User FAQ

DailyEndorphin Basic Concepts

User Account & Dashboard

Fitness Device & Mobile App Syncing

Groups & Challenges

Group Creation & Administration

Challenge Creation & Administration

FAQ – Answers

DailyEndorphin Basic Concepts

What is DailyEndorphin?

DailyEndorphin is a highly configurable “DIY” online fitness & wellness challenge event organizer for groups of any size.  Events can be set up either as competition-based or goal-based formats, and can be team-based or individual-based (melee).

What is a DailyEndorphin Challenge?

A DailyEndorphin challenge is an event over a user-defined period of time consisting of teams or individuals competing against each other or collectively working toward a common goal.  Our full menu of highly configurable “DIY” fitness & wellness challenges may be viewed in detail at our challenges page.

What types of groups can use DailyEndorphin?

Any group that has an interest in its fitness, health & wellness (and in controlling health costs) can use DailyEndorphin.  So, basically anyone can use DE!  Types of groups that have completed DailyEndorphin challenges include companies, families, employees of counties, hospitals, churches, schools, physical therapy clinics, local newspaper, friends, and many, many more.

Do users need to belong to a group?

No.  if you prefer, you can simply use DailyEndorphin as your FREE personal exercise and wellness journal, but the real power of our highly configurable platform is when you set up or join one or more of our several group wellness challenges.

How much does DailyEndorphin cost?

DailyEndorphin is FREE for individuals to use and track personal fitness and wellness data.  DailyEndorphin is also free for groups of 30 participants and any of our challenges for up to 4 weeks in duration.  For groups greater than 30 participants and/or longer than 4 weeks in duration, our paid weekly group fitness challenges and wellness challenge option is $.50 per person per week, or as low as $2 per person for a four week challenge.  Our annual membership (our biggest bargain – unlimited challenges for 12 months) is $12 per person, or $1 per person per month.  Full up front payment is due at your group admin page (although we will invoice for balances greater than $999) one week after challenge start date. Refer to our pricing and features page for more details.

DE “Speak” (Terminology & Other Key Definitions)

Group: your over-riding collective entity that can stay open & active for as long as you have an active DE group membership.

Challenge: a finite period of time (has a start & end date) whereby you or someone else within your “group” starts a competition using DE.

Team: a smaller entity consisting of other DE group members within a teams-based challenge and competes against other teams in the challenge.  It could be you and your immediate colleagues, friends, and family.

Conference: a bigger entity consisting of “teams” within a DE group & challenge.  Is often used to break down large challenges into smaller entities to facilitate the ability to offer incentives at multiple levels and keep everyone engaged throughout the challenge. This feature is great for those bigger groups who reside in disparate locations or for those who wish to compete primarily against peers at their own health and/or fitness levels, while still involved in the bigger challenge. Think big company office locations and/or departments or grouping/sub-grouping into different fitness and/or health levels here.

Division: an entity within a conference consisting of “teams” within a DE group & challenge.  Is often used as another way to break down VERY large groups and facilitate multiple incentives at different levels.

Star Endorpher: the term for individual group & challenge participants.  Is another way for groups to incentivize/reward at the individual level as well as group/challenge/conference/division/team levels.  DE buckets exercises into 7 easy categories: top overall, cardio indoor, cardio outdoor, sports, strength training, walking & other.  Star Endorphers are also tracked at the team level as well.

Endorphin Points: points assigned to exercise, wellness, nutrition, and steps.  Exercise Endorphin Points are designed to account for perceived intensity of any exercise activity.  The points system is loosely based on the “METs” (Metabolic Equivalent Table) system, is specific to each type of exercise, and is based on the length of time and intensity in which the exercise was performed.  One’s exercise intensity entry automatically defaults to moderate unless specifically increased or decreased by the user for each entered activity by the endorpher based on the perceived intensity of your exercise that day.  Our system essentially eliminates the variable of weight when calculating one’s calories-burned.  For example, walking for 60 minutes at a moderate intensity will yield 41 points, while 60 minutes of moderate biking will yield 98 points for every endorpher regardless of his/her weight.

Does DE offer a mobile app?

Yes, DE offers both the Android & iOS mobile apps as a FREE value-add to our service. Users may log & track key personal and challenge leaderboard data on the go right from your smartphones. Over time we will be adding the ability start & join challenges, as well as other fun, interactive features.

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User Account & Dashboard

What is required to create an account?

You can create your FREE personal DailyEndorphin account with just an email and unique password.  You will be asked to provide additional optional information, such as height, weight, gender, etc.  This is of course optional, but it will allow Daily Endorphin to calculate your personal health and fitness metrics.

