Author Topic: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose  (Read 8485 times)

tralfamadorian

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I decided last month that the extra pounds I picked up after I injured myself and was unable to do any cardio this winter/spring had to go. I had done dietbet before a couple of years ago and had a good experience so decided to circle back to it.

Dietbet lets you either sign up for 4% weight loss over one month or 10% weight loss over six months. I already have something planned for six months out where I cannot guarantee to have access to a scale so I decided to do a series of 4% bets until I'm satisfied with the end result.

You can sign up for a max of 3 of the 4%/1mo and 3 of the 10%/6mo at the same time so I signed up for three of 4%. My results were:
#1: $20 bet, $31.56 payout, $11.56/57.8% return
#2: $35 bet, $48.91 payout, $13.91/39.7% return
#3: $100 bet, $115.86 payout, $15.86/15.9% return

I had a similar payout last time I used it and have read elsewhere that more people meet their goals in the higher bet ranges. I already signed up for the second set of one month 4% bets of $35, $35 and $100 before I received the returns on the first three. Damn, I wish that I had seen how clearly my anecdotal data supported the lower bets for dollar optimization first!

Caveat- returns are based solely on the results of the other people in the bet. The more people who flake out, the better your return would be. The lowest you could theoretically receive back is your initial bet (dietbet would waive its cut). In my bets from two years ago, I received payouts of initial bet plus $9-$19.

FindingFI

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2018, 10:26:14 AM »
I've done a couple $100 bets here and there over the last couple years and found there to be logical seasonal trends as well.  For example, far fewer succeeded over the December holidays, resulting in higher payout.

My return on $100 bets by end date:
1/5 - $46.44
3/2 - $8.51
6/22 - $16.52
6/29 - $3.77
10/2 - $11.46


HAPPYINAZ

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2018, 10:53:29 AM »
Interesting!  Never heard of the site, thanks!

Goinganon

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2018, 06:41:08 PM »
Thank you for posting about this. I had never heard of it. I decided to sign up and am already more than 20% of the way to my goal on a 1 month bet.

FIREGuy

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #4 on: August 07, 2018, 07:44:50 AM »
Is it possible to do more than one bet at once? I found the sister site, RunBet, and it looks like a lot of the challenges overlap and could be completed simultaneously.

Goinganon

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2018, 12:55:34 PM »
Yes, you can do multiple bets at the same time.  I remember reading that the max of one type of bet is 3 at a time.  There are several people in my game (bet) who mentioned that they are in other games as well.

10dollarsatatime

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2018, 08:18:45 AM »
Is it possible to do more than one bet at once? I found the sister site, RunBet, and it looks like a lot of the challenges overlap and could be completed simultaneously.

Runbet only lets you do one at a time.  Stepbet will let you do up to three, if you're a member.

JanetJackson

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #7 on: August 14, 2018, 09:32:00 AM »
Thanks for sharing, this is neat!
I'm not going to do Dietbet, but I'm a weightlifter (aka NOT A RUNNER/omg running is so hard why the hell do people do this... whine whine whine) who is signed up for a 5k (it's for an animal rescue, my guilt/love for fuzzy boo boos persuaded me) in a few months... so I'm absolutely going to join RunBet. Thanks for the info!  Yay!

RAD!

Goinganon

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #8 on: September 09, 2018, 08:06:59 PM »
I just finished up my first Diet Bet. $30 bet. I made $49.94. That makes a return of $19.94 (65%). I rolled some of the winnings over and am now in my second Diet Bet.

JanetJackson

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2018, 06:13:24 AM »
@Goinganon Great job!
I'm on week 4 of a 6 week Run Bet and I am currently at a $6.25 gain from a $40 bet with two weeks left for people to drop off. 
Not quite sure what that'll be after fees, but it's looking good!

Stimpy

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #10 on: September 19, 2018, 11:00:45 AM »
So, stumbled on to dietbet a LONG time ago.  (or some form of it, exact details = fuzzy at best)   Decided it was too expensive to try, and moved on.   (Granted that year I lost 40 lbs!)   

