In the News--People will do better at weight loss and stick with the program when money is on the line.

A study held at the Mayo Clinic included 100 people for over a year.  All the participants weighed in at a BMI of 30 or greater (considered obese).  The participants were divided into four groups; two of the groups had a $20/month financial reward available if they lost their goal weight.  If they did not lose their goal weight, they paid $20/month.  The other two groups of participants did not have any financial incentives. 

The results found that participants did much better when money was at risk for reward or pay-out.  62% of the participants in the money groups finished the year vs. 26% of the non-money groups.  The money groups participants lost more weight (9.08 lbs. vs 2.34 lbs) than the non-money groups. 

More information about this study can be found at http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2013-rst/7357.html 

You may be thinking, ‘but I don’t have a financial incentive research study’ available to me.  Make your own.  That’s what my husband and his co-workers did for many years.  Every January they would have a weight-loss competition.  Everyone would chip in $$ (whatever they decided), they weighed in, and began their own financial incentive weight loss group.