Can others see my weight and personal information?

DailyEndorphin is fully compliant with HIPAA rules and regulations, which means all of your personal information is secure and cannot be viewed by anyone else without your permission. If you belong to a DailyEndorphin group, no one in your group will be able to view your personal health information. The only personal information viewable by others is the information relevant to a challenge that you voluntarily chose to participate in (e.g. minutes exercised). If you choose to participate in a weight maintenance challenge, no one will see your actual weight, however percentage weight lost and/or pounds lost may be shown.

How do I change my password?

Your password can be changed in one of three ways: 1) When logged in, navigate to “Profile” and click “Change Your Password” 2) Click “Forgot Your Password?” from the log-in page. An email will be sent with instructions. 3) Request a password reset email to be sent by your group administrator (if you belong to a Daily Endorphin group).

How do I log data?

Log into your personal dashboard and go into the “My Log” area located in the upper middle left of your screen.  Once in the “My Log”, select the exercise(s) from the drop down box above, enter the values you wish to log next to the respective item (e.g. running), and select the level of intensity and add any additional information if applicable. You may also log your daily nutrition & wellness data from this area as well. For those looking to log only once a week, you may also utilize either our calendar feature or week log feature located in the header area of your “My Log”.

How can I add or remove exercises in the logging area?

From the “My Log” area in your user dashboard, select your exercises from the drop down box at the top. From there, you can select or revise the exercises that you do on a regular basis. Any entries you make to existing ones will overwrite the previous entry entirely.

How can I go back and enter data for past days?

Click on the small calendar icon above the “My Log” area.  Then click the desired date, and enter your data.  To log up to 7 prior days at once, you may also utilize the “Week Log” in the top right-hand corner of your “My Log” as well.

How do I clear and/or revise exercise, wellness, or nutrition data?

Click into the entry you wish to revise or delete. For exercise, enter a zero (0) to clear data or enter the new value you would like to change the previously logged value to.  This will over-write (replace) any previously entered data in that field.  For nutrition or wellness, simply uncheck the box you wish to revise. Remember to click the “log it” button once again to finalize the entry!

Why does the data in my “Stats” area not correspond to the challenge I am participating in?

Your “Stats” area in your personal dashboard lists information from a user-defined starting point through today.  This date range may not be the same date range of you challenge.  In addition, the stats area reflects ALL data you have logged and does NOT selectively gather data only specific to a challenge you are participating in.  In other words, if you are participating in a walking challenge but are also logging data for aerobics, your “Stats” area will show both walking and aerobics while your challenge standings will only reflect what you logged for walking.  In order to view different data in your personal stats area, be sure to click on the small calendar icon in that area and enter any date of your choice.  This will allow you to see daily and weekly averages, or totals from that date through today’s date.

Fitness Device & Mobile App Syncing

How do I sync up my fitness device or mobile app with my DailyEndorphin account?

Your DE challenge “group” administrator should first set up a paid DE membership that includes a steps or lifestyle challenge (including the steps metric) and then invite you to register for that challenge. Upon registering for that challenge, users may sync up a fitness device or mobile app from the list with your DE account by clicking the blue “link your device” button when registering for the challenge or later on at any point before or during the challenge in the “news & notes” area of your user dashboard. Users must then continually sync up their daily steps data contained in your device or app that’s been linked with your DE account on a regular basis. This is done by regularly opening that your device/app account that’s been linked up to DE. DE will continually sync sync up with the updated steps data listed in your device/app account and challenge leaderboard page on a regular basis every 30-60 minutes or so.

Which fitness devices & mobile apps does DailyEndorphin sync up with?

DE syncs up with an array of fitness devices and mobile apps that cover over 80% of the device market in the U.S. This includes an array of free mobile apps and low cost devices, to higher end devices. These include: Fitbit, Garmin, Jawbone, Apple HealthKit & Watch, Google Fit, Misfit, Withings, Moves (FREE mobile app), and Argus(FREE mobile app).

What types of device & app data does DailyEndorphin sync up with?

DE currently syncs up with the steps metric in our steps challenges (both competition and goal formats) and lifestyle challenges (competition format only right now). Longer term, DE will be syncing up with other key health and fitness metrics such as active minutes, weight and conversion to our “endorpher” points system as well.

What considerations should I make when setting up or joining a DailyEndorphin challenge integrated with fitness devices and apps?

