Everybody’s Talking About Steppa: Finally, A Way To Lose Weight And Money At The Same Time

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, people used to go for walks.

Just because. Just for fun. For no big reward other than feeling good and getting some fresh air.

And now? Oh, we don’t do anything just because. I always joke about switching my smartwatch on when I go for a stroll to record an activity, saying that “I don’t do steps for free”. Of course, I’m being totally facetious and I get nothing out of doing this other than the deep satisfaction of ending the day with the precise knowledge of how many steps my little body has taken since I woke up. And of course, this is fascinating in itself from a psychological perspective for many different reasons, but it’s not the point we’re focusing on today.

The point here is, we seem to have taken things a whole lot further. Now, it’s not just about recording physical activities, but providing incentives for doing them in the first place that are not only instant, but monetary too.

I guess we can track the idea back to the Pokémon GO craze from a few years back, but things have become a whole lot weirder and more extreme recently, and that’s a hill I’m willing to die on.

Have We Finally Gamified Health Enough?

For years, health apps have tried to make exercise feel less like exercise. We got badges, streaks, leaderboards and push notifications reminding us that we’d spent most of the day sitting down. Being told by your watch to “Move!” or, to the contrary, that you need to “recover” still feels very much health and fitness related.

But Steppa takes the concept one step further. Why settle for digital rewards when you could risk actual money?

The app sits at the intersection of two enormous trends: society’s growing obsession with health tracking and our increasing willingness to turn absolutely everything in life into a game.

According to the logic behind the platform, putting money on the line creates accountability. If missing your daily walk costs you financially, you’re supposedly more likely to get moving. Because if there’s nothing on the line, it’s just way too easy to stay indoors, curl up on the couch and make an excuse for why you’re not doing your steps.

And sure, it’s difficult to argue with the psychology, nor am I trying to. Humans are notoriously motivated by the prospect of losing money, and that’s not something worth denying – I mean, I’m certainly motivated by money (in certain contexts, calm down). The question in this situation, however, is whether that’s necessarily a healthy foundation for building long-term habits.

Is It Betting, Fitness Or Something In Between?

Steppa’s central argument is that it isn’t really gambling because users are betting on themselves. And sure, to a point, that’s true – you are essentially betting on yourself, and in many respects, you’re in control of the outcome. Indeed, unlike a casino game or sports bet, the outcome is largely within the participant’s control. If you want to win, all you have to do is walk. Easy, right?

But the idea still feels oddly familiar. After all, the core mechanic remains the same. You put money in, take a risk and hope to get more money back.

The difference here, however, is that instead of relying on luck, you’re relying on your own discipline. And at first thought, yes, that’s something we have control over. But in reality, do we? Surely if we had complete control over our own sense of discipline, we wouldn’t need to bet on it in the first place – we’d just walk, right…?

The Monetisation Of Literally Everything

Perhaps the most interesting question is whether apps like Steppa reveal something larger about modern life – something a little weird and maybe even a little icky.

For years, technology companies have searched for ways to monetise our attention. And then they monetised our social interactions, our hobbies and our spare time.

Now, we’re monetising our walks. What used to be a simple health habit has become something measurable, trackable and potentially profitable.

There’s something slightly absurd about needing a financial incentive to take a stroll around the block. But, at the same time, plenty of people already spend money on gym memberships, fitness coaches and wellness programmes. Steppa simply repackages the same motivation in a different format. Why walk for free if you can get paid to do it?

So perhaps the app isn’t creating the trend so much as reflecting it.

When Walking Becomes A Side Hustle

Perhaps the strangest reports surrounding the concept are stories that some employers have allegedly become frustrated by workers spending large chunks of the day pacing around to hit their targets, and I think that’s kind of hilarious.

It’s not difficult to imagine. A century ago, employers worried workers weren’t moving enough. Now they may have the opposite problem – employees aggressively marching laps around the office car park because they’re 1,500 steps short and there’s money at stake. They’re walking so much that some employees have had to implement absurd rules specifying things like “the number of laps” you’re allowed to walk around the office per hour.

And the image is funny because it captures the contradiction at the heart of the idea. Health is supposed to improve our lives, but when optimisation becomes the goal, even something as simple as walking can start to feel like work.

So Is This Healthy?

The honest answer is that it probably depends on the person. If a financial incentive helps someone become more active, there are certainly worse habits to encourage. Walking more is unlikely to feature on many lists of society’s greatest problems.

But, there’s something fascinating about the fact that we’ve reached a point where exercise, finance and gamification have merged into a single product. Steppa may be a clever accountability tool, it may be a fitness app with a gambling twist or, it may simply be the latest example of our inability to leave any part of life unoptimised, untracked or unmonetised.

Either way, it says something about the moment we’re living in. Because apparently, getting your steps in isn’t enough anymore – now your walk needs a business model too.