Less than two years ago, Jaclyn Brown weighed 272 pounds, and she wanted to lose it.

“Being that big is extremely uncomfortable," she explains. "It’s a struggle finding something to wear in the morning [which] kind of sets your whole day up to be a bad day,”

She’d tried diets, counting calories and Weight Watchers, but nothing had succeeded in getting her to drop the pounds and keep them off. Finally, one day in 2015, Jaclyn realized one thing might keep her motivated to lose weight: money.

Jaclyn Googled “ways to make money by losing weight” and found a company called HealthyWage. Eighteen months later, on July 4, 2016, Jaclyn weighed in at her longtime target weight of 140 pounds. She’d lost 132 pounds!

“I’m so much happier. I was completely miserable before this,” she says. “I argue less with people, and I notice that I have less of an attitude, because I feel better. I’m not tired and feeling like crap all the time.”

How did HealthyWage finally push her to hit that goal? Through the platform, Jaclyn placed a bet on her weight loss, and she won big.

She bet $100 per month that she would lose 132 pounds in 18 months. When that final weigh-in confirmed her success, Jaclyn won $5,294.12.

How to Get Paid to Lose Weight

Yes, it sounds too good to be true. We thought for sure there’d be a catch, but we talked to several people who’ve used HealthyWage, and it’s seriously working for them. Stick to your goal, lose the weight and you’ll get paid. It’s as simple as that, everyone assures us.

In fact, we’ve been following HealthyWage for a while now, and we know of at least a few folks who’ve won huge prizes for losing weight.

Angie Richards bet herself she’d lose 40 pounds in six months: She crushed it, lost 52 pounds and won $1,200!

Danielle S., who also found HealthyWage through a last-ditch-effort Google search, lost 128 pounds in nine months and won $1,323 — triple the money she bet.

For Katelyn Pincock and her husband Cort, it was about making money to pay down debt: They learned about HealthyWage when they searched for ways to make extra money, and they realized weight loss would be a nice side effect. They each bet $75 per month for six months — she wanted to lose 40 pounds, while he wanted to lose 60.

Both reached their goals, and the couple won almost $3,000 to put toward their family’s debt.

“I have had such a great experience with HealthyWage,” Katelyn says.

It started as a way to make money. But as they started to lose weight, too, after a couple of months it was all about the motivation to shed pounds.

“I started not caring about the money and caring more about … my weight loss,” Katelyn says.

With that motivation, Katelyn says it came pretty easy for her. The mother of two children under the age of two gets her exercise on bike rides through the park, the kids snuggled into a bike trailer behind her.

“We needed a push, and now that we realize we can lose weight, it’s been really good,” she explains.

Putting their own money on the line was just the push they needed.

Jaclyn said the same. Knowing she stood to lose $1,800 in payouts and $5,200 in winnings if she failed to hit her goal pushed her to finally make the lifestyle changes she’d thought about for so long.

And she’s stuck to those changes since winning her bet.

“It’s basically a complete lifestyle change,” she explains.

That’s an important key: HealthyWage isn’t a diet program or weight-loss regimen. While you’ll benefit from joining the community, reading tips and exchanging recipes, the company’s main purpose is facilitating your bet.

You put up the collateral. You conduct your weigh-ins. You choose your weight-loss goal and time frame. HealthyWage doesn’t make you lose weight — it just handsomely rewards you when you do.

Because Jaclyn controlled her own diet changes and exercise plan, she says it’s now a natural part of her life.

“I don’t even really crave the kind of food I was eating before I started,” she explains. “My diet is still pretty healthy, and I’m still exercising regularly.”

How to Sign up for HealthyWage

If you want to get the motivation you’ve been looking for, here’s how to get started with HealthyWage:

Start at the HealthyWage Prize Calculator, where you’ll enter how much weight you want to lose (10 to 150 pounds, minimum 10% of your starting weight), how long you’ll take (six to 18 months) and how much you want to bet ($20 to $150 a month). Based on that information, the calculator will determine your prize amount, up to $10,000.You can play with the calculator until you get the prize and goal just right, and you’ll know your prize amount before officially placing your bet.

Sign up and lay down your bet. You agree to pay the monthly amount for the duration of the challenge.

Achieve your weight-loss goal, and win your prize! You’ll start and end your challenge with a video-recorded weigh-in to demonstrate your weight loss.Throughout the challenge, you’ll also log weekly weigh-ins, but not on video. These help ensure you’re losing the weight in a healthy way, not through extreme measures.

If you don’t hit your goal, your money goes to support HealthyWage, including prizes for others who achieve their goals.

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