Weight loss and slimness marathon - step-by-step weight loss program

“During the pandemic, everyone sat on their butts locked up in their apartment alone with the refrigerator, they were afraid that tomorrow they would not be able to leave [the apartment] because they became wider than the doorway, and together they began to train online,” describes the impact of quarantine co-founder of the “Mad Drying” project Vasily Smolny entered the online marathon market. “Now it feels like a dam has broken and everyone has rushed here,” Elena Blinovskaya, founder of the “Marathon of Desires,” continues his thoughts.

The growing popularity of the format is also confirmed by Yandex Wordstat data: the number of search queries for the keyword “online marathon” in March-April 2021 exceeded 200,000, which is twice as much as in February and almost four times as much as in January. According to Google Trends, the peak popularity of the query “online marathon” over the past five years occurred in February-April 2021.

Last year, bloggers also entered the market: for example, Valeria Chekalina, or lerchek (9.1 million subscribers on Instagram), launched her “Money Marathon”, and Dasha Kutergina, or weepeace (668,000 subscribers) launched her makeup marathon.

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Forbes figured out why online marathons have become so popular in Russia, and tells the stories of three heroes who are making money from this format right now.

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Be slim and stay in shape all year round, not just for summer

Successful body building is an improvement in the quality of the body due to:

proper and balanced nutrition;
training for pleasure at any convenient time;
solving psychological problems related to nutrition, discipline and motivation.

The sooner you complete the marathon, the faster you will get to your desired figure and forget about harsh methods of losing weight:

1. All kinds of diets, after which you can gain even more than you had before

2. Exhausting two-hour workouts

3. Eating that leads to breakdowns

4. Bans on all foods except chicken fillet and cucumber

I exhale and take stock

Stage 1: Determining the winner

You can choose the participant who completed the tasks better than others, or assign this task to the curators. You can choose the 9 best and arrange an interactive among your subscribers: in this case, you form a collage of 9 participants, your subscribers go to their accounts and cast their vote under the post with the collage.

Stage 2: Results

Publish a final post. Read the comments and try to reply/like each one. Count how many positive and negative responses you received. What did the audience miss?

Stop putting up with this

Diets can cripple your health both physically and mentally.
Therefore, it is important to exclude such a concept as “diet” from your life forever. A low-calorie diet of 900 kcal is NOT a story about losing weight, but rather about gaining weight (in the long term, when you decide that you’ve had enough). Only a balanced diet will help you stay healthy and beautiful.

Feel slightly tired after exercise rather than slightly alive

After marathon training, your body will function at the desired level, and only pleasant pain will be felt in your muscles.

Cook according to my proven PP recipes

You can choose from a variety of dishes from savory to sweet using simple ingredients. This will allow you to lose weight deliciously and easily.

My recommendations on nutrition are divided into 2 types: for systematic and comfortable weight loss and for the fastest possible

You will be able to choose the path that is most comfortable for you and get results without strict restrictions on food both during the marathon and after it. Marathon participants even eat chocolate and get good results, so be calm in this regard.

I'm running a marathon and I'm not nervous

Stage 1: Announcement

Post your announcement 3-7 days before the start. Not all of your subscribers check your feed every day. If you announce a marathon a week in advance, use a second announcement a couple of days before the start to warm up the audience. Tell us in the announcement how much experience you invested in this marathon, which specialists supported you, and any other information that will emphasize the significance of the event.

Keep your first announcement simple, informative, and descriptive. Think of it as a lightweight sales post. Without “buy at price/promotion ends”, but with a description of the benefits and benefits.

Example ad:

From May 15 to 27 we are holding a #krasivoekino marathon on the @videouroki account.

The marathon will help you:

Get acquainted with the principles of video filming in practice.
Choose a topic and create short films in your own style.
Will give you confidence in your abilities.

Rules of participation:

You must be subscribed to the @videouroki account.
Post a photo announcing the marathon on your page. Publish a banner from this post with the caption “Participating in the marathon from @imaxuroki. #imaxurokistart" You can add your own text. It’s important not to forget to include the hashtag and account address @imaxuroki.”
If you have a closed account, open it for the duration of the marathon. We need to make sure that you comply with the conditions.
Post your email under the photo. We will send tasks there every day for a week.
You may not publish reports on the completion of tasks, but for those who want to receive a prize, this is a prerequisite.

