Discovery Health - Vitality & Team Vitality plus everything else you need to know

[wolver]

What you can do it cut out the warmup and cool down.

Just record the interval session which should be over 70% of your max.

 

Like that you'll know if the data is syncing and if it is you'll get some points.

....... If getting a smoothie is more important than tracking your actual training

Edited April 28, 2016 by wolver

[garrethk]

How did you manage to average over 80% MHR for 210+ min? I can maybe do it for 60min, but to average that for anything over 90min is almost impossible for me, even at race pace. :-(

Hit that on most mountain biking rides, especially with a quick group. Road seems a bit tougher, but doable.

 

Sent from my E5603 using Tapatalk

['Dale]

Did 31 mins at threshold this morning
How many smartie points can I expect?

 

Edited April 28, 2016 by Puncheur

[jcza]

Moaning is the new exercise. A problem for every solution. Anyone that bothers will easily achieve 300 points per week without a Garmin (or another approved device). 

[Frosty]

What is your average HR for the workout, and how old are you?

Make sure the strap is tight enough. The wife had a problem of it not recording ALL the time. A 90-min ride might only record for 15 mins.

[Frosty]

I normally average around 85% for VB races that is between 2-3 hours.Chasing attacks or attacking at 90-95% and then coasting at around 75-80% inbetween.

In the Emperors though my average was below the 80% as we rode mostly in peleton with not much attacking.

 

For training I struggle it would be a tough day if I average 75% as There is always the warm up , and cool down in the last few km's.

My Max Heart rate is pretty much in line with the 220 minus age as well.

It seems most of the people at Emperors had an easy ride. I wanted to stay as close to the front as possible, from a safety perspective but also as I was using the race as a training ride for another upcoming race, i.e. Ride from home, race, ride home again.

 

As a result, my HR for the race only was 92% of DiscoMAX, and 83% for the full 145km ride.

 

Some rev high, others don't... and that for me is one of the flaws of the new system... [edit] no two people are the same.

Edited April 28, 2016 by geraldm24

[BarHugger]

Moaning is the new exercise. A problem for every solution. Anyone that bothers will easily achieve 300 points per week without a Garmin (or another approved device). 

Agreed......but what about 1200 points......

[Frosty]

Did 31 mins at threshold this morning

How many smartie points can I expect?

 

They don't give out smartie points... [emoji12]

[BarHugger]

I really need to get back on my Mompsen.......I have been hitting target collecting smoothies and perving at the ladies in the pool training for Ironman......comforting to think that those pretty toned hard working athletes will earn a 100 points whilst I obtain the same drinking my free smoothie........

[Uni]

Here's a spanner in the works - if they say ok, we're sorry, we got it all wrong and you can have your points, your smoothies, your apple watch - and then a few months down the line premiums increase - obviously to recoup costs - though they'd never admit to that - which would be worse?

 

Most of us would be paying thousands already each month for that R35/week smoothie, the few hundred rand cash back on events / healthy gear etc? 

 

It's only been a month since they made the changes - and they sure as hell have been flamed - but so far they haven't backed down. Either way - IMO - the end user is the loser - whether you're a loser with an iWatch on your wrist and a smoothie in your hand - it's not Discovery that's going to lose. 

['Dale]

They don't give out smartie points... [emoji12]

What a stupid system then ????

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Here's a spanner in the works - if they say ok, we're sorry, we got it all wrong and you can have your points, your smoothies, your apple watch - and then a few months down the line premiums increase - obviously to recoup costs - though they'd never admit to that - which would be worse?

 

Most of us would be paying thousands already each month for that R35/week smoothie, the few hundred rand cash back on events / healthy gear etc? 

 

It's only been a month since they made the changes - and they sure as hell have been flamed - but so far they haven't backed down. Either way - IMO - the end user is the loser - whether you're a loser with an iWatch on your wrist and a smoothie in your hand - it's not Discovery that's going to lose. 

Indeed, usually always the case, it doesn't effect me (although when in SA I did have Discovery Vitality, used it often and thought it was very good) but glancing through the posts here it really doesn't seem fair, any reward programme is designed to retain and incentivise the user equally, it just doesn't strike me as fair that one person slogs out a 5 km run in the wind and rain, another drives up to the door walks in, swipes, then goes home to sit in front of the TV and they are both rewarded equally.

 

People have busy lives today, after a tough day at the office, (and remember not everyone's "office" is an office,... some people do brutal manual labour), and you are tired and hungry, its easy to just go swipe collect your minimal points and go home, but, perhaps if the reward (points) was worth it, you may be incentivised to drag your butt out and go do a 5 km run,.... dont know, just my mileage,.. others may differ.!   

