Betting on Weight Loss - Is it a Gamble?
Categories: Diet and Weight Loss
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| Photo: Lisa Kong, sxc.hu |
Earlier this year, we heard about studies that found that some people -- especially men -- were motivated to lose weight when it meant making or losing money. Sites like StickK.com and FatBet allow people to put money where their mouths are -- betting on their ability to take the weight off for good, and workplace bets were becoming popular too. But a new study suggests that when it comes to getting serious about weight loss, money just isn't a factor.
More than 2,400 people -- all overweight or obese -- enrolled in workplace weight loss programs were studied. One group was offered $60 for maintaining weight loss for one year. A second group of folks paid $100, with the promise it would be returned once they lost 5 percent of their weight. A third was told they'd receive $20 just for staying in the program for 12 months.
What they found was that -- meh -- the money really didn't matter. The group that lost the most weight, 3.6 pounds, was the one with participants who paid $100. But weight loss in the other groups was modest -- 1.4 pounds -- at best.
Perhaps the problem was that researchers didn't offer enough money. After all, weight loss is hard work. It takes dedication, mental and physical discipline, time and effort. Sixty dollars? No way. Ante up and maybe we'll talk. Better yet, maybe the wiser idea is to find motivation in a more important, lasting source -- yourself, your health, your future.
What do you think?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
u262f 7-10-2009 @ 5:32PM
I strongly believe that measuring progress by weight loss delta is bad by itself. In order to lose weight, there has to be excess weight to lose in the first place. Rewarding weight loss and setting weight loss goals means that healthy habits get less and less rewarding as people approach their goals. This means that it becomes very rewarding for people to self-sabotage every time they get close to their goals to allow them to keep losing weight.
Furthermore, weight is very deceptive. Males in particular can be getting healthier without losing weight if they're replacing fat with muscle.
It's the continuing long-term good habits that make the difference. So, if people actually want to get healthy, people should directly reward or punish the habits themselves rather than the very questionable resulting weight.
So, a more interesting strategy might be for the researchers to pay some amount of money every time the subject meets certain physical activity goals (like $1 per 10 minutes of moderate exercise, up to a max of $5 per day, $0.10 for taking two flights of stairs instead of the elevator, and so on). If the subject wants to eat unhealthy foods (like pizza or chips), it'll cost them money instead. Continue this experiment for two years. Then, measure the results. Follow up in another two years and see if the experiment had any lasting effect.
Maintaining health is within the life-long habits. Weight loss goals are relatively short term by comparison. I think it's useful to consider what happens psychologically when people reach their weight loss goals.
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