Skip to today, gain it all back (only took several years) and need the motivation again cause obviously my current motivation isn't working!

Signed up today for a challenge that starts tomorrow.   Thanks for the reminder this exists and congrats on the weight loss and the profit!

10dollarsatatime

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #11 on: September 19, 2018, 08:08:37 PM »
I just won a couple of kickstarter bets.  It was around $7 for one of them and $15 for the other.  The difference was the number of people signed up, I think.  I'm also in the middle of a transformer that I've already hit the final weight for.  Just weighed in for the 3rd month.  So far, this is working for me.  I've lost 20 pounds or so since July. I haven't been this weight since high school, and I don't know that I've ever been a healthy weight.  I was chubby as a kid, too.

I'm thinking I'll sign up for another transformer now, so they overlap by three months.  I'm also planning on a couple more kickstarters in 6 weeks or so.  This way, I can vary my months between shooting for .5-1lb/week and 1.5lbs/week.  I hear there are maintainer bets as well.  You can bet I'll be taking advantage of those for a while as I learn how to keep my body where I want it to be.

I'm also doing runbets to keep me training for the various half marathons I've signed up for.  This is my best training year ever.  Unfortunately, the half I was going to run next weekend canceled, so I'm trying to rearrange my runs to be ready for a run at the end of October.  I'm taking a couple of easy weeks, and then back to it hard the first week of October with a new bet.

I did a stepbet as well, but of all of them, that was the most stressful for me.  If I didn't go running in the morning, I would constantly be watching the fitbit, stressing over the steps, dragging myself out for a walk when I got home from work (sometimes after 11pm and a 16 hour shift).  I could schedule my runs for days I didn't have to work as long, but I couldn't avoid those long days, and I couldn't get steps in while sitting with a client.

erutio

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #12 on: September 21, 2018, 05:40:42 PM »
@10dollarsatatime , how does runbet work?  Do you have to run certain distances on certain days?  how much flexibility do you have in scheduling your runs?

10dollarsatatime

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #13 on: September 24, 2018, 09:22:52 PM »
It's a bit different for each bet, depending on the goal.

There's always either a distance or a time goal.  So... 30 minutes or 2 miles or whatever.  There's also a minimum pace that is usually either 15 minutes or 18 minutes per mile.  And then it's so many runs/week, usually 4 or 5, that you do whenever you'd like (but only one per day).

I track my runs with runkeeper usually, and it syncs to runbet.  You can also do the treadmill thing and then submit a picture of the screen and a sweaty selfie.

I just finished one, and am trying to decide on my next.  I like to do 4 runs/week with a minimum pace of 15 minutes/mile.  I can walk 18 minutes/mile, so I try to make sure I have to push myself.  I don't super care if it's a distance or a time goal.  I'm doing half marathon training, so I blow by most of them anyway.  I just need to motivation to get out the door.  I can take it from there. :)

SproutingStacheHK

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #14 on: October 07, 2018, 08:44:52 AM »
Hey, thanks very much for this - first I'd heard of it!  I'm now in for $100 on my first four-week challenge: not just for the prospect of a few dollars, but since I'm in absolute beast-mode for savings right now, and I'm hoping to carry my focus in that field into weightloss.  I'm badly in need of motivation on the physical side - and I do not want to be down $100 in this month's budget!  That should keep me out of the fridge. Looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

JanetJackson

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #15 on: October 08, 2018, 05:48:59 AM »
I finished my first Run Bet on the 29th and got a $5.95 payout for a $40 bet.
I put that money into a bucket fund to buy new headphones eventually.  It's very hard for me to buy things that I don't "need" for myself, so this is the perfect way!

I took a restful week where I'd run a mile or so every other day, and then ran a charity 5k on Sunday (yesterday) and my new Run Bet starts today!

I'm re-doing the same one I had done before to see if my times/attitude improve and OF COURSE to make as much money as possible on my bet.

