BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) - A lot of people make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, but too many times motivation drops off as people get busy, fall back into bad habits, and unhealthy routines.
What if there is more at stake than just your health? Some companies are betting that when there's money on the line, people will be more likely to stay on track with weight loss plans.
People who sign up with
HealthyWage.com and get a health club or doctor to gauge their body mass index at the beginning and end of a set period of time - can actually get paid for reaching weight loss goals.
"Our free program pays you 100 dollars to lose weight, go from an obese to a healthy weight," said David Roddenberry, Founder of HealthyWage. "We give you the option of putting up 300 dollars to get paid a thousand. And the people who put up their own money are more than 10 times likely to achieve their goal."
Roddenberry says it's not really gambling because participants can control how much weight they lose.
"You know if you lose the weight you are guaranteed to get paid. Certainly not everyone loses the weight, but even if you don't lose the weight, enough weight to win the prize, hopefully you've lost some weight and jump started your weight loss or wellness journey," said Roddenberry.
It's not the only company using money as a fitness motivation tool. Gold's Gym members can pay 50 bucks to enroll in a 12 week fitness challenge. In return they get guidance about how to shape up, the chance to win big, and a burning desire to be the best. The competition is based on before and after pictures.
"And after I take those before and after pictures they have that motivation right there from the get go and they’re fired up. They're ready to go. They’re ready to get it done," said Jesse Clement, Gold's Gym. "The national prize for each age group is 6500 dollars for the best winner in each age group. Even on the local level we're going to have a prize at the end and hey even if you don't win your age category, look at the results that you just got now- even an education and everything that went with it."
