Taking a Bribe to Lose Weight

I read as study from the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine about weight loss. In this study they took three groups of people, all were overweight. The first group was encouraged by their employer to lose weight but given no incentive. The second group was also encouraged to lose weight and was given an incentive of $7 per percentage point of weight loss. And the final group was given $14 per percentage point of weight loss. No instruction was given in how to lose the weight just the monetary incentives or lack there of.

After 3 months the no money group lost an average of 2 lbs (Not bad for just suggesting they lose weight). The $7 group lost an average of 3 lbs (a 50% gain over the no money group). And the $14 group lost an average of 4.7 lbs (135% gain over the no money group). The next three month period they offered all the groups the $14 incentive and they had similar weight loss across all the groups (proving that one group was not just lazy).

The conclusion is that small monetary incentives really get people going when it comes to losing weight. If these people stayed in the $14 program they would lose 18.8 lbs per year. That is really significant. This would also be a great way for employers to save money in the long run. Healthier employees miss less work, do not get tired as easily, and have higher morale than their unhealthy counter parts. This would also help save on health care nationwide since healthy people do not need the doctor as much, thus less claims on the insurance and lower premiums as a result. America has an obesity problem and it is one of the reasons our health care is so expensive. High demand equals higher cost.

This all leads to my post for tomorrow. I am going to take on the highly politicized topic of health care. I have been reading some interesting stuff on what other countries are doing and how it can effect the policies in the US. I would love it if some of my international readers would chime in with comments. I will do my best to make this as apolitical as possible. See you tomorrow.