Posted by Words mean things. You gotta know the language.
So if you are in HealthyWageLand, and you want to take full advantage of the money-making opportunities available there, it is important to understand terminology and definitions for all the different games.
I am writing a series of posts, in which I will describe each Healthy Wage game in detail, including weigh in and weigh out details, typical buy-in fees, typical payouts, applicability of the yo-yo rule, and other relevant information. This first post deals with the HealthyWager—the signature game at Healthy Wage.
The trouble is that terms “challenge,” “team,” and “jackpot” have specific meanings in HealthyWageLand, which may differ from how people commonly use them outside that realm. And so people get confused about rules like the yo-yo rule and the 2% rule apply to different games that they might want to join.
I got confused about the yo-yo rule and its applicability very recently, when trying to find people who would want to join a $10,000 team challenge starting next month. More detail on that below, but I told someone what my understanding of the rule was and it ended up being wrong after she double-checked. In the end I believe it was my failure to understand the definitions that lead to the confusion. Hence, this post—hopefully it will clear things up for people (including me!).
(Note: In this post I will use the term “game” to refer to any specific money-making endeavors that Healthy Wage has available. The term “game” works in DietBetVille as well and is actually an official term that refers to Kickstarters and Transformers collectively. But I am not aware of an official plenary term in use at Healthy Wage, so I’ll stick with “game.”)
Part 3 (coming soon) will deal with the Team Jackpot—which is a 6% team weight loss effort. I did once and that was enough for me.
Part 4 (coming soon) will deal with the Step Challenge—which I also did once.
The HealthyWager: What it is
Signature game at Healthy Wage—this is what they feature in most of their advertising. A customized, long term weight loss bet that can yield hundreds or thousand of dollars in profit.
Duration
6 to 18 months (your choice at the start), with 6 month extensions available if required
Pounds required to lose
Your choice, but must be 10% or more if your starting weight
Payment (Fee)
$102 or more, divided into monthly payments (rounded dollars required in the monthly payments—so a 6 month minimum stake bet is $17 per month or $102 total, a 7 month one is $15 per month or $105, and so up the line). This can be paid in full at the start or in monthly installments.
Refund Availability
None. They will suspend the HealthyWager if you become pregnant, and resume it when you are medically cleared to continue. Otherwise, you can safely assume that once you’re signed on, you’re in the game until you win the prize or you quit. Your payment is sunk and the only way to get it back is to win the prize, which consists of the payment plus the gain that the calculator quoted you.
Payout
Variable. This is calculated based on the inputs you provide. Inputs are biometric (sex, height, weight) as well as pledge-based (number of pounds, number of months, and payment size).
Prize
This is the total amount of money that Healthy Wage awards you on a successful HealthyWager. This is what appears on your check when you cash out (minus a $7 check fee). It is also what appears in the advertisements for the successful players.
The Prize include the money you paid in to play, plus brand new money from Healthy Wage. That new money is called “gain,” described next.
It can rise as high as $10,000. That figure is advertised heavily, but as I make clear elsewhere in this blog, very few people can get a $10,000 prize without making a “sucker bet”, i.e. betting so much that Healthy Wage is merely holding onto a large portion of it without paying any gain based on that portion.
Gain
The part of the prize that is brand new money from HealthyWage. This is variable and can be as low as $11 but can also go up into the thousands of dollars, depending on the calculator inputs. If you get referral and promotional boosts, this will add to the gain (and the prize).
Return on investment (ROI)
Gain divided by payment. This ranges from 11.11% to values in the hundreds. A 100% ROI is doubling your money, and a 200% ROI is tripling your money.
In my blog, I explain that obese people who pledge a lot of weight loss can get well over 200% ROI on their HealthyWagers, including one that capture all of the gain (in dollars) available to them.
Promotional and referral boosts
If you are launching a HealthyWager, you should link into the calculator via a referral link that offers you extra money if you win the HealthyWager.
If you have friends and family doing HealthyWagers (or who have won), you can request a referral code through them and sign up. You’ll typically get $40 added to your prize, and your friend or family member will get $40 added to theirs (if they won, they get HW points immediately which can be cashed out or invested into new games). At certain times of the year these values are increased—typically holiday times when Healthy Wage wants to entice more people to join their world.
Of course, once you are on a HealthyWager, you can invite friends and family in and earn more boost money.
Independent affiliates who promote the company through blogs and social media (e.g. me) can provide boosts as well. ($45 available until 9/3019–click here!)
Important note: Boosts are not free money—you have to earn them by winning the HealthyWager.
How many Healthy Wagers you can bet
One at a time only. You must end a HeatlhyWager (either win or let expire) before launching another one.
Yo-yo rule applicability
If you win a HealthyWager previously and your prize for that exceeded $200, and your current weight exceeds the weigh-out weight for that earlier HealthyWager, your new HealthyWager will start at the earlier weigh-out weight.
From the Healthy Wage rules page:
This rule applies to you only if, prior to starting your HealthyWager, you won a prize of $200 or more in any single HealthyWage challenge. In that case, you must start your HealthyWager at or below the weight that you ended the last challenge in which you won a prize of $200 or more. If you start your HealthyWager at a higher weight, your starting weight will later be adjusted downward to the ending weight of the last challenge in which you won a prize of at least $200. We have this rule to avoid encouraging repeat weight loss and to allow more people to take advantage of the program.
