Think of money and lose weight ...

• April 19, 2024

Losing weight through economic compensation and carrying out some type of competition or group effort are more effective in the treatment of obesity, a new study reports.

The research showed how two programs funded by companies produced different results depending on how the rewards were structured.

The study, published April 1 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, demonstrates that when designing programs to help employees lose weight, short-term results can change a lot depending on how incentives are offered and how they are offered. how much money is involved

However, the sustainability of the weight loss achieved with such efforts remains unclear.
In a group of five participants, the prize for achieving an individual goal of losing weight was $ 100, neither more nor less.

In another, also with 5 participants, the prize was $ 100, but with the possibility of earning more if the other participants did not. The participants of this last group managed to lose three times the weight of the first group.

Dr. Jeffrey Kullgren, the study's lead author and assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan, was interested in how to motivate people to lose weight through their work as a primary care physician. "I realized that changing behavior is very complicated," he said.

80% of the largest companies think of offering some form of economic incentive to help people modify their risk factors, so, in their opinion, it was important to see what really works.

"Many of the innovations are implemented without much evidence," Kullgren said. "Once set in motion, we will try to make sure that [the programs] help people get what they need."

His research is based on a study, presented last month at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in San Francisco, which showed that those who made $ 20 a month to lose 1.8 kilos (4 pounds) , or they had to pay 20 dollars for not losing weight, they were more likely to lose weight.

Kullgren's study included 105 employees at the Pediatric Hospital of Philadelphia aged between 18 and 70 years and considered obese. The goal for everyone was to lose 0.45 kilos (1 pound) a week.

The researchers studied two types of incentive strategies: a group incentive and an individual incentive. In the individual approach, employees were offered $ 100 for each month that met or exceeded the goals of losing weight.

For the other approach, groups of five people were offered 500 dollars a month to be divided equally only among the members who achieved the goal. Those who did not achieve the goal did not receive money.

The members of the groups of five people could not know the identity of the other group participants, so they could not intentionally incite or discourage each other to earn more money individually.

The possible upfront expense for each employee was the same with each strategy. A control group was created to compare the two strategies with one in which people did not have an economic incentive. The participants received a link to a national weight control website, and each month their weight was recorded with the help of reminders by email or text messages.

After 24 weeks, plan participants with the group incentive lost an average of about 3.1 kilos (7 pounds) more than the individual incentive, and an average of almost 4.5 kilos (10 pounds) more than those in the control group. Twelve weeks after the program ended, those who followed the plan with the group incentive maintained more weight loss than those in the control group, but no more than those who followed the plan with the individual incentive.

What is the psychology behind the results of the study? The price matters, said Jason Riis, who wrote an editorial accompanying the investigation. "A constant amount of money at stake each month (a goal and a reward) seems to be a mechanism that helps people make slightly better decisions," said Riis, assistant professor of business administration at the University's Business School. of Harvard.

For those who do not have access to business programs, Riis suggested that people create incentives together with friends. He recommended the website Stickk.com, created by a professor of economics at Yale University who had the idea of ​​creating an online "commitment store".

Participants sign contracts that force them to achieve their personal goals (such as losing weight), with the risk of economic penalty if they do not succeed.
Whatever the approach, the key to maintaining long-term weight loss remains unclear, said Riis. "We are far from knowing the answer," he concluded.

Video Medicine: Money Talks When It Comes to Losing Weight (April 2024).