I've really liked it so far, I use the Strava App along with the RunBet App and they sync wonderfully.

Goinganon

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #16 on: October 12, 2018, 08:07:57 PM »
I just finished another Diet Bet Kickstarter and won $50.87 on a $30 bet. I’ve used the winnings to enter a third Kickstarter. I’m planning to enter a transformer as well shortly.

jlcnuke

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #17 on: October 15, 2018, 07:03:35 AM »
I just recently decided to stop slacking and get in shape. I signed up for the 6 month bet today, weigh-ins tomorrow. Wish me luck :)

ender

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #18 on: October 15, 2018, 03:47:58 PM »
This is really interesting to me. Hmm.

Serendip

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #19 on: October 15, 2018, 05:22:49 PM »
I'm with you @jlcnuke --joined the 6 month bet :)  I am fairly healthy but haven't had enough internal drive/motivation to push much further, although I'd like to ( the challenge will end right before my 40th b-day and I like the idea of being in great shape for that!)

SproutingStacheHK

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #20 on: November 07, 2018, 07:56:10 PM »
Just finished my first month's dietbet - results:

Bet 1: $35 – won: $21.80       (60.2% return)
Bet 2: $30 – won: $18.84       (60.8% return)
Bet 3: $30 – won: $18.31      (61.0% return)

Sneaky sneaky $5 one month “membership” that I missed unchecking the box for on one of the bets.  I was very cross at the time, but it did mean I could enter the “progress prize draws” – and I won a $200 Amazon gift card, exchanged for cash because they can’t send prizes overseas. (I think that one is a 3900% return!)

Total ‘invested’: $100.  Total returned: $353.95

And total weight lost so far: 20 lbs! 

THANKS SO MUCH FOR PUTTING ME ON TO THIS.  It's been really effective.

JanetJackson

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #21 on: November 08, 2018, 06:49:44 AM »
Just finished my first month's dietbet - results:

Bet 1: $35 – won: $21.80       (60.2% return)
Bet 2: $30 – won: $18.84       (60.8% return)
Bet 3: $30 – won: $18.31      (61.0% return)

Sneaky sneaky $5 one month “membership” that I missed unchecking the box for on one of the bets.  I was very cross at the time, but it did mean I could enter the “progress prize draws” – and I won a $200 Amazon gift card, exchanged for cash because they can’t send prizes overseas. (I think that one is a 3900% return!)

Total ‘invested’: $100.  Total returned: $353.95

And total weight lost so far: 20 lbs! 

THANKS SO MUCH FOR PUTTING ME ON TO THIS.  It's been really effective.

Wow, great job!

I haven't tried DietBet yet, I do RunBet and am on wk5 of a six week bet, my second time through it.  I might try DietBet too soon- amazing results!

-----------------------------------------------
Unrelated:

*I also have no idea what people are talking about with a Kickstarter and a "Transformer (what even is this?)"... I just use an app.

Am I missing something y'all?

FindingFI

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #22 on: November 09, 2018, 05:52:34 AM »
Unrelated:

*I also have no idea what people are talking about with a Kickstarter and a "Transformer (what even is this?)"... I just use an app.

Am I missing something y'all?


They are both types of games on DietBet.  A Kickstarter is a 4 week game to lose 4% of body weight and a Transformer is a 6 month game to lose 10%.

JanetJackson

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #23 on: November 10, 2018, 06:11:25 PM »
Unrelated:

*I also have no idea what people are talking about with a Kickstarter and a "Transformer (what even is this?)"... I just use an app.

Am I missing something y'all?


They are both types of games on DietBet.  A Kickstarter is a 4 week game to lose 4% of body weight and a Transformer is a 6 month game to lose 10%.

