If you want to learn how to make money by staying healthy, getting familiar with a variety of apps is inevitable; there is an abundance of apps lately offering to help you log healthy activities, healthy eating, workout information and more using your mobile devices to help track your fitness efforts.
Remember that you should always investigate third-party apps you aren’t familiar with before you download them–Google the reputation of the app, the company, and be sure to look for any scam warnings associated with a particular app. Download at your own risk, but be an informed downloader.
Competitive Health Games
Some apps are competitive and provide payouts for winners who participate. One example of this type of app is called DietBet, which is a weight loss app that allows you to place bets on your own efforts. Such challenges may require you to lose a percentage of your body fat each month in order to win or continue competing.
Remember our encouragement to research apps like these in the opening paragraphs? Our own research on DietBet turns up some reviews that say the app isn’t a scam, but that competitive weight loss is not necessarily the healthiest way to approach personal health.
The winnings from DietBet are paid from a community chest, and you may have to spend money to earn money with the app. DietBet is certainly not the only such app out there, but it’s an example of one approach for those who want to make money while staying healthy.
Getting Paid To Exercise?
The Pact app offers to pay members for exercise–the idea here is that you make an account, enter your fitness goals and pledge an amount of cash that will be paid as a penalty if you don’t keep the pact. The official site explained, “Earn cash for staying active, paid by members who don’t.” If you keep your goals, you are paid by other Pact members, and when you don’t your funds pay the Pact users who do.
Pay-to-work-out apps sound great, but this particular app has a troubled history of a lack of payments (there was much legal flurry around the company in 2017 including headlines such as, “Gym app Pact pays $1m over broken promises”.
Sometimes things seem too good to be true–was this the case with the Pact app? That may be open to interpretation but the legal drama surrounding this app is another object lesson in the value of doing your research before you download.
Healthy Dining Credits
One way to make money by staying healthy is by using apps that give you rewards or discounts for healthy eating at restaurants and elsewhere. Most cashback type apps in this area are aimed at a broader range of consumers but you can use these cash back apps to offset the cost of healthier eating. One such app is called Ibotta, which boasts the ability to earn cash back with purchases at more than 500 thousand retail outlets including restaurants and grocery stores.
Reviews of this app include complaints of intrusive video content, and complaints of items offered featuring “cash back” that later did not match what was actually on offer. Keep in mind that these are user reviews and your experience may vary. Again, it’s another great example of the need to properly vet and research such apps before you try to make money staying healthy.
Joe Wallace specializes in personal finance, military affairs, and consumer protection topics. Since 1995, his work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and collects unusual vinyl records, which gives him an excuse to write the vinyl blog Turntabling.net.
Leave a Reply