Money incentive weight loss?

Has anyone tried any of the programs (ie, HealthyWage) where you make a monetary "bet" on how much weight you will lose in a certain amount of time? If you do, you get your bet back and can win larger amounts of cash.
Really tempted for the extra motivation but don't want to be totally scammed.

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Replies

  • MaddMaestro
    MaddMaestro Posts: 405 Member
    My husband is currently doing this at his job. The people who want to participate put up money, and whoever loses the most would win the pot. It sucks to know THAT was the only way to get him to lose weight :\
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,122 Member
    There are a few threads from people who have used dietbet if you use the forum search facility you should find a few.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    If you don't want to be scammed, don't participate in scams.
  • Chadxx
    Chadxx Posts: 1,199 Member
    I should have. I would have made a killing.
  • bobshuckleberry
    bobshuckleberry Posts: 281 Member
    My job is doing the biggest loser. You pay 20 to get in the contest. If you lose 5% of your weight by the end of the period you get your 20.00 back. Anyone who does not forfeits their money to the biggest loser. It is a 15 week program so you have to have some commitment to it to succeed. I was already on this program when they started so I did join. Currently I am in second place behind my boss.
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,384 Member
    My fiance had a competition going with a coworker. Run 3x a week, or give the other person $20. It worked really well for him and he never had to pay his coworker!
  • joeboland
    joeboland Posts: 205 Member
    xmichaelyx wrote: »
    It's an excellent way to temporarily lose weight and then gain it all back. I've never seen it work permanently, since it does nothing to teach or promote intelligent lifestyle changes that could lead to actual fitness.

    My old office did a weight loss competition every year for money, and every year it was the same people who are "really, really going to lose permanently this year."

    Agreed. It's highly unlikely to give long-term results, and I've seen it wreak havoc on people in the short term. People will go to insanely unhealthy lengths to try and profit from the monetization of weight loss.
  • tumsashrinks
    tumsashrinks Posts: 21 Member
    My problem with sites like DietBet is that they require a specific goal (e.g. "lose 4% in 4 weeks" or "lose 10% in 6 months") and while mostly they are reasonable, I feel like this could make some people do everything they can do get to that goal, e.g., if you are 3,9% down and the end is near, you might do unhealthy things just to get that victory (e.g. overexercising, not eating and drinking). I would only consider something like that if I can set my own realistic goal (there are some sites like that), but even then imagine losing "only" 35lbs of your goal 40lbs, instead of celebrating all the amazing loss, progress, and hard work, you feel horrible because you lost money... idk, I guess I am in general not too good with "punishment" motivation.
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,074 Member
    Chadxx wrote: »
    I should have. I would have made a killing.

    That part
  • kamarismom
    kamarismom Posts: 50 Member
    We just finished our biggest winner competition at my job first place in each category wins $200. I was a winner last year but I was second place in my category this year.
  • CeciliaBobilia
    CeciliaBobilia Posts: 246 Member
    I'm doing HealthyWage. I haven't finished my "challenge" yet, but I did a lot of research on them before handing over my money.
    HW has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, they have had a lot of press coverage, and reddit seems to love them; so I feel comfortable about it.
    You have to loose atleast 10% of your weight and I think bet atleast $100, but you can adjust the time frame and your bet to increase your final payoff.
    I ended up settling on a 9month bet that will yield a 238% return on my investment. 238%!
  • EmbeeKay
    EmbeeKay Posts: 249 Member
    I've done a Transformer Dietbet after each of my pregnancies, to lose the baby weight. It's definitely not a scam. I've also done Kickstarter Dietbets. You make way more money in the Transformers, though. The Kickstarters are just basically going to win you your money back plus maybe $10. (Except for one I did and won maybe $20 in top of my original bet.) One Transformer I did went from March to September. I paid $125 up front and won $327 total (met each monthly goal and met my final goal). The second one I did went from January to July. That one, I won much less (I think like $220 total, maybe?) because (I think) there were lots of New Year dieters hopping on board, and they all lost their weight along with me. :)

    It's motivating to me (I do NOT want to lose money), and my results haven't been temporary... except when I get pregnant again. :) I just completed my 4th pregnancy but this time (since I didn't gain as much as usual) a Dietbet won't be feasible for me (goal weight would be too low to reasonably meet while breastfeeding). I'm really bummed because this one would have gone from July to January and if I won the bet I would have made a killing, I think! The time of year impacts the amount you win, in my opinion.
  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
    Does wanting to not lose my job count?
  • Mezzie1024
    Mezzie1024 Posts: 380 Member
    I've done (and am currently doing) dietbet to lose winter weight and maintain (their maintainer is a year long; I was in their beta group. Since I want to build muscle after this current 5-pound loss, though, I can't do another). The kickstarters are just a bit faster than I like losing (I prefer 0.5lb/week), but not in the dangerous zone, and they're fun. Mostly, you just win your money back, but I made a little profit on the maintainer.
  • TheJourneyToFabulous
    TheJourneyToFabulous Posts: 381 Member
    You could always put some money away for every 1lb you lose? Saves signing up and maybe not getting anything
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
    My husband is currently doing this at his job. The people who want to participate put up money, and whoever loses the most would win the pot. It sucks to know THAT was the only way to get him to lose weight :\

    what's more ridiculous is that a lot of these do it by pounds lost and not percentage of body weight. I tried explaining why that made no sense to a coworker and she just couldn't grasp the idea.... "but i'm heavy and it's hard for me to lose weight! it's not easier just because i'm bigger".

    You can guess how well that went. :eyeroll:

    Anyways, OP here's the deal.... do you actually want to lose weight? do you have the self discipline to do it? if so, then these bets aren't bets at all, they're easy money. but id question whether theyre helpful or necessary. as far as i'm concerned negative reinforcement is significantly less effective than positive reinforcement and breeds "punishing and guilting" behavior.