune has learned that Retrofit, a two-year-old Chicago-based company that takes a personalized approach to weight loss, is this morning announcing Retrofit Group, a new, behavior-driven program that targets companies seeking to drive down their health care costs. … more »
12/20/13 - Retrofit to Help Companies With High-Tech Approach to HealthOne Chicago startup, Retrofit Inc., is working with corporations, instead, to help overweight employees shed pounds and develop healthy habits using Web, mobile and wearable technology. It has raised $5 million in new venture funding to take on Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and other corporate wellness programs in the U.S. that focus on weight loss. … more »
