On a journey to shed pounds? Why not earn while doing it? Wager on your weight loss with these websites and get paid to lose weight!
Let's face it, losing weight isn't easy. Staying on a stringent diet is challenging, and so is sweating it out at the gym. While the physical aspects of losing weight require considerable effort, this is not where most weight loss aspirants fail. For people on a journey to shed pounds, staying mentally motivated is half the battle.
Losing the motivation to stick with your diet or exercise plan is one of the common pitfalls of losing weight, and platforms like HealthyWage, RunBet, and Achievement know this all too well.
These platforms hold weight loss contests for money – and we all know how great money is as a motivator.
Table of Contents
How to lose weight (and make money along the way)
Weight loss websites and apps allow you to wager on your weight loss or on completing a particular physical activity. This means that you get rewarded for achieving your goals (and penalized for missing them).
You can get paid to lose weight alone or with a group of friends, depending on your preferred diet site. Some weight loss competition platforms will donate profits from lost wagers to charity, while others will offer your wager to users who have met their goals.
The premise is simple. All competitors pool their money before the weight loss challenge begins.
If you reach your weight loss goals within the specified time, you get a cut of the share. If you don't, your money is awarded to the winners.
See Related: 20 Best Side Hustles to Earn Extra Income
Do weight loss contest platforms really work?
The short answer is yes. However, while financial incentives are a strong motivator for losing weight, a 32-week study from Carnegie Mellon University found that the approach is not that effective for long-term weight loss.
The research found that financial rewards did allow participants to lose more weight than a control group, but they immediately gained it back after an eight-week weight loss maintenance phase. The study recommended longer-term incentives.
But really, maintaining lost weight is another story. If you're confident in your capacity to lose weight, or if you're looking for that fire to help you stay on track, then you can make a few bucks from these weight loss websites.
If you’re wondering how to make money losing weight, we've narrowed down the choices to 7 of the best weight loss contest websites while focusing on legitimate and high-paying platforms.
Ready to begin your weight loss journey and get paid for it? Read on below.
List of Ways to Make Money Losing Weight
HealthyWage
HealthyWage is one of the most popular sites that allow you to make money losing weight. The platform has a simple promise: if you lose 10% of your body weight over six months, you instantly win $100. HealthyWage has so far rewarded over $430,000 to weight loss aspirants who have lost over 860,000 pounds collectively.
HealthyWage encourages weight loss in two ways: social dieting and gamification. By dieting in teams, you’re more likely to succeed with encouragement, teamwork, and peer pressure.
The added element of fun also makes weight loss something you're more likely to stick with. Through gamification, users join exciting challenges that do away with pre-diet procrastination and offer weight loss aspirants more motivation to push through.
How does HealthyWage work?
If you're looking to get paid to get in shape, HealthyWage offers two weight loss challenges: a solo challenge where you compete only with yourself by shedding weight or lowering your BMI and a group contest called “Matchup Challenge” where you compete in a five-person team to win the site's $10,000 grand prize.
Both challenges require a participation fee from all members. This is where HealthyWage gets its cash prize from.
For reference, a five-person team had to lose 266 pounds collectively over 14 weeks in order to win the cash prize of $10,000.
DietBet
Just like HealthyWage, DietBet allows you to get paid to lose weight by betting on yourself. The only difference is that DietBet offers more variety in its weight-loss contest options.
DietBet offers three programs of varying duration, weight loss goals, wager amounts, and prizes. This offers dieters more freedom to select a contest that better suits their lifestyle.
How does DietBet work?
Dieters may enter a variety of weight loss contests at once. If they win, they get their money back with a small profit. Entry fees for challenges vary, but you can enter a contest for as low as $10 with the Kickstarter program, and you can expect to win 1.5-2x the amount you bet.
This means that if you join a contest with a $10 fee, you could expect to win around $15-$20.
Joining challenges with other people doesn't mean you're competing against them; anyone in the team who hits their goal wins the cash prize.
The contest begins with contestants pooling their money. Once the contest ends, participants who win get to split 85% of the money since Dietbet takes a cut. If more people lose in the contest you join, the more money you get to take home.
Dietbet offers three weight loss challenges: Kickstarter, Transformer, and Maintainer.
Kickstarter, which lasts for four weeks, requires that you lose at least 4% of your body weight. Entry fees vary per challenge, but the average bet is $30.
Transformer, which lasts for 6 months, requires that you lose at least 10% of your body weight. You must wager $25 a month or pay a one-time $125 fee. The challenges consist of six rounds spread over six months, with each round requiring that you lose a certain percentage of body weight.
Maintainer is open to contestants who’ve previously lost weight in Kickstarter or Transformer programs. This program requires that you maintain your weight within plus or minus 2% of your body weight. The entry fee is $25 a month of $225 upfront.
Walgreens Balance Rewards
Walgreens Balance Rewards for healthy choices (BRhc) is a great program for people who want to lose weight living near a Walgreens branch. Unlike HealthyWage and DietBet, BRhc offers loyalty points for various healthy behaviors and activities.
