Diet Betting Boon: HealthyWage participants collectively lose over a staggering 1 million pounds and gain over $10,000,000 since company’s inception, as over 1,000 health-seekers lose more than 100 pounds and more than 10,000 lose at least 50 pounds while ‘dieting for dollars’ – all exemplifying the power and efficacy of the company’s weight wagering paradigm

Name: Whitney L. from Alexandria, VA

Winnings: $1,772 for losing 50 pounds in 12 months

Background: In addition to wanting to lose weight, Whitney was planning a trip to Iceland and was looking for ways to motivate weight loss and fund her trip.

Quote: “[HealthyWage is] going to pay me almost two thousand dollars to do something I should be doing already? That’s a whole vacation!”

Name: Brooke and Matt Everhart (couple), High Point, NC

Winnings: Brooke and Mat Everhart won more than $4,000 for losing a combined 122 pounds (Brooke herself won $1,506.95 for losing 50 pounds in 9 months)

Background: The Everhart’s debuted their new bodies on a trip to the Virgin Islands with family members, and used their winnings to spend an extra week there as a second honeymoon. “We played around with a few different diets and all the things you are told to do, like walking more, and nothing was working for us,” Mat Everhart, 37, told ABC News. “We were both really frustrated.” ... “This thing was sort of the catalyst for us,” Mat Everhart said. “It literally made us put our money where our mouth was and find a way to motivate yourself because there was a tangible motivation.”

Name: Christine H. from Huntington Beach, CA

Winnings: $2,896.06 for losing 60 pounds in 9 months

Background: After living in the UK for 6 years due to her husband's job, Christine and her family moved back to California in 2016. While in the UK, Christine struck up a strong friendship with several women who were also ex-pats (how they refer to themselves). Since Christine has moved back to the states, some of her fellow ex-pats have also moved, so they decided to create an annual girls trip. In need of travel funds and wanting to look and feel good when reunited with her friends, Christine signed up for a HealthyWager.

Quote: "I missed all my friends and they were planning on doing a reunion trip the first week of December. I couldn't afford it so I decided to make a [HealthyWager] bet...I had to win, I had to go to London and see my friends."

NEW YORK, NY, January 2018 – HealthyWage—the world’s leading purveyor of corporate and team-based weight loss challenges and financially-induced diet contests for individuals, today announced extraordinary company milestones that further validate its innovative “weight-loss wagering” approach and underscores the enduring demand and efficacy of the “dieting for dollars” paradigm. For one, in 2017 the company’s membership base grew more than 340% over the year prior, with more than 300,000 current program participants. For their weight-loss achievements that collectively exceeds an astounding 1 million pounds, HealthyWage has paid dieters over $10,000,000 cash since its inception in 2009.

To date, HealthyWage has helped over 1,000 people lose at least 100 pounds; over 5,000 people lose at least 75 pounds, over 10,000 people lose at least 50 pounds; over 25,000 people lose at least 25 pounds, and at least 100,000 people lose at least 10 pounds. Also exemplifying the power of HealthyWage’s approach, weight loss was realized in an average of 13 months for those shedding over 100 pounds, 9.3 months for those shedding over 75 pounds, 7.2 months for those shedding over 50 pounds, 3 months for those shedding over 25 pounds, and just 1 month for those shedding over 10 pounds. Through its website, HealthyWage.com shares an array of inspirational success stories of both women and men who gained financially for their pound-shedding achievements using the company’s unique gamification approach.

Also a prolific corporate wellness purveyor, since 2009 HealthyWage has worked with an array of hi-caliber participants on workplace and staff wellness initiatives, including CSX, Baltimore School District, and Halliburton. HealthyWage has, in fact, formally created competitive, cash-fueled programs for more than 90 Fortune 500 and other public and private companies, hospitals, health systems, insurers, school systems, municipal governments and other organizations throughout the U.S., and their program has been more informally run at more than 3,000 companies and organizations seeking to bolster staff health and well-being, and boost bottom lines in kind.

HealthyWage is founded on research and "double-incentivization" methodology that proves cash rewards triple the effectiveness of weight loss programs. “Studies show that monetary incentives serve to enhance the effectiveness of, and duly complement, weight-loss programs of any and all sorts, especially when paid out quickly like our various programs,” said HealthyWage co-founder David Roddenberry.

The company’s diet-for-dollars program allows participants to make a wager upfront ranging anywhere from $20 a month to as much as $500. Participants then commit to a specific amount of weight loss in a specific time frame, for which they’ll receive a cash prize payout if they achieve their goal in the allotted time. “The average participant roughly triples their investment if they are successful at achieving their goal. The financial upside potential is impressive,” Roddenberry says.

Substantiating HealthyWage’s approach, recent study findings published in the journal Social Science and Medicine, continue to prove that money is an effective motivator to “increase both the magnitude and duration of weight loss.” The same hold true in business for staff wellness initiatives. Results from one study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine indicated that "’Loss Incentive’ Motivates Employees to Take More Steps,” finding that financial incentives framed as a loss were most effective for achieving physical activity goals.

“These studies, and throngs of others, reiterate the importance of the ‘stick’ in the design of a wellness incentive program, whether for individuals at home or for employee groups,” notes Roddenberry. “Many studies have demonstrated that the threat of losing something of value is much more effective than the opportunity to win something of equal value. That’s precisely why we advocate that program participants ‘pay to play’ and make an investment out of their own pocket in order to win rewards—in our case large cash prizes—for losing weight and getting more active in the program.”

Those interested in learning more may do so online at www.HealthyWage.com

About HealthyWage™

Industry-leading health and wellness, HealthyWage, provides cash incentives, social and expert-based support, tools and resources, and goal-setting and tracking technologies to address our nation’s obesity epidemic and improve America’s collective health. HealthyWage is at the forefront of the weight wagering movement, having formally created competitive, cash-fueled programs for more than 90 Fortune 500 and other companies, hospitals, health systems, insurers, school systems, municipal governments and other organizations throughout the U.S., and their program has been more informally run at more than 3,000 companies and organizations. The company was founded in response to academic research that proves even small cash rewards triple the effectiveness of weight-loss programs; that people are more effective at losing weight when their own money is at risk; and that social networks play a large role in the spread of obesity, and will likely play a large role in reversing obesity. Learn more online at www.HealthyWage.com.