This week Fitt Insider surfaced a thesis worth arguing with. Biotech entrepreneur Christian Angermayer told the New York Times that healthcare is shifting from treating disease to maximizing human potential, and described off-label GLP-1 use as "outsourced discipline." His bet, as the issue frames it, is that programmable human enhancement will upend old-school behavior change and make performative wellness obsolete.
If you operate a gym, a studio, or a fitness app, that's a direct challenge to your business model. It's also, we'd argue, only half right.
Passive is winning the sensing layer
The same issue makes a strong case that measurement is going effortless. Throne raised $10M for a toilet-affixed sensor that uses computer vision to analyze gut health, with ambitions toward early colon cancer detection. Withings and Kohler are embedding health sensors into toilets, and Casana's Smart Seat captures blood pressure trends, heart rate, and SpO2 through existing daily behavior. The FDA also tapped Dexcom for a Medicare wearables pilot.
The pattern is clear: data collection is becoming something that happens to you rather than something you do. That's genuinely good. Passive, longitudinal monitoring catches things self-reporting never will.
But sensing is not the same as doing. A toilet that flags a trend still needs a human to change something, and no sensor has solved the part where a member has to actually train on a Tuesday in February.
The gap between knowing and doing is the whole business
Angermayer's framing is useful precisely because it names what people are buying: a way around effort. But even the most optimistic version of that future leaves the behavior problem intact. Medication changes appetite; it doesn't build strength, community, or a habit. And for the fitness brands serving those people, the question is unchanged — how do you get someone to show up consistently when nothing is forcing them to?
Cadoo Games answers that with the two levers that reliably move behavior: other people, and money. Members stake their own money with friends on a specific goal. Missing isn't abstract — it costs you something, in front of people you know. That's social accountability with real consequences, rather than a streak counter.
What that gives an operator:
- Consistency between visits. Recurring games run in the days a member isn't in the building.
- Verified effort, not self-reporting. The camera counts reps and scores form. Steps and distance come from Apple Health or Google Health Connect.
- Marketing that members produce. Verified workouts turn into shareable, skinned videos carrying your brand, which beats the reach you'd buy.
Operators are already buying engagement
The money moves in this issue back that up. Health club software developer ABC Fitness acquired Replify, which builds AI agents for member engagement — a straightforward signal that clubs will pay for anything that keeps members active and reachable. Sworkit added clinician-guided musculoskeletal care for workforces, and Nike teamed with Hyperice on recovery slides using heat and vibration.
Engagement, recovery, adherence: the industry keeps buying pieces of the same problem. The reason is simple — a member who stops showing up cancels, and no amount of sensing or supplementation changes that math.
Our own view is that the strongest adherence tool available to a brand is a member's own social circle, with a stake attached. It doesn't require a prescription, a new device, or a change to your programming.
What to do with this
Treat the enhancement wave as a reason to double down on what drugs and sensors can't deliver: belonging, competition, and the small weekly commitments that compound. That's the part of your product nobody can compound into a pill.
We're also building toward letting winnings convert into credit or perks at the brand itself. That's on our roadmap and not live yet, but it points at where this goes — a member's consistency feeding directly back into their relationship with your business.
Curious what that looks like for your members? See Cadoo for brands, or email Tim@cadoo.io.
Frequently asked questions
What did Angermayer mean by "outsourced discipline"?
As reported in Fitt Insider, he used the phrase to describe off-label GLP-1 use — people buying a pharmacological route to results that previously required sustained behavior change. His broader thesis is that healthcare will move from treating disease to maximizing human potential.
Do wearables and passive sensors replace the need for engagement programs?
No. Passive sensing improves measurement, which is valuable, but measurement is not motivation. A sensor can tell a member their trend is worsening; it cannot make them train. Brands still compete on adherence, which is a social and behavioral problem.
How does staking money change member behavior?
It makes skipping concrete instead of abstract. Members commit their own money alongside friends on a defined goal, so the cost of missing is immediate and visible to people they know. That combination of social visibility and financial stake holds up better than reminders or streaks.
Is this compatible with members using GLP-1s?
Yes, and arguably more useful for them. Medication changes appetite but doesn't build strength or habit, and maintaining muscle while losing weight depends on resistance training. A recurring, social game gives that training a structure and a reason to keep going.
