Another Weight Loss Motivator - Money?
I remember in my college leadership class when the professor told us that money was not a motivator. I didn’t believe him at first. After all, wouldn’t you be more inclined to do something if a cash award was involved?
That really stuck with me what he said. By the end of the term, I could see where he was coming from. Money in itself is not necessarily the motivator. It’s what you could do with the money that is the motivator.
When I saw an article on Yahoo.com proclaiming that money, even just a little bit, can motivate one to lose weight…it caught my eye.
The research published in the September issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that cash incentives can be a success even when the payout is as little as $7 for dropping just a few pounds in three months.
[Via Yahoo.com]
$7 isn’t a lot of money. You can easily save that by bringing your lunch to work or even buying a few generic groceries. Yet people who were offered that as an incentive lost more weight than those who didn’t have any monetary incentive to lose weight.
This directly goes against what my professor told us in class. But when I think about my weight, if someone gave me a deal where if I lost 50 lbs they would pay off some of my debt, I think my elliptical would be moved into our living room and I’d be on it every night.
But what would be the motivator? Would it really be the money or would it be what would be done with the money? If you follow Blogging Away Debt, you know I’m motivated to pay off our debt. I think the motivation is really about what you could do with the money.
For the article, they interviewed Vonderahe Rivera. Her employer gave a cash incentive to lose weight.
This year, she lost 25 pounds and got $125 when her employee team reached their weight-loss goal. She used the money for some new outdoor furniture.
[Via Yahoo.com]
Did she lose the weight for the money or for the furniture that she wanted?
What do you think? Is money a weight loss motivator?
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Comments
Anything can be used as a catalyst for change. If money is that catalyst that will force you…well, not force…but provide the momentum to lose the weight, then that’s what it’s doing.
As you said, it’s not the money, but what you can do with the money. Money is able to provide you with the lifestyle that you really want.
The lifestyle that you currently want is one where you weigh less….same principle.
In a way yes and in a way no. I think that the reward no matter how small is still a reward and the competition is key. People strive to win even if it is just $7.00.
its money. now if they said you could get anything worth X amount of dollars, wouldnt it still be money?
It depends on the amount of money offered. $7.00 may be enough to get you started but I don’t think it’s a big enough amount to keep you motivated.
What about losing money? Which would be more of a motivator?
Would you be more likely to drop the weight if you were to win $500 or if you didn’t lose the weight and you had to pay someone $500.
That’s a tough one for me. It’s probably what you can do with the money/what the money provides for me. Right now I feel like I am motivated to do things for money so that I have more of it stockpiled and feel more secure. Once I feel secure enough, I will feel comfortable SPENDING IT on things I want.