Have you ever tried to lose weight, only to fall off your diet? If staying on your diet could net you some extra cash, would you be more likely to stick to your goal? Thanks to websites like DietBet, FatBet and HealthyWage, you can bet on yourself to lose weight — hit your target and you win cash, or miss it and pay up.
The sites all differ in terms of payouts and goals, but they generally work the same. Pony up money, send the website a photo of you on the scale and then try to hit your target weight. “On our site, there’s a community of people who are coming together to try and hit a specific goal,” says Jamie Rosen, founder and CEO of DietBet. “Our most popular competition is to lose 4 percent of your body weight in four weeks.”
[Read: How to Stay on a Diet to Lose or Maintain Weight.]
The average bet is around $30, Rosen says, and how much you win depends on how many people in your group hit the goal — 40 to 50 percent of people win their money back or more. “Money motivates,” he says. “People like the idea of making money, but more importantly, they hate the idea of losing money. By putting the money up first, they develop loss aversion and work hard to win it back.”
The idea of motivating people to lose weight this way is perfect for people who need an extra push to get off the couch, says Keith Ayoob, director of the nutrition clinic at Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center. “If you don’t have the internal motivation, a bet like this brings out your competitive streak,” he says. “It makes it seem like you’re working toward a benefit that’s above and beyond personal satisfaction.”
[Read: Need Fitness Motivation? There’s an Avatar for That.]
Turning weight loss into a community effort not only adds accountability, but also a support network, which is crucial, Ayoob says. This community aspect has proved to be the most popular parts of the site, Rosen says, more so than the payout at the end, and the most successful gamblers are the ones who are very active within their community. “The money gets you in the door, but the community spirit helps you keep going,” he says. “Everyone is in it together. You feel uplifted by the fact that there are all the other people, these strangers, all working toward the same goal as you.”
[Read: Can Social Media Help You Lose Weight?]
The goal of losing 4 percent of your body weight in four weeks is a very reasonable one, Ayoob says, which is an often overlooked aspect of weight loss — having an unrealistic goal makes it much more likely you’ll fail. For example, someone who registers on DietBet and is 200 pounds would have to lose 8 pounds over four weeks or 2 pounds per week, which is a healthy weight loss goal. However, you likely won’t lose much fat over the four weeks. “It may be easier to lose weight in the beginning than it is in the end, because you lose a lot of water weight when you first go on a diet,” Ayoob says. “When we think of losing weight, what we want is to lose body fat, and that’s something that can only be done with a long-term calorie deficit.”
That’s why you need to have a plan for what to do once the bet is over, Ayoob says. “If you return to your former habits, you’ll gain the weight right back,” he says. “Look at that four-week period as boot camp, because you’ll have to continue your efforts over the next months.”
[Read: 13 Habits of Fit and Lean People.]
Your diet shouldn’t end once your bet does, regardless of whether you win your money back or not, Rosen says. “We call this bet the ‘kickstarter’ because it gets you off the couch and started on your weight loss,” he says.
And you shouldn’t look as the money as the reward, Rosen says. If you win it back, great, but if you don’t, any amount you’ve improved has put you on a path to becoming the person you want to be. “Typically people are winning around $50 to $60, which isn’t a lot of money,” he says.”The real winnings are in the mirror.”
[See: U.S. News Best Weight-Loss Diets.]
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Is Betting on Weight Loss a Good Idea? originally appeared on usnews.com
