More and more companies are now offering novel weight loss incentive schemes in an effort to encourage healthier habits in the workplace. A new study, carried out by researchers at the Universiy of Michigan, found that cash rewards are an effective form of weight loss incentive.

Affordable Care Actquitting smoking

Annals of Internal Medicine





“There is broad and growing enthusiasm for rewarding healthy behaviors in the workplace, but there is little evidence on the effects of these strategies. We anticipate more employers to offer these awards in an effort to help control health care costs while also improving the health of employees.

We found that these incentives were substantially more powerful when delivered in groups, which has important implications for both policymakers and the employers who are considering offering them.”







After 6 months, those who were part of the group approach lost much more weight than those who were part of the single approach.



“Despite the health and economic consequences of obesity, the problem isn’t getting any better, and there is great interest in identifying new approaches to combating this major health issue in our country.

Approaches such as ‘The Biggest Loser’ have received popular attention as ways to harness group dynamics to encourage weight loss, but the winner-take-all nature could be discouraging for everyone but the most successful person. We need more data to compare how different group-based approaches stack up against each other.”

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was created on the 23rd of March, 2010 to improve and widen health coverage to more Americans.



those in the financial-incentives groups lost an average of 9 pounds, compared to about 2 pounds in the other groups