You’re probably familiar with basic apps that count your footsteps throughout the day, giving you a glimpse at your overall activity level.
But did you know there are several other types of fitness trackers that give you rewards and even cash for your activity? We’ve gone in for a peek at some of the most popular ones to find out how you can get paid to get in shape! Let’s check it out:
As one step-counter mentioned above, Fitbit provides fitness tracking products suitable for everyone including children and several ways to earn rewards. (If you're not sure, you can take their free online quiz to find out which tracker is best for you here.)
Let Fitbit count your steps each day and watch the pounds melt off before your eyes! Sync up your Fitbit with other apps or use it alone for great benefits.
You can even embark on a new adventure, hike a hidden trail, or explore a landmark with the Fitbit app, gathering up fun facts, health info, and mini fitness challenges along the trip.
Previously known as Earndit, the Higi app is a service that automatically updates your points gathered through other apps like Fitbit and compiles them with your personal biometric information.
Challenges are offered for either a week or a month in which users can participate and earn up to ten points per mile covered. Track your body stat numbers on blood pressure, weight, BMI, and other biometrics at any Higi station, found in stores throughout the country for additional chances to earn points.
Connect with friends and other like-minded health enthusiasts on Higi to stay focused as well! Points earn discounts and rewards on various products.
Walgreens shoppers can connect their Fitbit (or other fitness trackers) to their Balance Rewards card and start earning Balance Rewards for your walking!
Available on both iOS and Android, this app tracks your activity and rewards you 20 points per mile plus additional points for blood pressure, weight, sleep, and blood glucose tracking activities - until it caps out at 1,000 points per month.
Get paid for running with the Runister fitness tracking app! Accumulate points for each run you complete with this free app.
By compiling information from runners gathered after their runs and selling it (anonymously) to top brands, Runister is able to offer its users monetary rewards or make donations to charity on their behalf - you pick!
This Dick's Sporting Goods app offers points on a ScoreCard integrated with Fitbit, Garmin, or other fitness trackers for daily activity goals to earn rewards. Once you download the app, follow the in-app "Move" directions to get started.
Once you reach some goals, Dick's gives you custom offers and coupons on a vast array of their products and athletic gear available online or in the store.
The Weightless Project fights world hunger by matching the western world's fight against obesity with the less fortunate world's struggles with hunger and malnutrition.
With a meaningful intro from Deepak Chopra featured on their main site, this unique habit-tracking fitness app syncs up easily with Jawbone, Fitbit, or others, with a different kind of incentive offered.
For every 1,000 calories burned, the app donates $1 to fighting world hunger when partnering health and fitness brands convert them into usable funds. The more you workout, the more money they get!
Jawbone fitness trackers offer a personalized analysis of your sleeping, eating, and activity habits, and are easily synced with iPhones and Androids with Bluetooth.
Each of the Jawbone trackers offer different features, from calorie burning and heart health monitoring to automatic sleep detection and customized Smart Alarms, so scan through to find your ideal match.
Easy to use, water-resistant, and light-weight, the comfort and convenience of Jawbone makes it an easy choice for habit-tracking. With offices worldwide and a headquarters in San Francisco, you're never out of range for Jawbone products.
RunKeeper tracks your activity via GPS, maintaining your personalized details and progress along the way - such as the distance you ran, a map of your path, and time spent running.
If you reach a milestone or one of your goals, share it to friends on FaceBook, Foursquare or Twitter, or support a friend's race on a live map. Challenges are offered to earn rewards or be entered in drawings to win prizes for completed goals.
By integrating social media, technology, and impressive rewards, Leap4Life lets you get fit while earning great stuff!
Developed by Sweat Equity Network, Leap4Life pays participants for healthy behavior by "capturing, converting, and monetizing fitness-related activities tracked through bio-metric devices and online reporting."
Simply put, you can track your own goals and achievements, compare your achievements against those of participating friends, and even compete in events offered daily, weekly, or monthly.
Cash out your points once you reach your goal or choose gift cards: 2,500 points gets you a $25 gift card, for example.
Offered on iPhone and Android, the EveryMove app is available for individuals as well as businesses who want to promote their employees' health and well-being.
Sync up with your favorite fitness tracking apps and choose from swimming, cycling, walking, cross-training, or other activities you and your family/friends prefer for staying in shape. Then, start tracking your activity and earning points and rewards from either your employer or popular brands or health plans!