[BarHugger]

Here's a spanner in the works - if they say ok, we're sorry, we got it all wrong and you can have your points, your smoothies, your apple watch - and then a few months down the line premiums increase - obviously to recoup costs - though they'd never admit to that - which would be worse?

 

Most of us would be paying thousands already each month for that R35/week smoothie, the few hundred rand cash back on events / healthy gear etc? 

 

It's only been a month since they made the changes - and they sure as hell have been flamed - but so far they haven't backed down. Either way - IMO - the end user is the loser - whether you're a loser with an iWatch on your wrist and a smoothie in your hand - it's not Discovery that's going to lose. 

From what I gather and as far as I can ruffle up it does not really have much to do with the i-watch or the smoothies but more about how they conduct themselves.......allocate points......and the target zones they have given to be adhered to........but yes the end user loses out all the way.......

Edited April 28, 2016 by BarHugger

[BarHugger]

Not sure if they would want to?  As I understand it, the aim is to get people healthier, so that they can spend less on medical claims. You are healthy already - there's no incentive for them to reward you ... unless you get unfit again, in which case you'll make the target again and they can start to reward you again.

It's not a case of wanting to.....it's a case of having to......then they might as well tell the fit crowd (and not me included as per your suggestion) that they don't want them on the Vitality program......I am very keen to see how many more complaints und unhappy people there will be when they start setting the weekly goals at around 800 on the current plan....even for the unfit crowd......

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Here's a spanner in the works - if they say ok, we're sorry, we got it all wrong and you can have your points, your smoothies, your apple watch - and then a few months down the line premiums increase - obviously to recoup costs - though they'd never admit to that - which would be worse?

 

Most of us would be paying thousands already each month for that R35/week smoothie, the few hundred rand cash back on events / healthy gear etc? 

 

It's only been a month since they made the changes - and they sure as hell have been flamed - but so far they haven't backed down. Either way - IMO - the end user is the loser - whether you're a loser with an iWatch on your wrist and a smoothie in your hand - it's not Discovery that's going to lose. 

Uni, I've been giving this some thought lately, and honestly I don't think they're ever going to lose, even when looking at this in isolation - ie just the watch and smoothies, not gym savings or anything else. 

 

Consider a single member, at R 200 per month for Vitality. Consider that in order for them to start making a loss, the client MUST hit all their targets, every week, and claim 2 smoothies / coffees each and every week. Smoothie is the more expensive option, so let's take that as an example. R45 per smoothie is the most expensive option. So that's R 360 per month for smoothies, and R 200 per month for the watch. R 560 per month for both options. 

 

That's the equivalent of just less than 3 memberships "reward" for one payment.

 

Previous figures estimate that the overall level of "active" Vitality members (ie Gold / Silver) was in the region of 15-20%. That is, 80% are not engaging. At all. That means that for every one person who is using it properly, 4 aren't. Now that the Active Rewards has come through, they've seen an approximate 30% increase in overall activity. Let's even increase that by 50% - taking that 1 in 5 to 1.5 in 5 (20% to 30%). 

 

Let's apply that to the numbers above. 

 

From R 560 spend (by Discovery for a fully engaged individual) per R 1,000 contributions

 

To R 840 spend (50% increase) per R 1,000 contributions.

 

Now, I know that this is by no means accurate, as there are FAR more members not using any of the benefits than I've supposed above, and there are hectic cross subsidisations & savings in place across the board (savings on life policy payouts & reductions in lapse rate & health claims) but the above just shows that even with a 50% increase in "engagement" and a full utilisation of the benefit of the watch and smoothies, the Vitality program still pays for itself. 

 

Factor in the rest of the benefits and the other cross subsidisations, and it's even more profitable. I cannot stress how much this actually saves them on an annual basis. Client retention alone is worth FAR more from a profitability standpoint, not to mention the claims reductions.

 

Fact of the matter is - a few smoothies and watch premiums are not going to bother them one single bit. 

 

People abusing the system, however, does worry them. It's a behavioural analytics thing for them, and they want the data to be as clean and reliable as possible. That necessitates a dramatic shift from the initial guidelines, which - to be frank - were laughably simple to manipulate. 

 

It WILL change in the future, of that I have no doubt. Was it a shift too far from the initial goals? Yes, but the more I think about it the more I think it was a deliberate action. To get as far away from the manipulators as possible, and actually get some clean data from which to build the goals up from again. 

[Thor Buttox]

Agreed......but what about 1200 points......

Moaning about moaning is double points