Thanks!  I use RunBet now, so I thought the language would be similar- nope! :)  I'll be trying Diet Bet after the holiday rush and my next Run Bet is over.  Maybe also that's a time when other people will drop out and there will be more money to be earned!

jlcnuke

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #24 on: November 13, 2018, 05:32:07 AM »
I just recently decided to stop slacking and get in shape. I signed up for the 6 month bet today, weigh-ins tomorrow. Wish me luck :)

I actually ended up signing up for two that day, the transformer (6 month) and a kickstarter (4 week) bet. Yesterday was the final weigh in (out?) for the kickstarter and I made my goal (with 0.5 lbs to spare!). Gotta wait for all the weigh-ins to be finished before I'll see how much I won, but it was nice to accomplish that 4% weight loss goal, though it wasn't easy to pull off.  I've signed up for a second transformer bet as well, so I have one ending in April and one ending in May now.

Looking forward to losing some weight and winning some money at the same time :)

EDIT:
Now that the first one that I won is officially over, I got $53.56 for winning on my $30 bet.
« Last Edit: November 14, 2018, 02:51:30 PM by jlcnuke »

jlcnuke

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #25 on: November 14, 2018, 03:54:59 PM »
Oh, I also signed up for another 6-month one this week. So I have 3 6-month ones still going. The 4% one was pretty hard for me to pull off, but I'm pretty confident I can do 3% each month even with the holidays and work-travel upcoming, so I figured I'd max out my 3 of those at once.

Goinganon

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #26 on: November 14, 2018, 04:08:59 PM »
I just finished another Diet Bet Kickstarter and won $50.87 on a $30 bet. I’ve used the winnings to enter a third Kickstarter. I’m planning to enter a transformer as well shortly.

Woohoo! I just won my third diet bet. $53.56 won on a $30 bet (79% return!). I’m in a transformer and it looks like I’m on my way toward winning that one as well. I’m going to sign up for another kickstarter and another transformer.

I’m so grateful for having found diet bet. Not only have I made a decent amount of money ($64.37), but I’ve stayed motivated and lost nearly 30 lbs.

jlcnuke

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #27 on: November 14, 2018, 04:45:58 PM »
I just finished another Diet Bet Kickstarter and won $50.87 on a $30 bet. I’ve used the winnings to enter a third Kickstarter. I’m planning to enter a transformer as well shortly.

Woohoo! I just won my third diet bet. $53.56 won on a $30 bet (79% return!). I’m in a transformer and it looks like I’m on my way toward winning that one as well. I’m going to sign up for another kickstarter and another transformer.

I’m so grateful for having found diet bet. Not only have I made a decent amount of money ($64.37), but I’ve stayed motivated and lost nearly 30 lbs.

LOL @Goinganon - sounds like we were both in the FatGirlFedUp dietbet since I won the exact same amount lol.

Goinganon

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #28 on: November 16, 2018, 10:10:54 AM »
I just finished another Diet Bet Kickstarter and won $50.87 on a $30 bet. I’ve used the winnings to enter a third Kickstarter. I’m planning to enter a transformer as well shortly.

Woohoo! I just won my third diet bet. $53.56 won on a $30 bet (79% return!). I’m in a transformer and it looks like I’m on my way toward winning that one as well. I’m going to sign up for another kickstarter and another transformer.

I’m so grateful for having found diet bet. Not only have I made a decent amount of money ($64.37), but I’ve stayed motivated and lost nearly 30 lbs.

LOL @Goinganon - sounds like we were both in the FatGirlFedUp dietbet since I won the exact same amount lol.

Yup :) Although with more than 9,000 people in that bet, I'm not too surprised.  It was a massive group.

jlcnuke

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #29 on: December 18, 2018, 05:33:44 PM »
Oh, I also signed up for another 6-month one this week. So I have 3 6-month ones still going. The 4% one was pretty hard for me to pull off, but I'm pretty confident I can do 3% each month even with the holidays and work-travel upcoming, so I figured I'd max out my 3 of those at once.