These loyalty points may be converted to money which you can use at any Walgreens location or online purchases
How does Walgreens Balance Rewards work
The premise behind BHrc is simple: complete health challenges to earn points every week. Every 1,000 points you earn gets you $1 off on your Walgreen purchases.
Each health challenge runs for four weeks, and you can earn 100 points for each week that you compete. If you complete all four weeks, you can join the wheel spin sweepstakes.
Unlike HealthyWage or DietBet, BHrc won't reward you for the amount of weight you lose, instead, it rewards you with points for healthy activities that you complete. This includes walking, cycling, or jogging.
To track your progress, you must link a health device like FitBit or MyFitnessPal.
RunBet
RunBet is one of the easiest ways to get paid to lose weight. If running is a big part of your exercise program, then RunBet is the best platform for you.
Unlike DietBet where you wager on your weight loss, RunBet lets you bet on how much you'll run per week. Just like other weight loss contests, RunBet hosts a variety of games to help keep you motivated.
How does RunBet work
RunBet games have different lengths which depend on the game's rules. Players must be able to complete all of the required runs according to the schedule provided. You can only log in one run per day, with each running requiring a minimum pace.
For example, one game had a duration of six weeks and a $40 entry fee. In this game, participants were required to run four times a week with a minimum pace of 10 minutes per mile.
Contestants must successfully complete the run schedule for six weeks in order to get their share of the pot. With 45 players in the contest, the pot size reached $1,800. The more people in the contest win, the smaller your share of the pot will be.
RunBet allows you to run outdoors and indoors, and verification is made in two ways. Outdoor runs must be tracked and recorded using a run tracker app including Strava, Runkeeper, or Garmin Connect.
Indoor runs must be completed on a treadmill with a photo of the treadmill readout and a “sweaty selfie”. These are then verified by a RunBet Referee.
See Related: 70+ Ways to Make Extra Money
Fitcoin
FitCoin is a revolutionary app that allows you to get paid to lose weight for free. Unlike other online weight-loss contests, FitCoin's unique selling point is rewarding you not with cash, but with BitCoins instead.
How much you earn is directly proportionate to how hard you commit to a particular physical activity. You can earn by swimming, aerobics, or even skateboarding.
How does FitCoin work
To join FitCoin, you must download the iOS app, create an account for your Bitcoin repository, and enter your personal details. After setup, you must sync the app to any of the eligible fitness trackers with a heart rate tracking functionality.
You may sync FitCoin to FitBit, Garmin, Atlas, Mio, and Jawbone, among others.
The FitCoin app will record the duration of your activity along with your heart rate level. How much energy you spend is then converted to its worth in BitCoin. During a demo, a tester ran on a treadmill for four minutes with a heart rate of 115 beats per minute.
This endeavor earned him 5 cents.
While FitCoin is not an app that will make you rich, there's nothing wrong with earning from an exercise you're probably doing to lose weight anyway.
See Related: 11 Ways to Make Money with a Bike
Achievement
Making money losing weight is easy with Achievement as it tracks a variety of physical and health-related activities. The platform pays its users to walk, exercise, workout at the gym, or answer health-related surveys.
Achievement is 100% free to join, with no in-app purchases required. All you need to do is to sync a fitness app or a wearable device in order to start earning points; You can get paid to lose weight without even thinking about it.
Points may be converted to direct deposit, PayPal cash, gift cards, or charitable donations. Earning 10,000 points grants you a $10 cash reward.
How does Achievement work
After downloading the mobile app, users may immediately earn bonus points in two ways: by syncing their first fitness app and answering a few health surveys.
Eligible fitness apps include Apple Health, FitBit, Google Fit, Garmin, MyFitnessPall, Qardio, Dexcom, and others.
A wide variety of health-related activities will also earn you points in Achievement, such as health-related check-ins on Foursquare or health-related tweets on Twitter.
Each time you use the platform, it learns more and more about your fitness habits and health history, which may grant access to invitations for exclusive health studies that pay up to $200.
While Achievement is completely free to use, there's a catch.
The platform submits your activity and survey information to market research and healthcare companies, and this is how it earns money.
See Related: 10 Ways to Get Paid to Listen to Music
Gym Pact
Gym buffs will love Gym Pact, an app that allows you to make money while working out in the gym. This smartphone app offers financial incentives to help you stick to your fitness goals.
Just like HealthyWage or DietBet, you earn money if you achieve your goals, and lose money if you fall down on your commitments.
How does GymPact work
It’s easy to get paid to lose weight with GymPact. First, users must set a pact by entering how many days they’re committed to working out in the gym. The default pact of three days a week will earn you $2.10 a week if you successfully complete your pack. You may receive $0.50 to $0.75 per workout.
Next will be setting up your wager. The default program will take $5 out of your pocket for each workout you miss. That's harsh punishment – one you'll most likely try your hardest to avoid. You will then need to connect your Facebook account and enter your credit card info (for rewards and penalties).
Users are required to tag their gym of choice, and check-in to the facility each time they workout. The app can verify up to you 40,000 gyms, and if your gym isn't listed on their database, you can simply add it yourself.
While these weight loss websites and apps are a great way to earn a little money on the side, there are other ways to earn big bucks online. This comprehensive email course will walk you through everything you need to know about increasing your income online!