LONDON - Brits are increasingly taking to a new method of loosing weight-bet dieting.
This is a trend wherein people join a website, and bet on their own successes in losing certain amounts of weight over definite periods of time.
All weight loss claims are verified by a referee.
Money is withdrawn from the accounts of those failing to meet their targets, and paid to the charities of their choices.
The scheme, which started in the US, presently has over 1,000 followers in the UK.
According to its founders, a particularly effective way to encourage people to lose weight is to get them to nominate a charity with whose views they disagree to receive money should they fail.
“The anti-charity aspect is where we take your money and we send it to an organisation that you oppose should you fail,” the BBC quoted Jordan Goldberg, co-founder of the StickK bet dieting website, as saying.
“We chose some highly contentious issues, for instance global warming, abortion and gay marriage.
“The idea is you choose an organisation whose views are contrary to your own as an added incentive to stay motivated to succeed,” Goldberg added.
The scheme is receiving mixed reactions from people who have been bet dieting.
“I passed the first week, I lost my pound and half. I only lost a pound in the second week and so I failed, so I have given my 3.60 pounds to the charities,” said Robert Carter, an investment analyst from Dorset who has been bet dieting for over a month.
“I think I will lose the weight, it is certainly an incentive. I’m not sure I if have over-gambled, I might end up giving them #3.60 every week, and falling slightly behind.
“But I think it is certainly a good project,” he added.
Professor Richard Ashcroft, of the Centre for the Study of Incentives in Health, remained to be convinced by the long-term effect of the schemes.
“When somebody is in the middle of an incentive scheme they can be quite effective,” he said. .
“People can be quite good at their weight loss programmes, eating less or taking more exercise.
“The problem is once the incentive scheme has finished we don’t know if they carry on being successful after that - we don’t know if people manage to stay with the weight loss or exercise regime once the incentive is taken away,” he added. (ANI)
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