I've now won month 1 of all three, and month two of the first transformer I signed up for (on top of the kickstarter mentioned earlier). I started the first transformer at 226.3 and was at 208.6 when I weighed in for it this week. Only 0.4 lbs to go and I'll be at next months goal for that one! Of course, holidays and vacation coming up are going to test my resolve, but I'm going diving for Christmas week so that'll be a bunch of exercise and hopefully not too much drinking, so that week shouldn't be too hard to keep on track during.

So far, I've gotten:
$53.56 from a $30 kickstarter bet

$15.03 from round 1 ($12.50 my contribution/bet) of Transformer #1
$23.29 from round 2 ($12.50 my contribution/bet) of Transformer #1

$16.81 from round 1 ($12.50 my contribution/bet) of Transformer #2

and
$15.95 from round 1 ($12.50 my contribution/bet) of Transformer #3
« Last Edit: December 18, 2018, 05:40:59 PM by jlcnuke »

Goinganon

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #30 on: December 21, 2018, 12:53:49 PM »
Oh, I also signed up for another 6-month one this week. So I have 3 6-month ones still going. The 4% one was pretty hard for me to pull off, but I'm pretty confident I can do 3% each month even with the holidays and work-travel upcoming, so I figured I'd max out my 3 of those at once.

I've now won month 1 of all three, and month two of the first transformer I signed up for (on top of the kickstarter mentioned earlier). I started the first transformer at 226.3 and was at 208.6 when I weighed in for it this week. Only 0.4 lbs to go and I'll be at next months goal for that one! Of course, holidays and vacation coming up are going to test my resolve, but I'm going diving for Christmas week so that'll be a bunch of exercise and hopefully not too much drinking, so that week shouldn't be too hard to keep on track during.

So far, I've gotten:
$53.56 from a $30 kickstarter bet

$15.03 from round 1 ($12.50 my contribution/bet) of Transformer #1
$23.29 from round 2 ($12.50 my contribution/bet) of Transformer #1

$16.81 from round 1 ($12.50 my contribution/bet) of Transformer #2

and
$15.95 from round 1 ($12.50 my contribution/bet) of Transformer #3

Congratulations on winning that diet bet! It seems as though we’re in the same transformer as well.

This  past month has been the hardest for me, but I did manage to win the kickstarter (my 4th) and have won both rounds in my first transformer so far. I’m in another transformer and am on track to win round 1. I’m already signed up for my 5th kickstarter.

STEMorbust

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #31 on: December 21, 2018, 04:15:15 PM »
Glad to see that a company has made this type of 'buy in' challenge stick!

I made an account and signed up for the $100 'Bet Big' 4 week challenge. Weigh in is by EOD today!

E.T.

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #32 on: January 11, 2019, 10:34:39 AM »
Thanks for posting about this. It sounds like a fun way to get extra motivation. I committed to a 5k race next year and have a lot of getting in shape to do before then.

elaine amj

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Re: Dietbet- Side hustle for mustachians with a few pounds to lose
« Reply #33 on: January 13, 2019, 08:31:32 PM »
I just signed up for HealthyWage - which is like Dietbet but a bigger commitment. The algorithms (which determine) are different based on each person's personal stats, goals, and how much money they put on the line.

I was going to try Dietbet but decided losing $30 or so wasn't enough incentive for me. So decided to try HealthyWager with a min $100 buy in. After crunching numbers on the site, I ended up putting in SIX HUNDRED dollars($100/mo over 6 months) to lose 25 lbs in 6 months! My payout will be $480 or 80% return. Pretty nice chunk of change!

I decided on such a high number when I could feel my motivation and commitment changing when I made the loss potential more significant. And by the time I decided $300 (which would give me a 60ish% return), I figured that if I was in for a penny, I might as well be in for a pound and upped the amount to $600 for the higher return.

One week in and I am very pleased with it so far. The other nice thing with HealthyWage is that u can get a $40 referral bonus so make sure u get a referral if you join. My code is: https://hwage.co/574832/ (we each get $40)

I was going to add a Dietbet but decided I had already committed enough money to this. Too many eggs in one basket lol.

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