When describing the benefits of the marathon, be sure to indicate what benefits the participants will receive. Some will decide to participate for the sake of new experiences, others – for real benefits. Show that your marathon is like a 3D projector - it affects all aspects of life.

Stage 2: Launch of an advertising campaign

If you simply publish an announcement in a newly created account with a dozen subscribers, there will be no effect: the marathon will still have to be promoted at least in the initial stages. There are two ways to plan your advertising budget for a marathon.

1. Based on the amount you are willing to spend.

2. Based on the number of subscribers you want to attract.

Let's say you want to attract 2,000 new subscribers in a week. Based on this, you allocate 12,000 rubles for advertising (estimated average subscriber price = 6 rubles).

We are interested in the target audience, so we use the following methods:

1. Advertising with bloggers

The estimated cost is from 2,000 rubles for an advertising post from a blogger, but prices can vary greatly. The blogger sets the price independently: it depends on the subject of the account, the number of subscribers, involvement, quality of content, and the status of the blogger. The effectiveness of placement depends on the following factors: the degree of trust of the audience, the frequency of advertising posts on the blog, the nativeness of your post, the relevance and quality of the photo, the time and day of publication, the atmosphere in the account, the time “at the top”. Trust in this type of advertising is gradually decreasing, so it is extremely important to strive for nativeness. The cost of a subscriber in this case is difficult to calculate. You should pay a good price for a responsive audience: an indicator in your choice will be many targeted comments under posts.

It is generally accepted that a fair price is 1–2 rubles per like. That is, if a blogger receives an average of 2,000 likes, then a fair price for advertising is 2–4 thousand rubles per post. We look at likes because they roughly show how many people will follow you. Most often this is 15–20% of likes. The indicator may fluctuate in different directions.

2. Advertising in thematic public pages

From 1000 rubles per post. Wider coverage and affordable price. If you publish in several public pages from the same network at once, you can get a discount of up to 30%. The price of a subscriber using this promotion method will be 8–10 rubles. If there was a very accurate hit with the target audience, then 5-6 rubles per subscriber.

3. Targeted advertising

We customize an advertising campaign for our target audience. Marketers and business account owners quote different prices for subscribers. The most often mentioned price range is from 6 to 10 rubles per subscriber. With due persistence and luck, the price can be reduced to 3-4 rubles per new person.

4. Guest posts in thematic public pages

They will cost you free. Prepare high-quality material that will attract the attention of subscribers.

5. Mailing to the customer base

Invite your customers to follow your Instagram account. Send beautiful sales letters announcing the marathon. In the letter, please include a link to your account, dates and prize for the winner.

Stage 3: Tasks

1. Give out assignments

Give feedback on each task. If you don’t have time to like everyone (you don’t fit into the like limit), appoint curators. Let people know that their post did not accidentally pass you by. Limit on likes for accounts from 6 months – 1440 per day; The limit on likes for new accounts is 720 per day.

2. Provide moral support to participants.

Write posts that tell you why your audience is the best. Let them feel their uniqueness, because this is what the stories of the most successful brands are built on. Let your subscribers know that you understand their discomfort and are ready to support. The ideal option is to become a full participant in the marathon.

3. Create posts with feedback

For example, a banner that says “Day 1. Feedback.” And the caption: “Tell me how your first video turned out. What was difficult about completing the task? What was easy?” Such posts will be your sales funnel - you will be able to see at what stage people left your marathon, and get acquainted with the reasons for leaving/dissatisfaction.

Change yourself externally and internally in 21 days

What is included in the marathon:

personal calculation of the KBJU for each marathon participant;
my author's lectures on nutrition and effective fat burning;
recommendations for the food basket;
a guide to working with an application that counts calories for you;
skeleton menu for 7 days;
training for each problem area without sports equipment at a time convenient for you;
PP recipes for comfortable weight loss;
anti-cellulite tips;
motivation and psychological support.

And a lot of other useful material for comfortable and adequate weight loss.

At the end of the marathon you will receive:

minus in volumes and on scales;
reduction (or complete disappearance) of cellulite;
improved health (physical and psychological);
increased endurance;
increased energy and productivity in your daily tasks;
understanding how to eat without counting calories and not gain weight;
faith in yourself, your strengths and intentions (not only in the area of weight loss, but also in other important areas of your life).

Who is NOT suitable for the marathon:

pregnant women;
those who want to gain muscle mass;
up to 16 years old;
men.

Lose weight with the app

Today, many people fall asleep and wake up with a smartphone in their hands. It can help maintain water balance, count calories eaten, track sleep stages and, as it turns out, make money by losing weight.

There are several apps that are willing to financially reward their users if they lose weight, achieve their goals and maintain a healthy lifestyle. There are two main approaches: competition (similar to a fitness marathon) and achieving a personal goal.

Photo: istockphoto.com

One of the most popular "competition" services that can be used all over the world is Dietbet. The name can be literally translated as “diet dispute.” Essentially, this is what the application is. The user can choose one of three directions: Kickstarter, Transformer or Continuing. The first option is suitable for those who want to start small. The goal of the program is to lose 4% of excess weight in 28 days. The transformer is designed for a longer period and a more serious result: minus 10% of the weight in six months. And the program for “continuers” helps not to gain back the lost kilograms: within a year, participants should not “gain” more than 2% of their weight and lose more than 4%. The prize fund is formed in the same way as in the marathon, and is divided among everyone who fulfilled the conditions of the program within the designated period.

Strength test: 5 sports challenges for the most advanced

Regardless of the program, Dietbet requires a photo report, and in the Transformer and Continuing directions, participants must weigh themselves every week. To eliminate extreme and unhealthy attempts to lose weight at the very end, there are rules, and the program is divided into several rounds: transformer - 6, “continuing” - 12. So, in order to compete for the main prize in the “Transformer” direction, by the fifth round the participant must lose at least 6% weight.

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Another popular app is StickK. It helps users achieve goals, acquire good habits and get rid of bad ones. StickK also uses money as a motivation, and here you can not only earn it, but also lose it (if you do not fulfill the terms of the “agreement”).

The user enters into an “agreement” with himself—in fact, he makes a promise to himself. For example, lose weight, maintain a certain weight, or start eating right. You can choose one of the proposed goals (the most popular) or create a new one yourself and indicate the amount of the “fine” for non-fulfillment. You also need to decide how often the application will “penalize”: for example, every week, every day or every month. The user decides where to send the lost money: to charity, to the development of the application, or to any person (in the latter case, you will need to provide the details for the transfer).

To prevent people from harming their health, such applications always establish some kind of “safety rules”. For example, Dietbet lists the maximum percentage of a participant's weight that they can lose in one round (this is different for each program). If a participant loses more, he will be disqualified, as this is regarded as a potential health risk.

7 Free Apps for an Active Lifestyle

Together we will take care of your figure and health

Julia is the author and host of the marathon.

8 years of experience in the field of fitness and nutrition, completed training as a gym instructor, in addition to this, she is constantly undergoing training in the field of nutrition.

In 2 years, more than 2,000 girls under her leadership lost a total of 6,800 kg.

Constantly improves himself externally and internally, experiments with nutrition and training for the most effective path to the goal.

He knows how to “finish off” the last kilos from his own experience.

She knows first-hand what compulsive overeating is.

Immerses himself in psychology to support his clients at the right time.

For the sake of the experiment, I ate 5000 kcal per day in order to gain weight and lose weight in 3 weeks at home with an adequate approach to the matter. As a result, I improved the quality of my body, lost kilos, and lost weight in my thighs, hips, stomach and sides. Her followers on Instagram followed this experiment and worried about her more than she did (date of experiment April-May 2021). Her results in 21 days:

Mandatory attributes of an Instagram marathon

Interesting tasks. Must be of interest to participants. Let it be something relevant to them at this moment in time. There are topics that will always be important: self-development, weight loss, appearance. Share your experience. As a rule, personal information is always more useful and interesting.
Skill development. Ideally, when you solve the problem of the participants with your marathon. People lose weight, learn femininity, and become accustomed to order. You make a person happy, thereby forming a point of emotional contact with clients.

Prize. A marathon is a way out of your comfort zone, and for many, the incentive is the reward at the end. Participation in itself is valuable, since it develops new skills, but today not a single marathon on a social network is complete without a prize.

