A new study found that a combination of common sense text messages and financial incentives helps lose the most weight
Weight loss as we all know is a difficult journey. If somebody helps along the way with common sense motivational advice it helps. It helps even more if somebody is also paying you to lose weight.
These are the findings of a new study that was recently published in JAMA and looked at the whether simple text messages, text messages with financial incentives or just equipment to measure steps taken helped weight loss and to what extent. The researchers from diverse institutes in the United Kingdom reported: “ Among men with obesity, an intervention with text messaging with financial incentive significantly improved weight loss compared with a control group, whereas text messaging alone was not significantly better than the control condition. These findings support text messaging combined with financial incentives to attain weight loss in men with obesity.” The findings were also presented as a posted at the European Congress of Obesity.
Adult males with a body mass index of 30 or higher were eligible for the study. They received different text messages at various times of the one year trial. For example, at three months the message would read: “Rick says that when he’s got a special occasion coming up, he prepares for it and makes sure he has a period where you are doing well before making loads of sensible eating choices—this way you will have earned it even more.” At six months it said: “That’s the 6 months mark! Two things are important now: Keep off any weight lost and have your 1-year goal in mind. How confident are you that you can manage this?”
Participants allocated to the text messaging with the financial incentives group were told that £400 (US $490) had been placed in a study account for them that they could access at the end of the clinical trial, but that money would be lost if weight loss goals were not attained. However the researchers reported several limitations of the trial, the first of course being the fact that there were no women among the subjects.
“First, generalizability to women, diverse ethnic groups, people without mobile phone access, and people with low literacy, poor vision, or inability to attend weight assessments is uncertain. Second, the drop-out rate was higher among men in the group with text messaging alone compared with the other 2 groups. Third, weight regain is common following weight loss trials and may be greater for financial incentive interventions,” they wrote while listing the limitations.
