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Some people log a lot of minutes; are they for real? Who’s verifying?

We also wondered about the high number of minutes posted by some participants, so we surveyed the top exercisers during the first year of the challenge to ask them what they were doing. We found that top exercisers include three somewhat overlapping groups of people. The first is comprised of individuals seriously training for a specific sport. This includes a number of competitive cyclists, who typically spend anywhere from six to 30 hours per week on a bike, in addition to regular strength-training sessions, depending on where they are at in their yearly training cycles. In February or March, most competitive cyclists also set aside one or two full weeks for even more concentrated riding in an area of the country where the weather’s a bit more conducive to cycling.

The second category of top exercisers includes moderately active individuals who have one or two extraordinarily good weeks during the challenge, boosting their totals significantly. This group may include, for example, people who spend a winter vacation week skiing in the French Alps or climbing mountains in South America.

The third group is made up of the “Energizer bunny” types, people for whom exercise is their major, free-time activity. One told us that her weekday routine includes yoga, strength training, long walks with her dogs, and a long daily bike commute to and from work. Another individual reports running at lunchtime, lifting weights regularly, taking several exercise classes a week, and walking on a treadmill whenever she’s watching TV.

But given the structure of the getfit@mit challenge, these teams and individuals have no better chance of winning weekly prizes or the grand prize than teams who just barely reach each weekly threshold. As for verification, we were hoping Hans Blix would be available to verify exercise minutes this year. But apparently he was serious about retirement. So, once more, we’re left with the necessity to trust participants to be honest with us and with themselves.

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