Worth Your Weight
What incentives would it take to get you to lose a few pounds?
How much would it take for you to lose weight? Would you get serious if you were paid $300? How about if you were given a luxurious massage after every 5-pound drop in weight?
With two-thirds of adult American overweight or obese and facing greater risk for chronic illness, including heart disease and diabetes, health experts are looking at incentive programs to get you to trim down.
Researchers are conducting experiments in which volunteers are compensated for slimming down. Your company may offer you a cash reward for losing weight; your township may dangle a "carrot" for whittling your waistline.
These programs are having some success, says Jim White, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.
"You can use an incentive to jump start your diet," says White, of Jim White Fitness Studios, Virginia Beach, VA.
You don't have to be in a workplace or community setting to try weight-loss incentives. You can motivate yourself wherever you are. However, you may have to fine-tune your strategy to be successful.
For example, a bet may seem like the push you need to lose weight, but it has a downside if you're part of a group, and one participant is perceived to be winning, according to Kevin G. Volpp, MD, Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
"If you're having a contest at work and only one person gets the money, the rest aren't motivated," says Dr. Volpp, director of the university's Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics Center for Health Incentives (www.med.upenn.edu/ldichi).
Rather than compete with several people, partner with one other person, Madelyn Fernstrom, Ph.D. said in an e-mail.
Set a reasonable goal of no more than 20 pounds, writes Fernstrom, director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center.
If, instead of betting, you're designing your own incentive plan, give yourself bonuses along the way.
Fernstrom recommends a reward with each milestone, such as a pedicure after 5 pounds, a new sweater at 10 pounds.
"It's too long a wait to get to 20 [pounds lost]. Small perks really help," she writes.
Don't drop your rewards program once you've reached your desired weight.
"Keep setting new goals. Even just not gaining is a great goal. Every month you stay even and don't gain, give yourself an incentive," Fernstrom writes.
Bev Bennett, a veteran food writer and editor, is the author of "Dinner for Two: A Cookbook for Couples" and "30-Minute Meals for Dummies"
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