Review: DietBet, Healthy Wage, StickK and FatBet

Make some money to lose some weight…..

Losing weight is so darn hard.  Just look at the billion dollar weight loss industry.  But, what if you had a money incentive to lose weight?  Like Jessica Simpson’s 4 million dollar contract with weight watchers?  OK, we are not talking that kind of celebrity money just a little money to drop the weight.  Sign me up, I say!  Would you be more likely to drop the pounds for some moolah?

According to a recent Journal of the American Medical Association study, those who had a financial incentive to lose weight were almost five times as likely to meet their goal when compared with dieters who had no possible cash reward. Five times! Want to get in on this new wellness trend? A few new websites are offering the rewards.

The one that I am starting on Monday!

1. DietBet.com is the one that I am starting on Monday.  I joined the FitFluential January Dietbet.  You bet $25 with this group and you just need to lose 4% of your weight in 4 weeks.  Fun right!  There are many ways to play such as starting your own group at your office or even your family members.  I will do a follow-up review once the 4 weeks is up.

Here are a few more that are in the market:

1. HealthyWage.com launched in October, and some 5,000 other hopefuls have signed up for the site, which gets corporate sponsors to give a cash reward to obese users who during a specified time period move from an unhealthy to a healthy body mass index (BMI). (This typically translates into a weight loss of between 30 and 80 lb.) Members can either sign up for free — according to a company rep, the final deadline to enter the next 12-month challenge is Jan. 20 — and win $100 or “super-size” their weight-loss incentives by putting as much as $300 of their own money on the line in order to up the stakes to $1,000.
2. stickK.com was first launched in January 2008, more than $3 million has been put on the line. But the site relies on the honor system, and with a self-reported 70% success rate among users who pledge money, only $116,000 is scheduled to be paid out in 2009.
3. FatBet.net Tracking progress and adjusting when you backslide is critical. We suggest weighing yourself at the same time each day and entering your daily weight at Fatbet.net. The progress graphs tell you when to lay off the extra gravy. During some of our Fatbets, we ran together twice each week, which took planning but helped ensure that everyone stayed active at the same level.

Could you lose more weight if you were paid?  I don’t know if I will but I am willing to give it a try to get these holiday pounds off of me!