Where to start organizing a fitness marathon

There was some advice on the Internet: before you hold a fitness marathon, you need to take part in one yourself.

What to do at this time?

Pay close attention to everything the presenter does and says. If necessary, take notes.
Complete all assignments and grade them. Who are they intended for? Too light or heavy for whom? What can be improved, simplified, complicated?
Submit reports on time. How comfortable are you with doing this? How long does it take? What do you want to change about report writing and why?
Pay attention to how the presenters communicate with the participants. Are they supported? Do they motivate? Are questions answered in sufficient detail? How do they respond to criticism and comments?
Assess the atmosphere in the group. How do the participants communicate with each other? What about their behavior deserves respect or causes bad feelings?
Handle disputes and conflicts from the outside. Why do they arise? How did the participants behave? What was right and wrong about their actions?
Ask yourself whether the marathon itself and the result of the money spent were worth it.

Reviews from clients

Diet Marathon 4 weeks. Express diet menu option for 2 weeks

Fast diets are selected taking into account the individual characteristics of the body and eating habits. One of the most effective is considered “hard”, which allows you to lose up to 10 kg of excess weight. You need to eat rice or buckwheat, without adding anything. The 14-day system according to Agoston implies a more gentle diet: the menu consists of natural yoghurts, lean meat, vegetables and fruits. The Japanese express diet is effective, the menu of which does not include foods containing salt.

We offer you one of the menu options for an effective diet for 2 weeks, the diet of which includes a variety of foods.

Day 1:

2 boiled eggs, apple, pear, coffee without sugar;
salad from your favorite fresh vegetables (except potatoes);
1 egg, orange, cup of tea.

Days 2 and 6: per day you need to eat 500 g of low-fat cottage cheese and drink 1 liter of kefir.

Day 3:

1 stack kefir, apple and raw carrot salad with lemon juice;
500 ml orange or tomato juice, vegetable salad;
250 ml kefir or fermented baked milk, fruit to taste.

Day 4: 500 g of boiled chicken fillet, 1 liter of kefir.

Days 5 and 7: fresh fruits and vegetables (except bananas, grapes, potatoes).

Day 8:

1 boiled egg, vegetable salad, tea;
200 g boiled chicken breast, vegetable salad, 1 cup. tomato juice;
100 g chicken fillet, fresh vegetable mix, tea.

Day 9:

favorite fruits;
100 g boiled beef, salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, vegetable oil);
50 g boiled beef, apples, pears.

Day 10:

a slice of rye bread, salad (cucumbers, tomatoes), tea;
150 g boiled fish, a slice of rye bread, 1 cup. kefir;
vegetable salad, 250 ml kefir.

Day 11:

2 eggs, 2 slices of rye bread, 200 ml kefir;
150 g boiled beef, mixed vegetables;
2 slices of rye bread, fresh vegetables, 1 cup. kefir

Day 12: fruits and vegetables (excluding bananas, grapes), 1 liter of kefir.

Day 13:

2 hard-boiled eggs, mixed vegetables, tea without sugar;
200 g boiled chicken fillet, salad (tomatoes, cucumbers);
100 g boiled chicken breast, 1 glass of kefir.

Day 14:

2 boiled potatoes, fruit, 200 ml kefir;
two boiled potatoes, 500 ml kefir;
fruits (except bananas, grapes), 1 cup. kefir

This alternation of products in a certain sequence helps to obtain the entire set of necessary substances without harm to the body.

How much does a marathon cost?

Participation in the slimming marathon in 21 days is possible in 2 options.

STANDARD (no support):

all marathon lecture materials;
training program with a description of the exercise technique;
KBJU miscalculation;
general chat with support and motivation.

Cost: 1200 rubles

PREMIUM (with support):

analysis of your figure based on photographs and a questionnaire (what to focus on in training, what nutrition will be optimal for you, advice and recommendations for losing weight);
all marathon lecture materials;
training program with a description of the exercise technique;
KBJU miscalculation;
general chat with support and motivation;
diet check, adjustments, vector for the next week and personal recommendations from Yulia personally.

Cost: 1700 rubles

All information and materials remain with you forever!

