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For the past 6 months I have been walking daily (mostly), exercising daily (mostly), eating right (mostly) and losing pound after pound. I have to admit, I am super proud of myself. It’s an amazing feeling to finally lose the weight I have been angrily cursing since I first gave birth four and a half years ago. Want to know an almost equally amazing feeling? Winning money for doing it. And, I did. $1101.35 to be exact. You can also. That’s where HealthyWage comes in.
And, I did. $1101.35 to be exact. You can also.
I always feel really skeptical about these kinds of things, so when my husband first came to me talking about HealthyWage I wasn’t sure what to make of it all. I researched reviews for 2 days before I agreed to do it. Then I went all in.
Now that I have finished the six months, lost the 58 pounds and won the money, I want to share my experience with HealthyWage for anyone out there researching. Also, for those of you who have never heard of it and have been wanting and/or trying to lose weight.
To make sure I am being thorough in my review and addressing all questions that come up, I went to my Instagram and Twitter followers to ask them what their questions are.
1. Does it cost money to start?
Yes. This is an actual betting program. That means you place a wager on yourself. If you win, you win your money back plus some. If you lose, you lose your wager.
I won $1101.35, however I bet $300.00, so my monetary increase was $801.35. However, if I had failed to lose the weight, I would have lost $300.
Your first installment of your bet is charged the day you sign up, then you pay monthly for however long you have bet it will take you to lose the weight.
2. How is monetary value decided?
HealthyWage has a really fun bet calculator available for you to use before you decide to sign up. I’m serious when I say it’s fun (at least it was for me). I played around for an hour or so determining what my best bet would be.
The personal factors that HealthyWage takes into account when deciding how much each bet will return include: weight, gender, height and waist inches.
Once you tell them that, you can play around with how much you will bet monthly, how much weight you want to lose and how long you will take to lose it. As you adjust these in the prize calculator, your prize value will change, and you can decide what the best option is for you.
Play around a bit! I thought I should do a high bet with a lot of weight loss in a short amount of time for my best payout. That wasn’t the case. I played with numbers for about an hour before I found a sweet spot.
tip: Remember when you see your prize value coming up, to take into account how much you will have bet. If I had bet $75/mo (I bet $50) and was going to win $1200, it would have appeared I won more. However, my actual winnings would’ve been $76 less.
3. If you don’t achieve your goals, do you owe any money?
Yes. It is a betting site, and it is an actual bet. You can either pay your wager in a lump sum when you sign up, or break it up into monthly payments. Either way, you do not get your money back if you don’t hit or surpass your goal.
tip: Personally, I did monthly payments because it was easier on my budget, but there wound up being an unexpected bonus to payments. Every month when the money came out, I was reminded that I have a bet on myself, and that I was losing money if I didn’t hit my goal. It sparked me back into action at times when my efforts fell off.
4. How do you get paid?
This is the question as it was posed to me, and to be honest I am not sure in which way they meant. So I will answer in all of the ways I can think it was asked.
You get paid by hitting whatever goal you set when you signed up.
You get paid by a check in the mail or through PayPal (depending on your winnings, PayPal may take a small percent.) The bonus with doing PayPal is that you get the money in 24-48 hours versus 2 weeks.
You get paid in one lump sum after HealthyWage verifies your weight loss.
note: HealthyWage verifies your weight loss through video of yourself weighing in. You send one at the beginning of your betting period when you sign up, and one at the end.
5. Where does the money you are winning come from?
This is a great question but it makes me a little sad too, because I hate the answer.
Just as with any other bet, some people win and some people lose. As I said earlier, if you lose you still have to pay. That money is then used to pay out others who have won.
6. Does everyone win money if they lose the weight?
If you haven’t cheated and all of the rules have been followed, you win your prize if you lose the weight you said you would. That goes for everyone.
7. Are there limits on your bet?
There are not set limits on how much you can bet, however there is a ceiling of earnings based on your bet. This seems to vary depending on your weight.
Although you can bet as much as you want, you have to bet at least $100 total over your goal period, and at least 10% of your body weight. The shortest amount of time you can choose for your goal is 6 months.
note: If you hit your weight loss goal early, you need to maintain that weight loss until the end of your betting period.
8.What about things like water weight & weight fluctuation? Are those things taken into account?
The short answer is no, your weight when you verify needs to be at or below your target.
The longer answer is that they do give you a week to weigh in before your set goal date, so you can decide what day is best for you to weigh in. My other suggestion is to work on losing a little more than your goal weight to account for any variables.
