Losing Fat Loving Food Friday: Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is

     Having been stagnant on my weight loss journey for a while I needed something to kick my butt in gear. Receiving my Weight Loss Hero pack from Weight Watchers certainly helped but I needed something a little more drastic and thanks to a Twitter friend I believe I found it.

 

   We've all seen the magnets on cars tempting you to "GET PAID LOSING WEIGHT" when the reality is they really just want you to join them in their multi-level marketing business.  Well now there is a way to make money losing weight.  I'm not talking about quitting your job kind of money but a little extra pocket cash can never hurt anyone money.

Social Betting has come to the Weight Loss Arena, OK it has been there a while but I just learned of it, so really how big could it have been until now!?!  Companies like DietBet and Healthy Wage have websites that are doing just that, paying you to lose weight and GymPact rewards you for working out. I've decided to check them all out and here's what I know: DietBet: This is all about putting your money where your mouth is! DietBet has two different games,  one that last 4 weeks and one that lasts 6 months.  DietBet4 games give you 4 weeks to lose 4% of your body weight.  There are games starting just about every day with bets as low as $20 and as high as $500.  You choose which game works for you.  At the end of the game every player who lost 4% of their weight splits the pot.  Doesn't matter if you're the first or lost the most, all anyone has to do is cross the finish line.  DietBet10 is a 6 month game.  Over the 6 months you have to hit specific goals, by percentage, accumulating in a 10% total weight loss.  The cost for this game is set at $25 per month with winnings paid out every month as well as a jackpot at the end.        I've already tried DietBet and have won.  You know my weight has been up and down and I decided enough was enough and signed up for a DietBet4, two to be exact as you can play in up to 3 games at a time.  I'm proud to say I hit my target weight both times woo hoo.  My first game cost $35 and I won $5.08.  The second game was $20 and I won $11.67.  Not big bucks but the reality is on $55 I had a return of 30%, better than the stock market.  What I like is no one knows anything about my weight.  They just know if my weight went up or down when I share weigh-ins.  I am currently in two more games that I'm a bit stressed about, Thanksgiving and a trip to Mobile were not helpful at all.  I'd like to host a game in the New Year so watch for info about that.   Healthy Wage:  What first drew me to this site was the idea that they would pay me $100 for lowering my BMI with no financial investment on my part whatsoever. Yes you read that right, they will pay me for simply losing weight, providing I lower my BMI to 25.  They give you 1 year to move your BMI from being over 30 (Obese) to being under 25 (Healthy).  Why wouldn't someone serious about weight loss try that?  Interested in making some serious money, well then things get interesting.  For $150 if you hit your goal you're rewarded with $400.  And if you're really willing to put money on the line for $300 your winnings are $1000.  They also have a program for losing 10% of your body weight where you bet $150 and will win $300 if you achieve your goal in 6 months.  Team Player?  Here's where they get incredibly creative.  Sign up with a 5 member team and you compete against other teams for $10,000 during your 3 month game.        GymPact is the brain child of two Harvard students and works on the idea that most people who sign up for a gym membership eventually lose their commitment over time. Taking lessons from their Behavioral Science classes they learned that people are more motivated by NOT losing money than they are by winning money.  Again we're not talking quit your job money rather a free iTunes download kind of money.   The website explains it much better than I can but simply put you make a Pact regarding how many times a week you will work out for at least 30 minutes as well as agreeing to pay a certain amount ($5~$50)  for each workout you miss.       While I haven't decided whether or not to try this program what I am going to do for you is share what I've learned:  People either love or hate this program.  There are just as many posts praising this as there are saying stay far away.  The rating on iTunes is 3 stars, pretty mid-ground.  People who are enjoying the program (here's a YouTube review) say they're getting paid anywhere from 30 to 50 cents a work out, again not big bucks but if you work out 4 times a week you could make up to $8.00 a month which is free money. Those on the other side of the aisle all had similar issues.  Complaints that workouts weren't being counted so they were being charged their Pact, their gyms weren't recognized and slow payments of when they did win money.  One definite con sung by many was that if you forget to turn on the app before working out you're out of luck as well as having to hold your phone while working out.      Should you decide to give GymPact a try use the code mmf during registration (link included here) and connect your MapMyFitness account and they'll pay you $5.00 ~ pretty good motivation to check it out. Have you tried any of these or are aware of a similar program, let me know what you think