It's better to invest in your health and well-being than to spend half your salary on pills.

But that is not all…

Everything is stretchable

Samira Mustafaeva·DR
“If it weren’t for online marathons, we would hardly have survived the pandemic,” admits the founder of SMSTRETCHING stretching studios, 28-year-old Samira Mustafaeva. Offline business revenue in March-June 2020 dropped to zero, all existing subscriptions were frozen. Proceeds from the marathons allowed the company to partially pay salaries to employees and retain the team, the entrepreneur says.

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Samira Mustafaeva was born in St. Petersburg, where she studied rhythmic gymnastics from the age of five. In 2007, she met the honored trainer of Russia Irina Viner-Usmanova and began “training seriously” at her center in Novogorsk: “I had classes all day long and only one day off a week. We constantly traveled to competitions in different countries. I didn’t see my parents at all.”

The work was not in vain: in 2009, under the leadership of Viner-Usmanova, Mustafaeva became a bronze medalist at the World Championships in Japan, and in 2010 she again took bronze at the World Championships in Moscow. But a few years later, due to accumulated fatigue, I decided to leave big-time sports. By inertia, after leaving I trained as a gymnastics coach and after graduation got a job teaching rhythmic gymnastics to children for a salary of about 50,000 rubles. To stay in the capital, Mustafayeva “distributed leaflets in kindergartens and ate Doshirak.”

In 2015, Mustafaeva met her future husband Nikolai Kondratyuk, who at that time worked as a manager in a restaurant. He gave her the idea of opening her own stretching studio - but not for children, but for adults. At that time, the stretching format was not yet as popular as it is now: even in Moscow there were only two or three studios, Samira recalls.

Believing in the idea, in 2016 Mustafaeva found a gym with hourly rent in the center of Moscow and began conducting stretching classes on her own twice a week. Clients came from Mustafaeva’s Instagram (then 10,000 subscribers). Some did not like the conditions of the hall - a semi-basement room, a small locker room, infrequent cleaning - so in the spring of 2021 Mustafaeva decided to move. Using 500,000 rubles borrowed from friends, she and her husband made renovations in another room, bought training mats and cubes and launched a new studio, SMSTRETCHING. To promote herself on social networks, she began using the hashtag #everextendable.

In three years, the studio has grown to six locations. The business was helped by the growing popularity of stretching, says Mustafaeva. She does not disclose the dynamics of changes in income. According to SPARK, in 2021, the revenue of SM GROUP LLC, for which the SMSTRETCHING trademark is registered, amounted to about 4 million rubles, the loss was 2.2 million rubles. In 2019, revenue increased to 22 million rubles, the loss decreased to 6,000 rubles.

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In February 2020, the couple flew to Moscow from Los Angeles. “At the airport, 50% of people were wearing masks. The atmosphere made it clear that the coronavirus story would only gain momentum,” recalls Mustafayeva. Returning to Moscow, she decided to develop a backup plan and within a month, together with her team, she filmed video lessons on stretching and functional training that could be packaged into online marathons in case restrictions were introduced. On March 21, when the Moscow authorities decided to close fitness clubs, the studio began actively working on online products: adapting training programs for classes at home during self-isolation and promoting them on the Internet.

Participation in the SMSTRETCHING marathon cost 1490–1990 rubles, depending on the time of registration. It lasted four weeks and included 16 video lessons with stretching and functional training (access to each new one opened daily at midnight), an online chat with a trainer in Telegram, a nutrition plan and consultations with a nutritionist. Seeing the interest of the audience, the partners began to launch marathons in streams every two weeks, completely updating the program once a month. Yoga, Pilates, meditation and other areas have been added to stretching training.

After the studios opened in June, the number of marathon participants, according to Mustafaeva, decreased by 30–40%, but, nevertheless, today this format brings in half of the business’s total revenue (Mustafaeva does not disclose absolute figures). Kirill Didenok from Didenok Team estimates the revenue of online marathons alone for the entire 2020 at 57 million rubles, profit at 34 million rubles. The estimate of the co-owner of Drying on Burgers, Roman Mamonov, is more modest: revenue - 20 million rubles, profit - 12 million rubles.

