Why the quiz has to change
The leak is not the price. It is that the funnel answers a question she did not ask.
In the live code the weight goal maps to no scoring axis (GOAL_AXIS[1] = null, mode weight). The diagnosis screen shows Primary goal: Lose weight, especially around my middle directly above Balance is where you have the most to gain. The plan blocks are hips, back and the floor. The testimonials are the banister, the sneeze and the afternoon slump. She names what she came for on screen 5 and none of the next 27 screens returns to it. In the August diagnosis 33 of 34 paywall viewers scrolled past the plan cards and not one tapped.
The science delivers the middle and barely moves the scale. Exercise cuts visceral fat by about 6% with zero weight loss (Verheggen 2016, 117 studies). A 12-week home programme in 226 postmenopausal women moved waist by −1.4 cm while controls gained 2.0 cm; the scale moved −0.5 to −2 kg. Meta bans weight-loss before/after imagery, and the ASA banned a 12-week menopause programme for "rapid fat loss". Her own words already separate the two: "it's not the weight gain, it's WHERE I'm gaining it."
So: no height, no weight, no goal weight, no BMI, no scale curve. Shape, clothes, firmness, and her own tape measure instead.
The women who pick the middle carry the same functional stack as the women who don't: 47% cannot get off the floor unaided, 57% stiff in the lower back, 75% leak at least sometimes, 88% sleep badly. The middle is the ticket she buys with. The programme she needs is the one we already have. The job is to make the quiz say so.
What to take from BetterMe, and what to leave
From the 28-question women's onboarding teardown and the 52-step web funnel we walked. Mechanics transfer; the four tricks do not.
| BetterMe mechanic | Take? | Our version |
|---|---|---|
| First click is the CTA and the consent (age cards) | Yes | Age bands as the door. Cheapest possible first tap. Live screen 1, stage on photo cards, loses about half of arrivals. |
| Cohort-matched proof after the first answer: "7 million women in their 30s" | Shape only | A claim about the mechanism, not about us. No user counts until we have real ones. |
| Goal, then a goal-echo interstitial: the ask → reward rhythm | Yes | Every Act closes on an interstitial that quotes her answers back. |
| "When was the last time you were at your ideal weight?" | Reworded | "When did your shape start to change?" Timing, not weight. A shift, not a failure. |
| Body type and dream body, feeding the rendered body | Replace | "Where has the weight settled?" and "What else would make a difference?" Shape and clothes; no pictures of bodies. |
| Metabolic self-typing → "you have the ectomorph body type" | True version | "What have you already tried?" then the mechanism screen. Name the shift, normalise the stall, attach the lever. Real physiology, cited. |
| Interests branch: meals, workouts, fasting, cycle | No | We sell one thing. |
| Medical accommodations early, justified inline | Have it | Keep s2-10 where it is. |
| Nutrition section: diet type, "bad habits", water | No | One sentence instead: "No diet." It is the anti-position her forums ask for. |
| Agree/disagree objection statements (time, willpower) | One | "My body doesn't respond the way it used to, whatever I do." Then the reframe. |
| Height, weight, goal weight → "Your BMI is 27.5, overweight" and a risk panel | Never | An optional waist tape, hers to keep. No band, no verdict, no projection. |
| Event and date → a weight curve landing eight days early | No | A function-and-firmness timeline, marked typical, not promised. |
| Staged loader; name used on the very next screen | Have it | Unchanged. |
| Paid plan pre-selected; the trial costs $5 a month more; no close button | No | Plain-text terms under the CTA. The "12-week programme that is secretly a subscription" is the most-complained-about betrayal in the niche. |
| Now → Goal table: "Body fat: dangerously high → high" | Honestly | Rows from her own answers, and a "Your middle" row that says what changes and how she would know. |
| A one-line rationale under every sensitive question, plus a "Sources of recommendations" link | Yes | Some live screens carry the line; make it every question in Acts 1 and 4, with one "Where this comes from" link to the evidence page. It is most of what makes 28 questions tolerable. |
| Zero product surface before the wall; the quiz is the demo | Test the opposite | A 20-second clip of the week-1 session on the plan screen, before the price. For an unknown brand one seen movement may do more than another interstitial. |
Your middle
Live act is "About you". Nine screens, seven questions. Ids keep the live sN-N where a screen survives; new screens carry a proposal number only.
