2-Week Grace Period on Individual Jackpot Weigh-ins

“I’ll take ‘Healthy Wage’ for $10,000, Alex.”

“The period of time in which you can submit a verified weigh-in at the start of a jackpot challenge—or repeated verified weigh-ins, if you like”

“What is two weeks?”

“That’s correct—we would have accepted 15 days as well. Although I bet answering that question was much easier than actually winning the challenge. By the way—did you take my box of Timbits from backstage before we went on air?”

“Uhhh… Let me try ‘And Your Poutine is Gone, Too’ for $200…”

So I started four new 12-week mini challenges last week, to get me below my HealthyWager goal weight before Thanksgiving. This way I can coast to victory when the weigh-out window for that arrives in mid-December.

The verified weigh-in procedures at Healthy Wage have been overhauled in recent weeks. Previously, you did the video and entered your weight and height, and submitted; and Healthy Wage automatically applied it to whatever challenges were affected by it.

There were rules in place that governed how the weigh-in applied to various challenges.

When I did my Goal Smashers team challenge (aka “June Public Challenge #5), I asked the refs about weighing out multiple times and which weigh-outs applied to the team average. They told me the latest weigh-out was the operative one. Thus I weighed out at the beginning of the 15-day weigh-out window and ratcheted down my weight on subsequent weigh-ins.

This ratcheting strategy ultimately made the difference between winning and losing that challenge. My final weigh-in was for 204 pounds on Friday, September 6.

After that, I started weighing in for four challenges over the following 10 days:

• The Most Wonderful Time of the Year ($30 fee) started Friday 9/6. I weighed in using a verified weigh in from Sunday 9/8 of 207.2. I can weigh out between Friday 11/15 and Friday 11/29 if I weigh 194.8 or less
• Back to School ($60 fee) started Sunday 9/8. I used the same 207.2 weigh in on 9/8 for that. I can weigh out between Sunday 11/17 and Sunday 12/1 if I weigh 194.8 or less
• Enrolling into Weight Loss ($60 fee) started Wednesday 9/11. I weighed in that day at 206.4. I can weigh out between Wednesday 11/20 and Wednesday 12/4 if I weigh 194.0 or less
• Hitting the Jackpot ($100 fee) started Sunday 9/15. I weighed in that day at 209.4–this is after coming home from brunch at the Cheesecake Factory. I can weigh out between Sunday 11/24 and Sunday 12/8 if I weigh 196.6 or less

For this last weigh in, I had the option of checking boxes for the three previous minis, as well as the HealthyWager that I started late last June after completing the first one.

I only checked Hitting the Jackpot and left the other ones alone. But I wondered what would have happened had I checked the other minis. Would I have reset the starting weights on those to 209.4, and wiped out the negative progress I had made over the last few days?

Would I have made things easier for me? Or would I have just created confusion for the refs that would have to be sorted out later? Would I have jeopardized my weigh-outs on another mini that was due to be paid—or my team challenge?

I contacted Healthy Wage to find out. Lara took care of me. (Lara knows her stuff.)

Here’s the back and forth between Lara and I.

Mini challenge before second Healthy Wager

Before I get to my situation I’m going to discuss question I was asking on behalf of someone who wanted to sign up for a second HealthyWager. This person was 5 pounds over her weigh-out weight from an earlier HealthyWager.

This meant that she had to return to her weigh-out weight before starting, due to the yo-yo rule. However, she could do a mini challenge to help her get back to her weigh-out weight and make money doing it.

There is also a 180-day period of grace between signing on for a HealthyWager and actually weighing in for it, which starts the clock on it at that time (but you do have to start the monthly payments the moment you sign on). This allows you to lock in limited-time enhanced promotional boosts without actually having to be at a viable weight at the time of the promotion—you can sign on and get the bigger boost, then weigh in up to 180 days later.

My question had to do with ensuring that a mini-challenge weigh in did not automatically activate the HealthyWager clock—that the check box interface allows for selecting one but not the other if you choose:

I have a friend who wants to sign up for a 2nd HealthyWager and she’s 5 lb over her weigh out weight from the first HealthyWager.

If she signs up now, and takes advantage of the 180-day grace period for weighing in for the HealthyWager, can she weigh in for a 12-week mini challenge to get rid of the 5 excess, without starting the clock on the Healthy Wager?

In other words, can she select the mini weigh in to apply to the mini only and then launch the HealthyWager with another weigh in at her convenience?

I believe the app now supports selecting which challenges to apply weigh ins to but its new, so I want to verify please.