Million dollar stretch. How a student of Irina Viner created a sports studio

Online weight loss marathons on forums

Such events are not uncommon at thematic forums. There are the same pros and cons as regular online competitions. The only difference is that participation is always free, the support group is initially united, since the participants have known each other for a long time and have communicated before, the motivation to go through everything will be strong.

The most significant disadvantage is the risk of disappointing your friends on the forum with your own weakness of character and lack of results in losing weight. This can even make you leave your favorite forum and stop communicating with nice people.

What to look for when choosing a marathon?

Qualification of specialists conducting the marathon. Be sure to make sure that the trainers, nutritionists, and nutritionists involved have experience in this area and their recommendations can be trusted.
Number of participants. Will they be able to give you enough attention if a thousand people are registered for the marathon?
Does the marathon offer an individual approach or does everyone lose weight the same way? Keep in mind that this option may not be suitable for everyone due to individual characteristics. For example, if the hormonal balance is disturbed, there are problems with the gastrointestinal tract, or allergic reactions to foods are observed, a preliminary consultation with a doctor is necessary. No marathon will be a panacea if the root cause of excess weight is health problems.
Make sure there is a feedback function, as well as general chats where you can share impressions and achievements with other participants. This will prevent you from remaining in an information vacuum.

It is better to choose those marathons that are held on a regular basis and about which you can find honest reviews on the Internet. For example, the FitCurves club already has 20 slimming programs. Thanks to them, hundreds of participants gained self-confidence, improved health and saw the desired figure in the reflection of the mirror.

Weight loss marathons among friends

These are purely amateur competitions, where everyone is their own boss. The main goal is to lose weight with company, so that there is more motivation and less temptation.

The advantages of such a weight loss marathon:

your girlfriends will definitely support and encourage you;
It is unlikely that there will be a group to go to fast food for lunch, because those closest to you are also on a diet;
have someone to go to the gym with;
In order to win among your friends, you can work harder (this is if you always compete with each other);
everything is free.

Disadvantages of such a weight loss marathon:

there is no experienced supervisor, the training and nutrition program is taken from the Internet (unless, of course, the participants sought help from a nutritionist, nutrition consultant or trainer who has taken courses in dietetics and is knowledgeable in menu planning);
there is no reporting to the organizers, as well as corrections of errors;
there is no ideological motivator, except for friends who may well envy your results;
no one will know if you break the rules;
will not be ashamed of the missing result.

RIGHTS OF PERSONAL DATA SUBJECTS

4.1. The subject of personal data has the right to withdraw consent to the processing of personal data by sending a corresponding request to the Operator by mail or by contacting in person.

4.2. The subject of personal data has the right to receive information regarding the processing of his personal data, including containing: - confirmation of the fact of processing of personal data by the Operator; — legal grounds and purposes of processing personal data; — the purposes and methods of processing personal data used by the Operator; — name and location of the Operator, information about persons (except for the Operator’s employees) who have access to personal data or to whom personal data may be disclosed on the basis of an agreement with the Operator or on the basis of federal law; — processed personal data related to the relevant subject of personal data, the source of their receipt, unless a different procedure for the presentation of such data is provided for by federal law; — terms of processing of personal data, including periods of their storage; — the procedure for the exercise by the subject of personal data of the rights provided for by the Federal Law “On Personal Data”; — information about completed or intended cross-border data transfers; — name or surname, first name, patronymic and address of the person processing personal data on behalf of the Operator, if the processing has been or will be assigned to such a person; — other information provided for by the Federal Law “On Personal Data” or other federal laws.

4.3. The subject of personal data has the right to demand from the Operator clarification of his personal data, blocking or destruction of it if the personal data is incomplete, outdated, inaccurate, illegally obtained or is not necessary for the stated purpose of processing, as well as take measures provided by law to protect his rights .

4.4. If the subject of personal data believes that the Operator is processing his personal data in violation of the requirements of the Federal Law “On Personal Data” or otherwise violates his rights and freedoms, the subject of personal data has the right to appeal the actions or inaction of the Operator to the authorized body for the protection of the rights of personal data subjects (Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Communications - Roskomnadzor) or in court.

4.5. The subject of personal data has the right to protect his rights and legitimate interests, including compensation for losses and (or) compensation for moral damage in court.