Lose Weight or Lose Your Money?

I read an interesting guest post in the Freakonomics blog on NewYorkTimes.com, called Could You Lose a Pound a Week to Save $500?

The author reported that while most people who seriously followed many of the popular diet and weight loss programs did lose weight, most also gained it back after about 6 months. The author himself had also lost and regained weight over the years.

He then made a "contract" with himself, that he would lose one pound per week, or he would have to pay $500. In doing this program, he was able to lose weight successfully. The self-contracting program, called StickK, allows a person to make a contract with him/herself based on any agreement they'd like. Many other people who have tried the program have been successful at meeting thier goals as well . The article suggests that the program is successful because there is money on the line.

The program has not been around for very long, so the article did not mention how successful people have been at keeping the weight off. I would recommend if someone were to do this would to include in the contract (or start another contract) to not regain any weight.

Another question I have: who verifies that a person actually loses the weight (or meets whatever requirements are put into the contract)? It appears to be an "honor system", so a person could potentially lie about whether or not he/she lost the weight, keep their money, and stay fat at the same time.

I do agree, though, that for many people, the thought of losing a significant amount of money is probably enough to get serious about dieting and exercising. The fact that a person would have to spend a lot of extra money on additional health care because he/she is so overweight probably does not cross many peoples' minds when it comes to weight loss motivation.