Thanks,

Michael Wheaton

Lara’s response:

Hi Michael!

Thank you for checking in for your friend! The short answer is yes, but it is a relatively new feature that we have on the app so if she catches that the weigh in did verify for her for her HealthyWager, please tell her to contact us as soon as possible so that we can make the necessary adjustments to remove it from the challenge so that she can still have that grace period. I do not think it should pose any issues on that but I did just want to mention it so that we can make sure to get it fixed for her if it occurs. Please let me know if you or she have any other questions!

Lara
HealthyWage Participant Support

So yes, you can do weigh ins and launch specific challenges and wagers at different times. It’s a bit like playing casino craps, when you tell the crew you want certain bets turned “on” or “off”—“working” or “non-working.”

Multiple minis and 2-week grace periods for weigh-ins

This Sunday I posed my question about repeated weigh-ins on minis and HealthyWagers, under the same ticket with Lara that I used for my question on behalf of my correspondent:

Another Q regarding the new weigh in feature.

Today I weighed in for Hitting the Jackpot at 209.4.

I was offered the chance to apply that weigh in to three previous challenges that I enrolled in earlier at slightly lower weights. I had started The Most Wonderful Time of the Year and Back to School at 207.2 for each, and Enrolling into Weight Loss at 206.4.

So could I have actually reset my starting weights on those earlier ones to 209.4 today? Could I seriously have done that?

It seems like cheating to me—like going on Jeopardy! and building up a negative score early on, and being allowed for a brief time to say, “Hey, Alex, can you reset me to zero, please?”

So even though I’m up a bit now I left those earlier ones alone. I plan to lose the weight again and catch up in a week or two and get back on track.

And what about HealthyWagers? Can I actually reset a HealthyWager starting weight if I fall behind on it? And what period of time am I allowed to do that for?

I’d like to know the truth about these things so I can tell my friends and family who may want to join.

Thanks!

Michael Wheaton

I like using Alex Trebek and Jeopardy! to illustrate stuff. Lara wasn’t impressed, though.

Hi Michael!

Thank you for your inquiry! It allows for you to submit weigh ins for the first couple of weeks during a challenge, so any verified video could be attached. After those first couple of weeks are closed, it will not allow for you to submit a new verified weight until the end of the challenge. For the HealthyWager, there is no two week period – just the first weigh in can be counted. Please let me know if you have any other questions!

Lara
HealthyWage Participant Support

So there are 2-week grace periods for adjusting your weigh-in weight on 12-week challenges—but on HealthyWagers you get to pull the trigger only once and you’re locked into that value for the duration.

I couldn’t believe it at the time. So I wrote her once more:

Thanks—so I get a grace period on my challenges if I have trouble getting going for the first 2 weeks? That’s really a nice feature if that is the case!

If you can confirm that would be great! I like to blog about HW and I love the mini challenges so I want people to know what they are allowed to do

Thank you so much for the detailed answers!

Hi Michael!

That is awesome that you blog about your experience with us! That is exactly correct that all of our jackpots have that 2 week grace period. There are a lot of users that try those for their first experience, and since it is a challenge with a large amount of users, it is a lot easier to provide that two week period in case if anything does go wrong for a member trying to get themselves weight in. Please let me know if you have any other questions! Best of luck in your challenges!

Lara
HealthyWage Participant Support

So it’s true: I made things harder on myself for three of my four challenges by not resetting them to 209.4 and raising my goal weight on them.

But it doesn’t matter to me much. I really want to be 194 or so when those weigh outs open before Thanksgiving. My second HealthyWager goal weight is 196.6. I’d prefer not to cram at Christmastime.

I thought about all of this over the past couple of days and it makes sense to do this.

See, when I talk about minis, I never report on the pot size, unless it is related to something else more important—because what you get paid depends on the percentage of the pool who make weight. Usually the pools are big enough that the percentages don’t depend too much on their size.

But lots of people look at the pot size advertised and pick minis based on that. So Healthy Wage wants to get the pools as big as possible. (Also because their 25% take is larger in absolute terms when the pot is larger.)

I figure that they want to avoid having people delay signing up now, and risking locking in an early weight gain that they have to reverse before making positive progress on the 6% drop.

If they let them adjust their weight upward for the first two weeks, the worst case scenario for them is to have to lose 6% in 10 weeks. That’s tougher than 6% in 12 weeks, but it is still a moderate rate of weight loss for someone.

Coda

From now on when I write the crew, I’ll ask for Lara and see if they route me to her. She may ask me for my blog link eventually.