Example: Nancy won $2,000 in the team challenge with an ending weight of 200 pounds. Then Nancy gained 20 pounds and started a HealthyWager with a starting weight of 220. Her starting weight for the HealthyWager will be adjusted downward to 200 pounds because she can’t start a HealthyWager with a weight that is higher than her ending weight in any challenge in which she earned $200 or more. If her HealthyWager goal was to lose 30 pounds, she will need to weigh 170 in order to win (not 190).
If you’re on the wrong side of the yo-yo rule, you can still make money at Healthy Wage while moving back toward a sequel HealthyWager launch position. Your options include individual jackpots (6% down in 12 weeks on your own) and team jackpots (6% down in 12 weeks for a team of 2 to 9 players). You can also do step challenges (customized step count over 60 days). As soon as your weight reached your old goal weight, start a HealthyWager and you won’t be penalized by the yo-yo rule.
Note: the $10,000 team challenges are affected by the yo-yo rule, so for practical purposes consider yourself locked out of those until you drop the yo-yo pounds. (“Challenges” are not “Jackpots” in HealthyWageLand. If you don’t like the definitions I fully sympathize with you, but it is what it is, and that’s why I took the time and effort to write this post.)
Weigh-in procedure
Follow the instructions here to do a verified weigh-in. When the weigh-in is verified, the clock starts on your HealthyWager.
Generally the most convenient way to do this is through the mobile app, in which you will take a continuous video shot of you posing for the smartphone camera and standing on a digital scale. You will record yourself through a full-length mirror, or you can have a friend record you.
You then enter your weight and height (as shown on your drivers license or official ID) and check a box indicating that the weigh in should be applied to the HealthyWager. Then click Submit and you’re off and running! The referees will contact you if there is a problem with your video or data but generally things will be OK if you follow the video guidelines.
Again, remember that the clock starts on the HealthyWager when the verified weigh-in is submitted—not when you sign up for the HealthyWager with your payment method. Although the monthly payments begin at sign-up (payment 1 hits your credit card or debit card immediately and subsequent payments are scheduled monthly), you can delay the verified weigh-in for the HealthyWager and start the clock at a time of your convenience.
You can wait up to 180 days to weigh in. Here is a typical app display upon signing on for a HealthyWager:
This feature allows you to lock in an enhanced referral boost (if one is available) and start your HealthyWager after doing something fun that also involves lots of eating, such as a wedding reception or sea cruise. So sign up on Friday, go to that football tailgate and fill up on beer and bratwurst, and start that diet on Monday. Healthy Wage understands and makes things easy for you—no reason to create a dilemma between clinching a super-boost and not indulging at some event you had been looking forward to for some time.
Interim weigh-ins
Not required, but you can enter non-verified weights to help keep yourself on track. You get “ribbons” as rewards, but for the HealthyWager they have no monetary value and do not affect the wager.
Weigh-out procedure
You can do a verified weigh-out if your weight is at or below your goal within the final 15 days of the HealthyWager.
When you do the video through the mobile app, you will be asked to electronically certify that you did not cheat. You also may be asked to upload a photo of your drivers license or government-issued ID which shows your official height.
Approval and cashing out
After the video and e-certification are completed, there is a 1-7 day turnaround time for the submission to be approved and the prize to be awarded in the form of “HW Points.” These can be cashed out via check ($7 printing and processing fee) or electronic transmission through PayPal (typically a fee of 2.9% of the prize plus $0.30). HW Points can also be used to fund another HealthyWager or other Healthy Wage game, and can be retained for up to 12 months before expiring.
Buy More Time (Extensions)
At any time during the HealthyWager, including at the very end, you can extend your time by 6 months. By doing so you commit to making 6 more monthly payments—the same ones you have been making all along.
If you win the prize at the end of the 6 months, you do not get the additional outlay returned—only the initial payments plus the promised gain.
I have recommended that any player who is close to goal when the deadline arrives go ahead and take an extension if he or she can afford to, as this is by far the best bet available, with the best return on the addition outlay of 6 monthly payments. The original payments are long gone and should not be part of an extension decision—although it is understandable to miss them.
“2% rule” applicability
If you weigh out for a HealthyWager and you recently did a verified weigh in for another game; and that weight was substantially higher than your HealthyWager weigh-out weight, you need to check that the 2% rule doesn’t artificially raise your HealthyWager weigh-out weight.
From the rules:
Gaming the Verified Weigh-ins Not Allowed
When the rule applies:
This rule applies only if you are registered for more than one challenge, and applies only when you are finishing a team challenge or HealthyWager and lost more than 2% per week since your last verification.
What it says:
You can’t end a challenge with a weight that is less than 2% per week (on average, rounding up) less than your last HealthyWage verification. If you do, your ending verified weight will be adjusted upward so that it is no lower than 2% per week lower than your last HealthyWage verification.
Example:
Bob starts a HealthyWager at 201 pounds on May 1. On May 5, he finishes the team challenge he started earlier in the year, and his ending weight is 178 pounds. That’s a violation of the rule because Bob would be claiming to have lost way more than 2% of his weight in less than a week. 2% of 201 is 5 pounds (rounding up), so Bob’s May 5 weight can’t be any lower than 196 pounds. HealthyWage will adjust his team challenge ending weight up to 196.
So if you waterload before starting a jackpot game or a team challenge a few days before completing your HealthyWager, you’ll be restricted in your rate of weight loss for the data’s between the weigh-in and the weigh-out. Note that 2% is a huge weekly rate of weight loss, and the rule rounds that up to the nearest pound and the nearest week. So if you’re not cheating or doing something unnatural, you shouldn’t have to worry about this rule.
Coda
A lot of info above, isn’t there?
I’ll add picture to this post later to help clarify things more. But this is a start.
Relevant links:
Weight Betting Odds 
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