| # | Screen | Replaces |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 door | How old are you? 45–4950–5455–5960–6465 or over The first tap is the CTA and carries the Terms line. No intro card. | s0-1 intro, s1-1 stage door, s1-3 age |
| 1.2 interstitial | The middle changed for a reason. It isn't willpower. After 50, fat moves: from under the skin to around the organs. Muscle falls about half a percent a year. Doing what used to work, harder, stops working. The next few minutes work out what will. | s1-2 "You're not unfit" |
| 1.3 single | What would you most like to change? Lose the weight around my middleFeel firmer and strongerHave energy that lasts the dayMove without stiffnessFeel steadier on my feet | s1-4, same question, honest that the middle is the door |
| 1.4 new · multi | And what else would make a difference? Fit my clothes againFeel like myselfKeep up with the grandchildrenSleep through the nightProtect my bonesStop getting puffed on the stairs | BetterMe's secondary goals |
| 1.5 new · single | Where has the weight settled? Mostly around my middleMiddle and backEverywhere, but the middle mostHips and thighsHard to say, I've lost my edges | s1-5's "shape changed" item |
| 1.6 new · single | When did your shape start to change? In the last year or twoGradually, over five years or moreAfter something specific: surgery, stopping HRT, an illnessHonestly, it's always been like this | BetterMe's "ideal weight" and "best shape" questions, reworded off weight |
| 1.7 single | Where are you with menopause? PerimenopauseMenopausePostmenopauseNot sure | s1-1, moved off the door. A personalisation input, as Reverse Health does it |
| 1.8 new · multi ★ | What have you already tried for it? Eating lessCutting carbs, or a named dietWalking moreClasses, a gym or an appPilates or yogaHRTNothing yet, this is the first step The objection harvest. Fires 1.9 and the rebound variant at 4.2. | Nothing live |
| 1.9 interstitial ★ | It's not that you stopped trying. The rules changed. Three tiles. Deep belly fat: oestrogen falls and fat moves to around the organs, from 5–8% to 15–20% of body fat. Muscle: down about half a percent a year; less muscle, lower resting burn. Sleep: broken nights push cortisol, which stores at the waist. Then the line built from 1.8: "Eating less on its own takes muscle with it, the thing that burns. That's why it stalled." Close: "The lever with the strongest evidence for deep belly fat is strength work. It cuts visceral fat by about 6% even when the scale barely moves." | s1-6 "It's physiology. Not willpower.", re-aimed at the middle |
Gone from Act 1: s1-3 (now the door) and s1-5 (its diagnostic items already score in Act 2; the shape item became 1.5). The no_intro arm becomes the only arm.
How you move today
Kept almost whole. This is the only part of the quiz that drives the programme, and the movement questions are what make the reveal feel measured rather than asserted.
One framing line at the top of s2-1: "Your middle responds to how much muscle you carry, so we need to know where your strength is."
| # | Screen | Change |
|---|---|---|
| s2-1 | In a typical week, how much do you move? | keep |
| s2-2 | Can you get up from the floor without using your hands? | keep |
| s2-3 | Can you carry shopping up a flight of stairs without stopping? | keep |
| s2-4 | Can you stand on one leg for 10 seconds? | keep |
| s2-5 | By mid-afternoon, how do you usually feel? | keep First cut in the lean version |
| s2-6 | Where do you feel stiff or achy in the mornings? | keep |
| s2-7 | These aren't separate problems | keep One added line: "the same hormone shift that moved your middle" |
| s2-8 | Do you ever leak when you cough, sneeze, laugh or jump? | keep |
| s2-9 | Then we won't ask you to jump | keep |
| s2-10 | Anything we should work around? | keep Last screen before the reveal |
| s2-11 reveal | Strength is what moves the middle. Here's where yours is. "You said you want to lose the weight around your middle. Muscle is the lever for deep belly fat, and your strength is {level}. {Primary} comes first for two weeks so we can load you safely, then the strength work starts." Four bars unchanged. | re-aimed Weight mode gets its own copy instead of falling through to "{Primary} first, then {secondary}" |
Scoring change: GOAL_AXIS[1] becomes strength (it is null today), so the weight goal reconciles like every other goal. When strength is already her best axis the reveal says so and names the deficit as the route: "Strength is holding up. It's stiffness that's stopping you using it."
