Paying for Weight Loss Produces Results

DENVER - March 10, 2014 - PRLog -- In the three years since the program began, Weigh and Win (http://www.weighandwin.com/) has helped Coloradans lose more than 125,000 pounds and distributed $220,000 in cash rewards. Weigh and Win is a free community program for all Colorado residents that pays cash rewards for weight improvement and maintenance.

In 2013, Weigh and Win had over 67,000 weigh-ins completed, integrated with Fitbit activity trackers, and enrolled over 12,000 new participants for a total of 45,000 Coloradans enrolled to-date. To improve community kiosk access, eight new kiosk locations were added for a total of 49 locations throughout Colorado from Grand Junction to Pueblo to Brush.

Studies (http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1671710) have shown that weight loss programs with financial incentives produce better results. Group incented participants lose the most weight, while individually incentivized participants maintain the greatest weight loss over time. Weigh and Win harnesses the motivation of incentives with both an individual incentive weight loss program, as well as group weight loss challenge opportunities.

“We are continuously expanding our opportunities to engage our participants and partners,” says Lia Schoepke, Weigh and Win Program Manager. “We offer group incentives with our Team Challenge feature, a program component that rewards prizes and a $1,000 charitable donation to the winning teams. We also reward engagement and success for individual participants with cash incentives and prizes for participation.”

This incentive structure is proven to be successful. The average weight improvement for successful Weigh and Win participants after one year in the program is 17 pounds or an eight percent weight loss. Participants involved in the Weigh and Win Team Challenge see a higher success rate: 19 pounds for team members and 24 pounds for team captains.

“When I started the Weigh and Win program I weighed 390 pounds. Getting paid to lose weight was a real motivator for me. I am very motivated by competition and hate to lose, so the team challenge helped push me as well,” shared participant Carletta Alber who has lost 180 pounds with Weigh and Win.

The success of participants is having an impact on communities as well. For every $1 invested into the community program, $3.42 is saved in reduced health care costs, according to an independent analysis done by a researcher at Colorado State University.

In 2014, Weigh and Win plans to continue to help Coloradans stay engaged in improving their health with competition and incentives. In the coming months a new program enhancement, Challenge-a-Friend, will allow Weigh and Win participants to create custom challenges with friends, family and co-workers.

HOW IT WORKS

Sign up for free at WeighandWin.com (http://www.weighandwin.com/)
Receive daily support with personalized daily coaching on healthy eating and active living by email or text.
Track your progress with quarterly weigh-ins at community kiosk locations.
Earn cash rewards every 90 days for weight improvement and maintenance.

CITED SOURCE
Annals of Internal Medicine - http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1671710

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT:
http://www.weighandwin.com/

ABOUT WEIGH AND WIN

As a free program, Weigh and Win provides Colorado adults with access to an effective weight management program. Weigh and Win is aimed at decreasing obesity rates by engaging people with rewards tied to actual measured results. This is the first program of its kind to translate an evidence-based worksite wellness program, developed by a privately owned Colorado company named incentaHEALTH (http://www.incentahealth.com/), for the general public. Participants receive personalized technology-based coaching on healthy eating and active living, track progress with weigh-ins at private community kiosks, and earn quarterly cash rewards based on weight improvement and maintenance. Weigh and Win is funded by Kaiser Permanente (https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/html/kaiser/index.shtml) to complement the organization’s other efforts to increase healthy eating and physical activity throughout the state. For more information on Weigh and Win, please visit http://www.weighandwin.com/ or follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/weighandwin or Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/WeighandWin.