Kimberly Calliari paid $300, lost 51 pounds and won $1,200.
That all happened after she signed up for two challenges on HealthyWage.com, a website that lets dieters bet their own money that they’ll meet a weight loss goal. HealthyWage is one of several wagering websites that have launched in the past few years, including DietBet.com and Stickk.com. GymPact, a smartphone app, pushes people to go to the gym or get charged for it. All of the sites work differently, but have the same premise: get healthy or risk losing your cash.
“If I didn’t have anything on the line I don’t think I would have done it,” says Calliari, a 29-year-old merchandise buyer for grocery stores in Milwaukee.
he services make money by taking a percentage of the total collected from those who don’t meet their goals. To make sure no one fakes a weight loss, the sites ask users to photograph themselves on a scale or film a video and submit it to the site for verification.
Calliari first heard about HealthyWage after the company she worked for used the website as a way to motivate employees to lose weight. In February 2012, she started two challenges. One was to lose 10 percent of her body weight in six months. She wagered $100. She lost the weight and won $200.
The second was a year-long challenge to drop her body mass index from obese to healthy. She wagered $300. Her weight dropped from 204 pounds to 153 pounds and her body mass index, a number determined using weight and height, fell to 24 from 33.8. She’ll soon receive a check for $1,000.
“I think it does motivate people,” says Susan Adams, a registered dietitian and assistant professor of nutrition at La Salle University in Philadelphia. She says betting $300 might be too much, saying that many people lose the motivation even after paying cash. “How many people join gyms on Jan. 1? Go back in March and see how many are left,” Adams says.
But the thought of losing such a large amount of money kept Calliari on track. “If I’m going to spend money on a purse why can’t I put in $300 for my own health?” Calliari says.
If you think money will motivate you to drop the pounds, check out these four weight loss and exercise wagering programs:
