Aragon suggests starting out small and only betting on a goal you feel comfortable with and-more importantly-is realistic. If you want to place a wager on your weight loss, you could try sites such as Stickk, DietBet, and HealthyWage. “But as they get closer to their goal about a pound a week loss is a rate that most people can sustain without things backfiring on them.' 'If someone is obese, 2 pounds per week is realistic for the initial stage,” says Alan Aragon, M.S., Men's Health nutrition advisor. Sure, their transformations might not have been anything close to The Biggest Loser, but that's probably for the best. Overall, participants who pocketed cash lost an average of 7 pounds more than those with no financial stakes in the game. All participants had a goal of losing 4 pounds a month, but those with monetary rewards earned $20 for reaching their mark. Over the course of a year, researchers studied the weight loss of 100 obese adult employees assigned to one of four groups: two with financial incentives and two without. It turns out you don’t need to bring home a bunch of Benjamins to stick to your goals, reports recent research from the Mayo Clinic.
But can having even a little bit of money hanging over your head provoke you to drop some pounds? It’s easy to find motivation for weight loss when a national audience is watching and a $250,000 prize is on the line like on The Biggest Loser.
