Written by: Merilee Kern, MBA • November 3, 2021• Holidays

Holiday Health-Seekers Paid Cold Hard Cash to ‘Stay Strong’ this Season

Resolution Readiness: Highly lucrative challenge offering $12,256 cash prize for successful weight-loss and/or weight maintenance as gamified ‘money motivation’ paradigm continues to proffer staggering payouts, with $6 million cash paid thus far in 2021, alone, to winners who’ve collectively lost over 434,000 pounds ($55 million paid out since company’s inception)

America’s battle with obesity wages on. This amid the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s revelation that all U.S. states and territories had more than 20% of adults with obesity, and that at least 35% or more adults residing in 16 states suffered the condition. As concerning given the current pandemic is the CDC’s findings that obesity worsens outcomes from COVID-19. Understanding the need for serious intervention to get America’s collective weight-driven health trending in the right direction, HealthyWage.com—the world’s leading purveyor of financially-induced diet contests for individuals and corporate/team-based weight loss challenges—has launched a new initiative to tackle the U.S. obesity epidemic head on during the trying “holiday diet survival” season … and as a jump start on those New Year weight loss-driven wellness resolutions undertaken by throngs each January.

This season, HealthyWage’s “Holiday Stay Strong Challenge” is giving health seekers 12,256 reasons to shirk temptation and either lose or just maintain their weight and get paid for their successful efforts in kind with a substantial $12,256 jackpot—representing $1 for every HealthyWager winner since 2020 (noting the company has paid out more than $6 million to winners who have lost over 434,000 pounds collectively in 2021, alone, and a staggering $55 million to winners since its inception).

This free challenge, which runs from November 22, 2021 to December 26, 2021, is open to everyone. Upon completion, one randomly selected person will receive the whopping $12,256 jackpot for losing any amount of weight, or just for maintaining their weight with no more than a 2% weight gain, over the 5-week challenge period that runs through the notoriously trying holiday gluttony season. Participants only need to submit two verified weights: once at the start of the challenge and once at the end of the challenge. Participants can sign up for the challenge online at www.HealthyWage.com and then quickly and easily submit verified weight via the company’s mobile app, which is available on both iOS and Android. To up the odds of winning, every participant can earn additional sweepstakes entries toward the $12,256 grand prize drawing in various ways, including weighing-in weekly..

A few notable HealthyWager success stories (both female and male) exemplify the power of the company’s gamified dieting approach. These include Tina P. who lost an impressive 70 pounds and won $3,757 for her efforts, Miranda B. who lost 81 pounds and won $2,973 in kind, and Ben R. who lost a notable 61 pounds and won $1,990 for his own slimdown success.

So effective is this method, famous personalities have joined HealthyWage in the fight to get America fit. For one, the company has continued its A-list partnership with Sherri Shepherd—an actress, comedian and best-selling author who formerly served as an Emmy Award-winning network talk television co-host. Amid the popularity of Sherri Shepherd’s initial “HealthyWager” initiative through which participants vied to win up to $10,000 by hitting their own personal weight loss goal, the esteemed television personality had again teamed with HealthyWage for a re-boot of the initiative … again giving participants a chance to win up to $10,000 by hitting their own personal weight loss goal. Sherri Shepherd celebrated the success of her second HealthyWage challenge in an infectious video on her Instagram page and in subsequent social media posts reflecting herself feeling confident, receiving her HealthyWage weight loss winnings check payment, and sharing (and celebrating) life after her resounding weight loss success.

The need for such wellness-inducing initiatives cannot be more pressing as yet other reports indicate that, on average, one out of every three adults is obese (about 36% of the population) and that, “if U.S. trends continue unabated, by 2030, estimates predict that roughly half of all men and women will be obese,” people are needlessly putting themselves at higher risk of serious medical conditions. This includes diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and other health concerns as cited by the CDC. Couple that with the sad truth that COVID-19 is actually exacerbating the problem, with another report finding that an overweight condition is “associated with the severity of COVID-19 and the need for hospital treatment.”

The efficacy of diet gamification is well-proven. For one, according to study findings published by JAMA Internal Medicine, behavioral economics-based gamification led to “significantly” increased physical activity among overweight and obese Americans. In this particular study, pairing a step tracking device with social incentives led to sustained, long-term behavior change—prompting participants to take more steps then with a step tracking device, alone. While the report explains that “gamification interventions significantly increased physical activity during the 24-week intervention,” with competition being the “most effective.”

Further validating HealthyWage’s well-honed approach, an additional study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine continues to prove that money is an effective motivator to “increase both the magnitude and duration of weight loss.” The same holds 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.

Also a prolific corporate and group wellness purveyor, since 2009 HealthyWage has worked with an array of hi-caliber participants on workplace and staff wellness initiatives, including Halliburton, ConocoPhillips and more than 25% of the largest school districts in the country. HealthyWage has, in fact, formally created competitive, money-motivated programs for more than 1000 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 7,000 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. HealthyWage payouts are proof positive. Since the company’s inception, HealthyWage had collectively paid more than 30,000 dieters over $55 million cash for weight-loss achievements exceeding 7.5 million pounds shed.

“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 average participant more than doubles their investment if they are successful at achieving their goal. The financial upside potential is impressive.”

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Forbes Business Council Member Merilee Kern, MBA is an internationally-regarded brand analyst, strategist and futurist who reports on cultural shifts and trends as well as noteworthy industry change makers, movers, shakers and innovators across all categories, both B2C and B2B. This includes field experts and thought leaders, brands, products, services, destinations and events. Merilee is Founder, Executive Editor and Producer of “The Luxe List” as well as Host of the “Savvy Living” lifestyle TV show that airs in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta and other major markets on CBS, FOX and other top networks; as well as the “Savvy Ventures” business TV show that airs nationally on FOX Business TV and Bloomberg TV. As a prolific lifestyle, travel, dining and leisure industry voice of authority and tastemaker, Merilee keeps her finger on the pulse of the marketplace in search of new and innovative must-haves and exemplary experiences at all price points, from the affordable to the extreme. Her work reaches multi-millions worldwide via broadcast TV (her own shows and copious others on which she appears) as well as a myriad of print and online publications. Connect with her at www.TheLuxeList.com and www.SavvyLiving.tv / Instagram www.Instagram.com/LuxeListReports / Twitter www.Twitter.com/LuxeListReports / Facebook www.Facebook.com/LuxeListReports / LinkedIN www.LinkedIn.com/in/MerileeKern.

***Some or all of the accommodations(s), experience(s), item(s) and/or service(s) detailed above may have been provided or arranged at no cost to accommodate if this is review editorial, but all opinions expressed are entirely those of Merilee Kern and have not been influenced in any way.***

Sources:

https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html

https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/obesity-and-covid-19.html

http://chibe.upenn.edu/about/news/2016/02/16/loss-incentive-motivates-employees-to-take-more-steps