First determine the main things that you’re trying to accomplish with your DE challenge(s). For example, if you’re simply looking to engage your challenge mates to move more and reward those individuals and/or teams who do so (on a weekly or overall basis), then one of our steps challenges would probably be a good fit. If you’re looking to track and reward challenge participants for other key health and fitness behaviors, then one of our lifestyle challenges (e.g. any combination of exercise, nutrition, wellness, and steps points of your choosing) is probably the right choice. Or, maybe a combination of different DE challenges that you can set up and run at once is the answer? That way you and your challenge mates, can join which ones speak to you and your individual needs and goals the most. The bottom line is there’s something for everyone on our platform, given its flexibility that allows you to set things how you see fit. Please note! The data represented by each device and/or mobile app may vary to different degrees, depending on the device brand, type or mobile app synced to DailyEndorphin. For this reason, if you are seeking a true “apples-to-apples” comparison of data listed in your DE leaderboard, whenever possible, we recommend using the same fitness device and/or brand, or mobile app within the same challenges.

Groups & Challenges

How do I join a group?

When your group administrator sets up a group, an email invitation with a link will be sent to you.  This link may also be tied to a challenge.  Click on the link or cut and paste it into your internet browser, and follow the steps to join the group and, if applicable, the challenge.

How do I join a challenge?

When your group administrator sets up a challenge, an email invitation with a link will be sent to you.  Click on the link and follow the steps to join the challenge (and if applicable also join a team within the challenge). Please note that for your first challenge, going directly to our site to sign up with WITHOUT that unique invitation link will NOT get you into the challenge!

Who is my group administrator and how do I contact him/her?

You can identify your group administrator(s) from your personal dashboard by clicking the group name under “My Groups & Challenges”.  This group page lists the administrator(s) with an option to contact that person via email.

I successfully joined my group but I am not in the challenge. Why?

Chances are you did not complete the invitation acceptance process.  To join the challenge you can either contact your group administrator or you can click on the main unique challenge invitation link provided in the original email invitation from your group administrator or other colleagues, friends, or family. Please note that for your first challenge, going directly to our site to sign up with WITHOUT that unique invitation link will NOT get you into the challenge!

I joined the wrong team upon signing up for a challenge.  How can I switch teams?

If your group admin has selected the option for you to change teams, you may do so while logged into your DE account by clicking the orange “change teams” button. If that option is not available to you, please contact your group administrator to move you between teams.

Am I required to exercise with my teammates?

No.  Although this is not uncommon, and even encouraged, it’s entirely up to you.  With that said, your group/challenge administrator may create a challenge where they require group exercise.

How many days back can data be logged toward a challenge?

For the sake of keeping people honest during a challenge, the maximum time you can go back and enter past data is 10 days.  You can log beyond that, but it won’t be counted toward your challenge.

How can I change my team name?

Only team captains can change team names.  If you are a team captain, expand your team page area within your user dashboard.  Then click the edit (small blue “e” icon) button next to your team name to change your team name. From there, edit your team name, and click the “save” button to confirm it.

How can I communicate with my teammates?

You may communicate with teammates or your team captain alone during the challenge from your team page. From your team page, simply click on the small envelope icon next to your team name at the top of the page or the team captain’s name. This should automatically bring up your email app with the email addresses of your teammates populated in it. RFC (tech) standards state that it will be brought up as a comma separated list format. If you wish or need to change this default setting, you may do so via your settings in your email app. For more information on how to change your settings if using MS Outlook 2003 or 2007, please visit Microsoft Support.

How long do challenge participants have to enter all remaining data before the challenge goes final?

All participants have until 12:58 CST the day AFTER the official challenge end date to enter any remaining data before the challenge report goes final.

Group Creation & Administration

How do I create a group?

You can create a group from your personal user dashboard by clicking the small blue “Register My Organization” button in the upper right hand corner while logged in.

Do I need to pay for my group at the time I set it up?

No. You can set up your group and invite people to join prior to paying.  However full payment is due for the balance owed one week after your initial challenge start date.

How to pay via check (request an invoice) vs. credit card?

You can pay for your group and challenge at the time you set up the challenge or at a later date from the group management page.  Credit card payment is required for all balances under $1,000.  Groups that owe $1,000 or more can request an invoice be sent to pay via check(s).

How do I manage my group?

Group administrators will see a “Group Admin” tab within their personal dashboard.  By clicking that tab, group administrators will be taken to a group administration page where you may manage everything in your challenge, including editing the challenge, moving team members, removing group members, paying for your group membership, etc.

Can I reset passwords for my group members?

Yes.  You may reset any group member’s password from the “view/edit members” page within you group administration page in your user dashboard.

