Vitality Year in Review 2023: A journey to the moon… 1,713 times!

Johannesburg, 09 February 2024 – Discovery Vitality recently released its 2023 Year in Review analysis, revealing the number of healthy activities undertaken by its members engaging in the Vitality programme. The statistics give context to the scale of Vitality members’ workouts, healthy food choices and rewards from the year.

In the twelve months of 2023, Vitality members collectively walked, ran, swam, and cycled a staggering 1,713 times the distance to the moon. These activities were recorded through more than 87 million workouts, measured through linked fitness devices and the Vitality fitness partner network.

Dinesh Govender, CEO of Discovery Vitality, says, “The activities of our membership base never fail to inspire me. It is encouraging to see the collective activity within Vitality South Africa adding up to people being healthier and richly rewarded.”

The analysis pointed to a declining preference for online workouts which surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 18 million gym visits logged during the year. This means that, on average, Vitality members entered the gym every 2 seconds.

Other interesting reflections of Vitality members’ behaviour in the past year included the most-watched movie – Barbie, which hit the cinemas in July 2023 – and the collective figure of 6,584 kilograms of weight lost through the Vitality HealthyWeight programme, equal to the weight of 54 baby elephants.

The analysis shows that Vitality members completed more than 808,000 parkrun events and more than 1,1 million of Vitality’s members have fitness devices linked. With the rewards members earned in coffees and smoothies, there were enough to stack them up to 112 times the height of Table Mountain.

Govender adds, “I also love the personalised view each Vitality member gets. I did 197 workouts (mostly heart-rate workouts, gym sessions and 10,000 step events) and was thrilled to find out I rank among the top 2% of the most active Vitality members. To help every Vitality member keep their maximum rewards, the date to complete the next Vitality Health Check is also clear. We see the number of HealthyFood items Vitality members purchase increasing, meaning our members are eating more healthy food – the most popular being cucumbers, bananas, and tomatoes.”

Govender adds, “I also love the personalised view each Vitality member gets. I did 197 workouts (mostly heart-rate workouts, gym sessions and 10,000 step events) and was thrilled to find out I rank among the top 2% of the most active Vitality members. To help every Vitality member keep their maximum rewards, the date to complete the next Vitality Health Check is also clear. We see the number of HealthyFood items Vitality members purchase increasing, meaning our members are eating more healthy food – the most popular being cucumbers, bananas, and tomatoes.”

With Vitality encouraging people to earn points for any physical activity, there has been a rise in recording workouts with fitness devices. Members achieving their weekly Vitality Active Rewards goals has become a goal in and of itself, with 3,072 Vitality members achieving 100 goals in a row; 2,758 clocking up a 200-goal streak; 1,948 achieving 300; and 232 enjoyed the bragging rights of a 400-goal streak. In other words, this is a unique club of over 200 extraordinarily disciplined people who have recorded 400 uninterrupted weeks (over 7 years) of hitting their weekly physical activity target.

Vitality Active Rewards is a gamified physical activity platform which uses micro‑incentives and instant gratification to encourage positive behaviour. Launched in South Africa in 2015, Vitality Active Rewards has grown to over 725,000 registered users.

The platform allows members to earn a weekly play on a gameboard for achieving their Exercise, Drive or Spend goals. Each play on the gameboard reveals hidden rewards of varying values, paid in Discovery’s rewards currency, Discovery Miles.

Every time Vitality members achieve their weekly goal; they can choose between an instant reward – a coffee or a donation to MoveToGive – or wait to play the Rewards Wednesdays gameboard.

“A total of 1,438,140 coffees and smoothies were earned last year, and over 80 million Discovery Miles were donated by Vitality members to their favourite charities. The activities of Vitality members and their collective achievements and milestones make for some fascinating facts about the power of community and getting rewarded for being healthier,” Govender says.

The full Vitality Year in Review for 2023 can be seen here.

ENDS