Wanna prove you ate your veggies and deserve the Veggie Pact points, for example? Upload a pic of you shoveling them into your mouth and the community will up/down vote you with likes and dislikes as verification.
The same type of confirmation goes with Gym Pact and Food Log Pact as well, and participants can earn (or lose) between $5 and $50 per day. Pacts can be paid out via PayPal after the correct number of days has passed and an adequate amount of money is accumulated.
Check out the app, available for iOS and Android, here.
Featuring games and Weekly Kickstarters, DietBet is a fitness tracker that lets you join in an already existing game or kick off your own with three levels of weight loss challenges.
Submit your official starting weight two days prior to starting a Kickstarter challenge, for example, with a full body photo of yourself standing on the scale for proof. Twenty-eight days later, do it again if you've reached your 4 percent weight loss goal. Once confirmed, all participants split the pot of cash via PayPal or use it toward new DietBets.
Awesome incentive! Check out their Transformer and Maintainer levels if you've advanced, and see what prizes are offered each month.
Based on successes confirmed in academic research, Healthy Wage combines financial incentives and games with healthy living and weight loss goals to make losing pounds fun!
Using a "double-incentivization model" used in a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, Healthy Wage believes both positive and negative incentivization guarantees your goals are achieved.
Sign up on your own or with a team of co-workers to get started on HealthyWage challenges today!
Boston-based Wellcoin offers healthy rewards for healthy actions! Treats from popular locales like Whole Foods Market, Reebok, and Dick's Sporting Goods are available when you download the Wellcoin app and complete the needed number of activities -- from exercising to getting enough sleep to eating a healthy lunch or even taking the dog for a walk.
Available through the Apple App and Google Play stores, Wellcoin easily links up to FitBit, RunKeeper, and Strava.
For those with a charitable heart, getting in shape is easy when it benefits those in need! Support over 30 world-renowned charities like Wounded Warrior Project, ASPCA, and the Alzheimer's Association with the Charity Miles fitness tracker.
Participants can earn up to 25 cents per mile when they bike, run, or walk for their regular workout. T-shirts, tote bags, and other products can also be purchased on the Charity Miles site to benefit the charity pool.
The Fitcoin app tracks your activity level and based on the intensity of your exercise, rewards you with digital currency, or Bitcoin!
When you're ready, just download the Fitcoin app, create an account, and sync the app with your current fitness tracker - keep in mind, however, that this app only works with certain trackers that offer both public access to their software and a way to measure your heart rate, such as Mio, Jawbone UP3, and Atlas - but even those aren't guaranteed.
"The more good we do, the more good we get," as the GOODcoins' website reminds us, suggests that good habits are worth encouraging.
In much the same way as we'd reward our kids when they do good things, adults can receive our own rewards when we do good too! With this in mind, the GOODcoins fitness tracker uses virtual currency that "engages communities and drives sustainable change", by providing rewards like locally sourced, healthy food, fitness gear, and carbon-neutral trips and travel opportunities.
GOODcoins has offices in Toronto and New York City; contact them with your questions and comments here.
UK-based Bounts is compatible with RunKeeper, Fitbit, and numerous other fitness devices/apps, and is available in North America.
With Bounts, you accumulate points from activities like checking in at a Bounts-approved gym, getting 20 minutes of workout time in, or walking a certain number of steps.
Once you get enough points, they can be used toward various types of challenges. Complete the challenge, earn the rewards!
The Achievement App is a fitness tracker able to connect to over 30 other apps and compile fitness and nutrition info rewarding you with points for cash!
Earn additional points for not only increasing activity but Tweeting about it on social media or posting updates and pics of your healthy meals on FaceBook. Once you hit your first 10,000 points, you get your first $10 reward.
Let MapMyRun track your running route for you either with another fitness tracking app or alone on your smartphone, storing your distance data, path, calories burned, and more.
MapMyRun connects you to other runners, analyzes your data, and strategizes with you to reach your optimal training goals. Join in on Challenges to earn prizes like fitness gear, personal workout time with famous trainers, or even a $500 Under Armour gift card!
No matter which option you choose, there's no wrong way to get paid to work out - it's win-win for your wellness, and your wallet.