Can I contact all my group members?

Yes.  You or any of the other group administrators may send messages to group members from the group administration page in your user dashboard.

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Challenge Creation & Administration

How do I start a group challenge?

If you are starting a challenge within an existing DE “group” you already administer, click the “Group Admin” tab next in your user dashboard.  Select the challenge you wish to build from the middle of your admin page, and follow the short steps in the set up wizard to set everything up and invite participants.

If you are starting a challenge for a group that has not yet been setup with DailyEndorphin, then click the blue “Register My Organization” button in the upper right hand corner of your user dashboard. DO NOT USE this button if you are looking to join an existing group & challenge set up by another person! You will need to join an existing DE challenge for the first time through a unique invite link that was likely distributed to everyone at some point. Follow up with your main DE group admin to procure that link.

Can I edit an existing challenge?

Yes.  This is done from the group administration page.  Be careful when editing a challenge after it has started, as this may negatively impact the current dynamic of that challenge.

Can I edit the my group structure (team hierarchy)?

Yes. You can edit your group structure (of teams) from the group structure management page, which is accessible from the group management page.  In the group structure management area you can add or delete conferences, divisions and teams, or move existing divisions, teams or individuals by dragging-and-dropping to a new location.  Take special care in moving teams and individuals between teams once the challenge has started as this may impact the integrity of the team standings.

Can group members join a challenge after it has started?

Yes.  Group members have up to one week following the start of a challenge to join unless the admin selected a different deadline date to sign up.

Who in my group is permitted to start and administer a challenge?

Only the group administrator can initiate and administer challenges. Group administrator’s may, however, assign full admin rights to other group/challenge members from the “view/edit members” page within the group admin page once they have joined.

What is the optimal duration of a challenge?

The optimal duration of a challenge depends on the type of challenge.  DailyEndorphin generally recommends 6 weeks for your first challenge, regardless of the type of challenge, and for all exercise challenges of at least moderate intensity.  Challenges lasting up to 12 weeks or longer work well for exercise challenges of mild intensity (e.g. walking/steps challenge) or for weight management and nutrition challenges.  But keep in mind that participants are most motivated in the early stages of the challenge – you would rather your challenge end a week or two too soon while the energy is high instead of going several weeks too long.

What kinds of incentives should I offer my group?

    • Cash
    • Gift cards
    • Smaller weekly rewards, raffles, or other “carrots”
    • Extra vacation days
    • Reduced health premiums (Please consult an attorney to ensure you are in compliance with state and federal laws.)
    • Bragging rights
    • Prime parking spaces
    • Sporting event or theater tickets
    • Free lunch or dinner
    • Trophy

Do I need to have an even number of participants on each team in a team-based challenge?

No.  Team-based challenges rank the teams on the teammates average contribution.  With that said, DailyEndorphin suggests that team sizes not vary by more than a few people.

What is the role of the “team captain” during a challenge?

Technically the team captain’s only administrative role is to manage/change the team name.  Team captains also serve as their team’s motivator and often encourage participation through internal communications and leading by example.

Can I add my own custom nutrition and wellness habits during a challenge?

Yes, when setting up in any of our paid lifestyle and/or nutrition/wellness challenge memberships, the challenge group admin may set up as many of your own “custom” nutrition and/or wellness habits, and corresponding attached points values to each one of your choosing.

Can I hide any of the exercise/nutrition/wellness/steps tabs or entries that I’m not using for my challenge(s) in the user dashboard “My Log” area shown to participants during a challenge?

Because DE is designed for any of our users to either start or join multiple challenges at any time and/or track their own data throughout the year on a personal basis outside of challenges, the exercise/nutrition/wellness/steps tabs cannot be entirely hidden during a challenge. Although the nutrition and wellness habits or entries that you have NOT selected to count in a challenge during the set up cannot be hidden for participants entirely unless you’re on a privately branded “white labeled” DE platform, those items will be hidden in the background in the “My Log” area on the actual start date of of your challenge(s). Please note that that this is where effective and repetitive communication with your challenge mates on specifically which exercise/nutrition/wellness/steps items you’re focusing on for a particular challenge is critical. Please also note that multiple active challenges within a DE “group” removes the ability to hide DE’s default nutrition/wellness parameters to the background, but only if a participant is in more than one challenge. Challenge participants may also view which entries the admin has selected to count in any given challenge by clicking and expanding the blue “challenge details” section to the top right of the leaderboard page while logged in. Anything not selected to count in a challenge by the group admin will NOT count towards the leaderboard tally but will be for personal tracking purposes only.

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