She Earned $1,191 for Losing Weight — Here’s How You Can Do It, Too
When Christina Castro couldn’t buckle her seatbelt on the flight home from her London honeymoon, she broke.
“You hear the stories about the plane seats, but you never think it’s going to be you,” she says. “You think it’s the people who are 500 or 600 pounds, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m fine. I’m going to definitely fit.’”
Once home, she started researching ways to lose weight — “even though I’d failed so many times,” the 28-year-old admits.
That’s when she stumbled upon HealthyWage, a wellness company that pays participants to meet their weight-loss goals.
“I was like, ‘Wait, people will pay me to get healthy? I don’t have to lose thousands of dollars? I get thousands of dollars?’” she recalls thinking.
How to Place a “HealthyWager”
To get started with HealthyWage, you enter your information into the platform to determine your “healthywager,” your weight-loss bet.
For Castro, it looked something like this:
- Weight-loss goal: 80 pounds
- Timeline: Six months
- Starting weight: 296.6 pounds
- Monthly bet: $200*
Then HealthyWage will calculate your potential payout. If she could hit her goal, Castro would earn $1,191.
“It was really interesting,” she says. “I was going to gamble on my own willpower and my own strength.”
Continue with the sign-up process by verifying your weight. You can do this by taking a video through the HealthyWage app; or with verification from a health or fitness professional, like a local medical lab.
Once verified, you’ll log your weight once a week. This lets the company know you’re being healthy about your weight loss and that you’re following the challenge rules. (No video or doctor sign-off required on these check ins.)
At the end of your challenge, you’ll verify your final weight. If you’ve hit your goal, HealthyWage will promptly pay you through PayPal or with a check.
If you don’t hit your goal, you’ll lose your monthly bet. That means if you bet $20 for six months, you’ll be out $1200. That’s how HealthyWage makes money — and keeps you motivated.
Castro exceeded her goal by 4 pounds, weighing in at 212.6 at the end of her challenge. She’s using that $1,191 payout to pay down her credit card debt.
She’s also enjoying her new weight.
“I was pulling shirts out of my closet that I hadn’t worn in years, just running around my house screaming to my husband, ‘Look what I’m wearing!’ she says.
If you want to see how much money you could make placing a bet on yourself and your weight-loss goals, enter your information into the HealthyWage calculator.
Want to learn more? See how four women made a collective $10,495.28 in our HealthyWage review.
*current minimum bet is $200
Carson Kohler ([email protected]) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.