Your week
Constraints, quoted back on the plan. One cut, one re-aim.
| # | Screen | Change |
|---|---|---|
| s3-1 | How are you sleeping? | keep Fine print: "Sleep does more for the middle than most people think. It also sets how long your sessions are." |
| s3-2 | Are hot flushes or night sweats part of your day? | cut Drives nothing on the page; 1.7 already shows we know the territory |
| s3-3 | Who else are you looking after at the moment? | keep The lean version cuts it |
| s3-5 | What have you got at home? | keep |
| s3-6 interstitial | Three days. Fifteen minutes. {Equipment}. No diet. Weight-mode pull: "Twelve weeks of home resistance training changed body composition in postmenopausal women, without a single pound lost. The waist moved; the scale didn't. We're not going to hand you a meal plan." The other four pulls stay. | re-aimed Also remove the spec note that ships live: "Shown here for a mobility-first profile…" |
What's stopped you, and what matters
Pure conversion, and the one place a measurement belongs: hers, optional, ungraded.
| # | Screen | Change |
|---|---|---|
| s4-1 | When you've tried to get moving before, what got in the way? | keep Add "I lost weight and it came straight back" |
| s4-2 interstitial | Weight that comes back was never muscle. Sixth variant, fired by the rebound barrier: "Diets take the muscle with the fat. When the weight returns it's all fat, and the middle is where it lands. This time we build the part that stays." | keep The five live variants stay |
| 4.3 new · single | Does this sound like you? "My body doesn't respond the way it used to, whatever I do." Yes, exactlySometimesNot really | BetterMe's agree/disagree, one statement not two |
| 4.4 interstitial | It responds. It just responds to different things now. Fired by "Yes, exactly". Two lines, pointing back to 1.9 and forward to the plan. | new |
| s4-3 | What matters most about staying strong? | keep "Feeling better in myself" first; 82% tick it |
| 4.6 new · optional | Want a number that's yours to beat? "If there's a tape measure in the house, take your waist now: around the navel, relaxed. We'll ask again at week 12. Nobody grades it." A cm/in field and a visible Skip. | Replaces BetterMe's BMI block with the one measurement the science actually moves |
| s4-4 | What should we call you? | keep |
| s4-5 | Where should we send your plan? | keep Same position; the email-gate test settled it |
The payoff
Processing, diagnosis and plan. The goal gets answered in the headline of each.
| # | Screen | Change |
|---|---|---|
| s5-1 | Putting your plan together | keep |
| s5-5 diagnosis | Your profile based on answers Weight-mode focus sentence: "Strength is the lever for your middle, and yours is {level}. Your plan leads with {primary} for two weeks, then builds strength." The three cells stay: Primary goal · Fitness level · Energy level. | re-aimed |
| s5-6 plan | Your personalized 12-week plan A 20-second autoplaying clip of the week-1 session between the radar and the blocks: the first thing she sees of the product, before any price. Then a fifth card above the blocks, Your middle: "Deep belly fat is the most reversible thing on your list, and it moves before the scale does. Weeks 3–12 are where it happens. Walk on the days in between." The weeks 3–4 block gets one line: "your first strength week; this is where the middle starts." | re-aimed Also restore the missing #fsintro slot so the prescription intro renders |
| s5-7 price | See the paywall section. |
The price page, section by section
Live: 33 of 34 reach the plan cards, 8 reach "What you get", median scroll 33%. Whatever answers the middle has to sit above the cards. Everything below the CTA only removes reasons not to.
