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Remember that resolution you had back in January, to go to the gym at least three times a week, never eat carbs after 4pm and limit your alcohol intake to one small glass of wine a night?
If, like most people, you happened to fail miserably, you won’t exactly be jumping for joy at the thought of stripping off and squeezing into your bikini again for summer.
Failing to lose weight can be disheartening at the best of times, but what if it wasn’t just a trim waistline you were missing out on? What if you had money riding on it?
Earlier this month, the NHS announced plans to launch a new scheme offering cash incentives to people to shed their extra pounds.
Under the scheme – named ‘Weight Wins’ - overweight people can sign up for a 13-month programme, on which they’ll be set personal slimming targets depending on their weight and height.
Then they’ll have seven months to reach their goal and will receive their ‘win’ 13 months later - once they have proven they can keep the weight off. The biggest weight loss successes could be paid up to £450 for their trouble.
The NHS reckon giving obese people cash incentives to lose weight could save them hundreds of millions in the long run while lengthening lives, and they have a point. A whopping £1 billion is currently spent on treating obesity-related diseases every year, according to the National Audit Office.
On paper, it sounds like the perfect solution to the UK’s expanding waistlines. And with the credit crunch in full swing, money is a huge motivator for many of us. But could the NHS be setting us up for a double-whammy of disappointment if we don’t achieve our goal?
I remember a colleague once tried something similar with her boyfriend. He bet an expensive handbag against her losing a stone within a specified timescale.
The deal was, if she lost the weight, he bought her the bag, if she didn’t, the deal was off. It all started off in good spirits. She wanted to lose weight and he was just being an encouraging boyfriend and helping her along.
She went hell for leather trying to shift the weight, attending gruelling classes every day and eating measly amounts of stringy salad instead of her usual lunchtime Tuna Mayo sandwich.
But that bag had become an albatross around her neck. She got more and more miserable by the day and as her deadline approached and she still hadn’t managed to reach her goal weight, she plummeted further into weight-loss misery.
Us ladies are almost programmed to fall off the wagon a few times when we embark on a diet, because, let’s face it, there are more important things in life (namely chocolate and cake). And when we do, we want to be able to dust ourselves off and get back on it again in peace. We don’t need people cheering us on from the side lines with crisp pound notes.
My colleague’s nice boyfriend bought her the bag anyway for her efforts, but she never used it. She said it wasn’t really about the bag, it was about the bet.
Because he had bet her to change her figure and she hadn’t managed it, she became increasingly unhappy with herself and in turn convinced he wasn’t happy with her the way she was.
Their sex life suffered, they drifted apart and eventually split up. Ironically, she lost the weight in no time while getting over the break up and she managed to sell the bag on eBay for a tidy sum.
I’d say there’s definitely a place for a bit of healthy competition, but at the end of the day, if you’re overweight and health and happiness aren’t enough of an incentive, then £500 probably isn’t going to make much of a difference either way.
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