Happy Tuesday! I’m always excited when I hear about new ways to motivate myself to workout. A few weeks ago, I read about StepBet on Instagram. Someone I follow on Instagram talked about how they were joining a game on StepBet to help stay accountable this Fall. I checked out the website and the app to learn more about it and then decided to join a 6 week game. Today I’m happy to discuss my experience!
What is StepBet?
“StepBet is a fitness game that motivates you to be more active. Players “bet” on themselves to meet their personalized step goals during every week of the game, and win money if they do. The cash prize, accountability, and community support help you build a more active lifestyle.”
Sounds easy, right? I wanted something that would motivate me to not only get moving, but also get me to workout more. Of course it’s much easier to hit a step goal on days that I run, but knowing that I signed up for a StepBet game made me get up from my desk more during the day. This included lunchtime walks and walking more laps around the floor.
How does StepBet work?
You “bet” on yourself by paying for the game. The games are $40 and last for 6 weeks. The first week is normally a warm up week. This means that you don’t have to hit your step goals everyday. It’s a week to get you acclimated to the game.
Your steps are calculated based on data from your Fitbit, Garmin tracker, Apple Watch, Google Fit or S Health. The app looks at your historical data to come up with your goals. Based on these numbers you will be given active and power day goals. For most games you need to hit your “active” steps at least four days a week and “power day” steps at least 2 days per week. You get one free day per week as well.
For my game, my “active” goal was 12,645 steps and my “power day” goal was 15,288 steps. Definitely reasonable and I liked having those numbers to strive for throughout the weeks.
How do you get paid?
First let me start by saying that StepBet has a No Lose Guarentee. This basically means that if you and everyone else in the game hit your goals every week, you automatically get back your $40.
Although StepBet retains 15% of the gross pot to pay Referees, transaction fees, game hosts, and administrative support, you can still win money. Now it won’t be a huge amount of money (as you can see in the image below), but it’s still something. Always remember that the more players in a game, the larger the pot and therefore the larger the payout! After the game is officially over, you will get paid in 1-2 days. Once you’re notified of the payout, you can transfer the money back to your banking account via Paypal.
Results of my first StepBet game – 20.6% profit
Is StepBet hard to use?
Absolutely not! Once you download the app on your phone, it’s SO simple to use. It only took me a few minutes to set up an account and link my FitBit to gather data. Also the app will give you alerts everyday when you hit your goal or just to remind you to get moving to hit your step goals.
Do they have other games?
If you think that StepBet isn’t your thing, you have other games you can try.
DietBet – In this game you bet that you will lose a certain percentage of weight over a span of a few weeks. This would be great incentive to stay on track during all of those holiday parties.
RunBet – In this game you commit to running a certain amount of days per week (usually at least 30 minutes each run). You can run indoors or outdoors and you can use Garmin, Strava or Runkeeper to upload your runs.
SweatBet – This game isn’t available yet but it sounds awesome! This game motivates you to work out more by doing the workouts that are laid out in the game. Once this goes live, I’ll be researching it to learn more.
Overall, with any of these game you bet on yourself. To me, that’s the best part! You are betting on yourself to “win” whatever game you enter. It shows that you have confidence in yourself to see it through and there’s no better feeling than that. Currently I just started another StepBet game yesterday to help keep me accountable through Thanksgiving and well into December. I don’t know about you, but knowing that I have money to lose gives me way more incentive to get my butt moving!
Have you ever tried StepBet, or any of these other games? If so, how did you like it? If not, what’s your motivation for getting your steps in daily?
I’m linking up with Marcia from Marcia’s Healthy Slice, Erika from MCM Mama Runs and Patty from My No-Guilt Life for Tuesdays on the Run.
I’m also linking up with Annmarie from The Fit Foodie Mama and Nicole from FitFul Focus for Wild Workout Wednesday.
Last but not least, I’m linking up with Lora from Crazy Running Girl, Marc from Train With Marc and Debbie from Coach Debbie Runs for Coaches’ Corner!
I know people who did Dietbet & liked it — not for me. I don’t really care too much about my steps, but of course it is harder at this time of year — lately I’ve been trying to take the dogs for 2 walks a day instead of one. I’m not training for anything so it’s easier, but soon it will be too cold and then there are rainy days like today.
Sweatbet does sound interesting!
Yeah I don’t think I could do DietBet, especially around the holidays! I’m looking forward to see what SweatBet is all about.
I never liked diet bet because weight loss can be tricky, but step bet sounds cool. I never understood how it worked and appreciate the explanation. So, I guess you netted $8+? That’s actually pretty cool for doing something you wanted to do anyway.
