Well apparently we little Westerners are a materialistic, money-grabbing lot!
I was listening to the news in the car yesterday and a news anchor was talking about how many of her friends use money (and gambling it) as a very effective weight loss tool.
What inspired this chat on the radio was a study that shows people lose more weight if there is money at stake.
Taking several groups - including a control group - and offering them the chance to win (or lose) money, based on their weight loss, as well as offering bonuses to those who reached their goal, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that people who received monetary compensation were far more likely to reach weight loss goals than those who did not receive a financial prize.
The two groups that had financial incentives lost 13 and 14 pounds respectively and the group without financial compensation lost 4 pounds - an admittedly big difference.
Once the 'competition' had ended and the opportunity to get money was over, researchers saw the groups (all of them) begin to gain the weight back.
This raises some very interesting questions. What about addiction or genetic components? This study would appear to place doubt on some of those claims. Or does this simply show the immense power of money in our society?
For more on this study, click here : http://www.healthnews.com/nutrition-diet/weight-loss/making-weight-loss-worth-your-while-2262.html
Tell Us
Would the opportunity to make money from losing weight be an incentive for you? If not, why not? What is YOUR best incentive, aside from the obvious health benefits?
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This concept bothers me on a couple of levels. First, the incentive should be one's improved health, not bank account. Then, suppose someone loses the weight to gain the incentive, and gains the weight back after the "contest" ends. There are people I know who went on a popular, membership-based program and lost desired weight, only to gain it back and then some.
Finally, and I know this is wishful thinking, we have to teach our children to focus on what kind of persons they are, not what they look like. Confident children tend to take care of themselves, I believe.
Then again, we're taught at an early age to do something for money. Remember your allowance?
December 15, 2008 - 6:52pmThis Comment
Susan, what a fascinating study!
You know, I don't think I'd take money from someone for losing weight if it wasn't something I wanted to do anyway. But if I already had a goal of doing it, I would say sure, bring on the incentive!
I think it's also the idea of a bonus for good work. If I was a street sweeper and was told that I'd get a bonus for clean streets during leaf season, I'd probably be more dedicated than normal. Weight loss is work, and while it's nice to say that better health should be enough of an incentive, we see too much evidence around us that tells us it isn't.
Beginning a diet and fitness program is hard. You have to change your habits, say no to old foods, be conscious about new ones, and sustain the effort for a long time. I think that's why we welcome anything that gives us motivation -- whether it's a class reunion, a health issue or, in this case, financial incentive. Once you get started, momentum can take over, and your reward can be how you feel, how much more exercise you are able to do without tiring, and how you look in that pair of skinny jeans that's been sitting on the shelf in the closet for way too long.
We could actually do this for ourselves -- tell ourselves that for every pound we lose, a certain amount of money goes into a jar, and when we make our goal, it's splurge money, meant to be spent with no guilt on something for ourselves. Perhaps seeing the money stack up in the jar would be as much a motivation as seeing the number go down on the scale.
December 15, 2008 - 10:06amThis Comment