Financial incentives may help lose extra kilos--study
POSTED May 2, 2011 - 17:01 | POSTED BY Yashika kapoor
Last edited by Silky Chandvani on May 3, 2011 - 01:18
According to the findings of the new monetary scheme introduced by scientists, money works as a great motivator when it came to shedding flab.
University of Sheffield experts, led by Dr. Clare Relton, conducted the novel research that was aimed at finding the impact of financial incentives on weight loss.
Dr. Clare Relton said, “The successful recruitment to this program suggests that a financial incentives weight-loss program may be acceptable to the general public and to NHS (National Health Service) employees, and to both men and women.”
On an average, people under the experimental scheme launched by the British government were found to lose 8.8 pounds and earn $360.
More than 400 participants studied
For the study, the research team examined 403 people in the ages of 40 to 50 years and with an average age of 101.8 kg.
These study subjects were asked to follow some exercise regimes to lose weight, and out of the total almost 50 percent lost at least 5 percent of their body weight at the end of the study.
“The detailed analysis of the study showed that the estimated mean weight loss at 12 months of 11lb (5kg) including those who dropped out was greater than the 8.86lb (4.02kg) previously recorded in Weight Watchers trials,” reported the researchers.
The study authors recommend introducing such financial initiatives for the public as these can help people lose weight.
Being fat can dampen your sex life--experts
Meanwhile, another study by Truls Ostbye, a professor in the department of community and family medicine at Duke University Medical Center, proposes that obesity can hamper one's sex life.
The study published in the 'Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy,' researchers analyzed 134 women and 91 men, having a body mass index of at least 30.
It was found that obese couples had a lesser active sex life than normal couples, and obese women were more unsatisfied than their male counterparts.
"This is a study that confirmed a lot of what we already know, but it also adds to that literature. It studied both men and women; many weight loss studies are just in women," David Sarwer, director of clinical services at the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, added.
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