| # | Section | Change |
|---|---|---|
| P1 | Outcome pair, Now » After photos | re-aimed Weight mode has no pair and falls to balance today. Use the strength pair (stairs) with a caption: "The muscle that moves the middle is built on stairs, floors and chairs." Never a body pair. |
| P2 | Headline, "{Name}, get visible results in 4 weeks" | re-aimed Weight mode: "{Name}, this is how the middle actually moves after 50." |
| P3 | Today → Week 12 | new A compact five-row table from her answers: floor · stairs · one leg · afternoon · Your middle. Today "softer, sits differently since {1.6}"; week 12 "firmer, clothes sit differently, and your own tape says so". If she measured: "{X} cm today → measured again at week 12". Footer: "What women starting where you did typically reach. Not a promise." |
| P4 | Plan cards and CTA | keep The live trial-then-once and three-payment arms keep running. Under the CTA, in plain text: what she pays, when, and that nothing renews. It is already true; say it here, not only in the sheet. |
| P5 | Trust row | keep |
| P6 | Guarantee | keep Keep the 12-week, 100% copy. Fix the checkout sheet, which still says "30-day money-back guarantee" under the pay button and contradicts it. |
| P7 | Why this works when eating less didn't | new The three tiles from 1.9 with the two citations underneath: Verheggen 2016, 117 studies, visceral fat −6% with no weight loss; the 12-week home RCT, n=226, waist −1.4 cm against +2.0 cm. The single biggest gap in the live page. |
| P8 | What you get to get there | keep Add a Learn card title to the phone shot: "Why the middle moved, and what moves it back". |
| P9 | Who's behind it | new A real 50+ instructor: face, name, one paragraph. The age-matched messenger is the strongest purchase-stage lever in the research. |
| P10 | Women who started where you are | cut for now Specimen quotes today, and none is about the middle. Bring the section back with real quotes; the first one for this arm should be about jeans or a waistband, not the banister. |
| P11 | People often ask | extend Add three. Will I lose weight? "Some. Usually not much on the scale. What changes first is your middle and how your clothes sit, because we build the muscle that burns and target the deep fat. If the scale is what you want to move fastest, this isn't the shortest route." Is there a diet? "No." Can I do it on a laptop or the TV? "Yes." The five live items stay. |
Still out: countdown, scratch card, strike-through anchor, a trial that renews at full price, an awards row, and a sticky price bar (removed on purpose; leave it out).
What these screens may say
Written to the ASA standard, which makes it US-safe too. The tell for a bad line is a number next to a timeframe.
Say
- "targets deep belly fat even when the scale barely moves"
- "firmer through the middle", "clothes sit differently"
- "muscle is the lever; eating less alone takes muscle with it"
- "your own waist measure, week 1 against week 12"
- "menopause" inside the quiz, the landing page and email
- "the rules changed", "it isn't willpower"
Never
- "lose belly fat in 12 weeks"
- inches, pounds, kilos, % body fat, or any number in a timeframe (CAP 13.9)
- "boost your metabolism", "burn fat", "melt"
- a projected waist or weight curve
- "menopause belly" in any ad hook; none of Reverse Health's 15 longest-running ads use the word
- anything that reads as treating a symptom (ASA 12.1)
Verify before shipping: the visceral share 5–8% → 15–20% (health research page); Verheggen 2016, −6%; the n=226 RCT waist figures (Bonsu 2025, via the audience brief); the half-percent-a-year muscle loss.
What this asks of the product
The programme is strength, balance and mobility, three sessions of about fifteen minutes from a chair. That is the intervention in the visceral-fat evidence, so the claims hold. Two things it owes a woman who came for the middle.
- A visible walking strand. The trials that moved waist paired resistance work with walking. A "walk on the days between" line in the week view is cheap to build and makes the promise honest.
- The waist retest. Screen 4.6 stores a number; the week-12 retest has to ask again and show both. The one measurement we promised cannot be the one we never revisit.
Neither blocks the quiz change. Both should ship before this arm gets real spend.
How to test it
Ship as a new arm beside the live quiz, same ads, same landing, hashed on the funnel id like the pricing and intro arms.
- Screen-1 engagement (
quiz_screen_vieweds1-1 →quiz_started): the age door against the stage door. Live: about 50%. - Completion to the paywall. Live: about 97% of those who give an email.
- Plan selected and checkout started per paywall view. Live: 0 of 34 in the August diagnosis; 5.7% lead-to-checkout on the older flow.
- Drop-off at 1.8 and 4.6, the two screens most likely to cost completion.
Kill it if screen-1 engagement falls. Keep it if checkout rate moves at all, because nothing else in the live funnel has.
Four decisions
Each has a recommendation. Say the word and the rest is build.
Age or stage as the door
Recommend age. Cheapest tap, matches the "after 50" ad anchor, and s1-1 is the screen losing half the traffic. Stage still gets asked at 1.7. Spec v3's counter-argument, that stage predicts the problem better, still holds for programming; it just doesn't need to be the first decision she makes.
The waist tape
Recommend shipping it, optional and skippable. It is the one body measurement the science moves and the only honest proof we can offer. The research page's avoid-list says no waist question; the difference here is that it is hers, ungraded and never projected. Your call whether that distinction holds.
Hot flushes
Recommend cutting. Spec v3 kept it for recognition; 1.7 does that now, and the answer drives nothing.
Testimonials
Recommend cutting until real ones exist. A middle-first page with banister quotes is worse than none.