Agree with you on DietBet. My weight fluctuates so much that it just wouldn’t work for me. Yup, so I netted $8+ on the first game that I did. Not a huge profit but just knowing that I had $40 on the line pushed me to make sure I didn’t lose!
Having money on the line would definitely motivate me to get my runs in! There is no way I would want to lose. Sounds like a fun way to increase accountability! 🙂
Exactly! I am really frugal and hate to waste money so it really motivates me to get my booty in gear!
I well remember DietBet, so this is from the same people! I like the idea of steps vs weightloss too. Sounds like you did well!
Yeah I don’t think DietBet would work for me – too much pressure, but StepBet is great for me.
I have a love/hate relationship with DietBet https://travellingcari.com/tag/dietbet/ if you’re curious
Sometimes it’s incredibly frustrating and others it’s wonderful. Either the membership element is new or unique to StepBet as you used to be able to play simultaneous DB games
Thanks for the reminder to look into RunBet.
StepBet I’m not sure would work for me — I’m all over the map steps wise, barely hitting goal or 18K within 3 days
I think that Dietbet would be a little too intense for me, but I might look into doing RunBet next year.
Interesting! I’ve tried Dietbet for a maintainer one they had going last year and I liked it. But I’ve only seen the ones for losing weight this year. I hadn’t heard of Sweat bet before. That sounds like an interesting option. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it.
I think that’s cool that you’ve done the DietBet game. I think that one would be a little too intense for me, especially around the holidays, but I can handle the StepBet! I am looking forward to the release of SweatBet.
NEat. I too have been looking for ways to mix things up. I will look into step beat.
Let me know what you think!
I have heard of this but not yet tried it out. I like the idea of the steps vs any kind of diet/food challenge. I would try it!
it’s great – I would totally recommend it! I think that the DietBet is a little too intense for me but StepBet is perfect.
you should organize one in our fitness group!
Great idea! I might have to look into that.
I haven’t gotten in the steps thing, and I was definitely getting steps in this past week when the printer closest to my group broke. We had to halfway down the hall each time we printed.
Oh that’s the worse when office supplies break down!
I have heard of this before but wasn’t totally clear on how it worked. Thanks for the review – sounds like a fun way to stay motivated!
No problem – glad you found the review helpful!
I just signed up for StepBet! Let’s see how I do. I might also sign up for RunBet too.
Yay! Glad you decided to sign up.
Sounds like a great motivator! I have never been one for counting or monitoring my steps ( I’m always the last one to these kind of parties LOL) . Glad it’s been a great fit for you!
Yup it’s such a great motivator!
I like the sound of this! I tried DietBet once upon a time when I was trying to cut weight for a powerlifting competition and it didn’t work so well for my overall training/goals. I’ve heard of StepBet in passing though and it seems way more achievable for me since being consistently active is something I’d like to work on more so than my weight (especially since I don’t have a scale and can’t remember the last time I weighed myself, hahaha)!
Yes I agree that StepBet would be more achievable. Let me know if you give it a try!
I remember hearing about Dietbet from a few years back, but I like this idea more. It seems achievable and really motivating.
Me too! I think the StepBet is easier to tackle than the DietBet.
I’ve never tried anything like this mostly just because I don’t feel much of a need for myself to do it.
I never liked the weigh-in aspect of DietBet, but StepBet…. that’s something I could get behind. I love hitting my steps and it might be fun to see how that works out. It doesn’t seem as popular as DietBet, but maybe it’s just because I haven’t been looking!
I agree with you on DietBet. Plus my weight fluctuates so much in a week that it would never work for me. StepBet is really cool and I like the social aspect of it as well. They have a feed, similar to Facebook, where you can post, ask questions, etc.
This sounds really cool! My steps on my non-running days have been pretty pathetic….might need to download this app!
That’s exactly why I decided to do it. I notices that my steps on non-running days were embarrassingly low, lol.
I had not heard of this, but it sounds great! I can’t wait to check it out!!
Hope you get a chance to check it out!
My husband does a thing called Sweatcoin where it logs your steps and gives you points you can spend on stuff – free films to download, etc. It does seem to keep him motivated. It’s fascinating the things they come up with, isn’t it!
I’ve heard about Sweatcoin before, I might need to check that out as well.
I tried Sweatcoin, but it didn’t work well. I’ve heard it & Charity Miles both got functional updates. I should look into them again. Achievement is my personal favorite bribery. It pays in Amazon gift cards
I wish that Charity Miles would sync to my Garmin because I don’t always run with my phone.
Totally agree with you about achievement being personal bribery!
Apparently Garmin/Charity Miles now work since Garmin ran a sponsorship for a bit. I haven’t tried it, but will
Oh that’s awesome! Thanks for the update.