My total lost was 59.4 lbs, I weighed in 2 days before my final weigh in date. If I had been at 57 lbs when I stepped on the scale that morning, I would’ve waited those 2 days. (My goal was 58lbs) It would’ve been enough time to add in an extra exercise session or two and I would’ve stayed away from salt.
tip: If you are that close at the end that water weight and daily weight fluctuation will make or break your winnings, step on the scale every morning during your verified weigh-in period (the week before your goal date). This will allow you to adjust what you are doing that day, and if any of those days shows you hitting your goal, send in your video to verify.
9. Does it give you meal plans, a menu or an exercise regime to follow?
No, it is purely a monetary motivator. The “how-to” is up to you. However, there is a community “behind the curtain” so to speak, that you have access to after you place your bet. You can make connections, chat and support each other.
10. What if you don’t complete your goal in time?
I was surprised when a week before my weigh-out period I got an email from HealthyWage. If I wasn’t going to meet my goal, I could extend my time!
There is a catch to that though. Well, it’s not really a catch just a bit of a downside. If you extend your time, you only have the option to add 6 months and that will also add 6 installments to your healthy wager. So, if you wagered $50/month, you are adding $300 to your wager. However, you are not adding any additional prize.
So, this option is only really a good one if you are no where near winning your bet and you still stand to gain money if you add those installments.
Other info I find interesting and helpful:
Team Challenges
If you do better in a group setting encouraging each other, you can join a team challenge side-by-side with your personal challenge. You will earn money, separate from your personal bet, if each person on the team meets the goal.
My husband did a team challenge during our betting period and won a few hundred extra dollars!
You can either create your own team of people you know or join a team on HealthyWage.
Extension for pregnancy
For the most part, HealthyWage has a very strict no refund/ no exceptions to regular betting rules policy. The one place this is altered is due to pregnancy.
If you become pregnant during your wager period, you are able to postpone the challenge until after the baby is born. (You have to restart the challenge within 90 days after the baby is born, unless you have written notice from a doctor that you are not able.)
HealthyWage is pretty adamant that you may not participate while you are pregnant. (And seriously, don’t risk yourself or your baby.)
HealthyWage is serious about their strict no-refunds policy
They will not give a refund. Go into this knowing that. On their rules page they state: “There are no exceptions except in rare, evidence-documented medical situations – email us at accounting@healthywage.com if you think that applies (but please prepare yourself for the likelihood that there will be no exception granted).”
They are serious about this, because people paying when they are supposed to keeps the whole thing running. And as any parent knows, if you make an exception for one you have to do it for everyone.
Their rules specifically tell you not to be an idiot
Ok, those are my words, not their’s. However, their rules do say not to use unhealthy tricks to try to win. Such as starvation, excessive exercise, laxatives, self-induced vomiting, water-deprivation, etc.
You may be wondering why I am mentioning this. Here’s why: it’s the internet.
I was recently perusing comments on a HealthyWage ad (because I am spending time on the site and google knows I’m researching questions. So now I see ads everywhere.. of course.) Anyway, in the comments there were a few unhappy comments. Here were their concerns:
- HealthyWage was not about getting healthy because weight loss doesn’t = healthy always (true but sometimes it does, and I still stand behind the program)
- People will hurt themselves trying to reach such high weight loss goals
- They wouldn’t refund someone who hurt their ankle while exercising and was laid up for a couple months, this person proceeded to comment negatively on every positive comment.
Here’s the thing, HealthyWage does what they can to prevent you from harming yourself to win money, while still offering the program they designed that has helped so many.
Talk to your doctor if you have health concerns that could be an issue, or that may require you to use a longer period of time. Be smart about how you lose weight. Eat better, exercise more, but don’t overdo it or you will hurt yourself and not be allowed a refund.
Final Thoughts
This program kept me motivated to lose almost 60lbs in 6 months. Through being evacuated during a hurricane, to dealing with the flu roaming around our house for 2 weeks. I credit HealthyWage with getting me back up and moving.
However, HealthyWage did not lose the weight for me. I lost it. I worked, I changed my diet, I made sure I was being healthy and safe. All HealthyWage did was say “Give us money. If you lose the weight you say you are going to, in the amount of time you say you are going to, we will give it back plus some. Otherwise, we keep it.”
If money motivates you, this is the program for you.
Head to HealthyWage.com to get started!
I lost 25 of my 59.4lbs in the first 7 weeks. It was a huge motivator to keep going. Here’s how I did it.
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