Is anyone else doing Healthy Wage or Diet Bet (or something similar?)

FutureFit2020

And want a place to keep tabs and update? I'm doing it for the first time. I've bet I can lose a 100 in 10 months . If I don't win the money at least I will have lost some weight (hopefully!). I've managed 12 pounds so far, and I've bet enough to hopefully get a decent set of new clothes if it works.

Just realised that if I only lose 99 pounds that I'll just have to wear rags

harper16

If you don't meet your goal how much money do you lose?

FutureFit2020

@harper16 I'm paying $10 a month for ten months because I prefer to pay monthly but I could have paid the $100 dollars up front. If I win I will get $600. So I will be out the hundred bucks if I don't do it. Although I live in the UK so I'm actually paying it in pounds. It's a bit of a risk but I just thought about how much I wasted on getting locked into a gym membership I never used when diet is my real issue anyway.

There's a calculator though and you can put how much you want to lose and how you want to spend each month and for how long to get a specific figure though. Well that's how it works on Healthy wage and I think they're all like that. You can also go for higher prize pots by playing as part of a team or against other people. But I'm just doing it against myself. If you're curious do some googling though as you get conflicting articles about whether it's worth it or not. I'm just seeing it as a bit of accountability. If I think the food is going to cost me in more than calories it's one more incentive.

FutureFit2020

Also I've got kids and I have the tendency to not spend on clothes and things for myself as I always feel like I should save it for them. If I have a little win I'd feel more comfortable just getting myself some nice stuff.

Lietchi

I think you can postpone the deadline if you need to (which lowers the payout a bit, since you continue to pay 10 dollars a month for that longer period).

The goal sounds very aggressive, but it's not a huge financial loss if you don't make it. Just don't be tempted to do silly stuff (excessive restrictions, very low calorie diets, etc) to reach your goal! Better to lose more slowly and keep it off than lose quick with an unsustainable strategy and then regain the weight afterwards. Good luck

NovusDies

That is too aggressive and it is based on 100 percent adherence which I believe, more often than not, is a fairy tale.

~70 pounds is more likely in 10 months. That is 8 pounds a month with 88 percent of your time in a full deficit. That assumes that you have enough to lose that you won't need to slow down to 1 pound per week or less as you lose weight.

Life doesn't stop because you have chosen to lose weight. Vacations, holidays, special occasions, general life messiness, weak days, etc. will all keep happening. One of the most important things I had to learn was when to take my foot off the gas. In learning this I have lost an enormous amount of weight.

FutureFit2020

Lietchi wrote: »

I think you can postpone the deadline if you need to (which lowers the payout a bit, since you continue to pay 10 dollars a month for that longer period).

The goal sounds very aggressive, but it's not a huge financial loss if you don't make it. Just don't be tempted to do silly stuff (excessive restrictions, very low calorie diets, etc) to reach your goal! Better to lose more slowly and keep it off than lose quick with an unsustainable strategy and then regain the weight afterwards. Good luck

Thanks @Lietchi, It is very aggressive but I'm very overweight so I tend to lose lots in the first two months or so when I start restricting calories. So that will hopefully give me more attainable monthly goals after the first 2 months. I've already lost 12 pounds in the past week just by sticking to 1200 calories or so, of course a lot of that is probably water weight! I won't do any silly LCD as I'm just too hungry!

Really I'm not worried about not winning any money though and will be happy if I lose the money but also lose some weight. I forgot you could readjust the goals though so I'll look into how that works out if I'm struggling to make targets, thanks for reminding me.

NovusDies

FutureFit2020 wrote: »

Lietchi wrote: »

I think you can postpone the deadline if you need to (which lowers the payout a bit, since you continue to pay 10 dollars a month for that longer period).

The goal sounds very aggressive, but it's not a huge financial loss if you don't make it. Just don't be tempted to do silly stuff (excessive restrictions, very low calorie diets, etc) to reach your goal! Better to lose more slowly and keep it off than lose quick with an unsustainable strategy and then regain the weight afterwards. Good luck

Thanks @Lietchi, It is very aggressive but I'm very overweight so I tend to lose lots in the first two months or so when I start restricting calories. So that will hopefully give me more attainable monthly goals after the first 2 months. I've already lost 12 pounds in the past week just by sticking to 1200 calories or so, of course a lot of that is probably water weight! I won't do any silly LCD as I'm just too hungry!

Really I'm not worried about not winning any money though and will be happy if I lose the money but also lose some weight. I forgot you could readjust the goals though so I'll look into how that works out if I'm struggling to make targets, thanks for reminding me.

Did MFP give you a 1200 calorie goal or did you choose it yourself?

Since you have previous knowledge of how you lose weight this is obviously not your first rodeo. Can I please suggest that you focus much more time and attention on sustainability and habit change than you may have in the past. It took me way too long to figure out that if I do not change my mindset and habits I will never achieve any lasting amount of weight loss. By the time I did finally connect the dots I had to lose more than half my body weight to get out of obesity. I have thankfully accomplished all that and the positive impact on my life is well worth the fact that it took a little extra time. I would even say that going slower was faster because I actually got it done instead of my repetitive cycle of lose some fast, fail, then gain more back that I managed to do for multiple decades.