Pounds for pounds scheme encourages obese people to shed flab

London, Bribing obese people is the most effective way to get them to lose weight, according to a new study.

And the solution is bound to bring success. Nearly, 400 people took part in a pounds for pounds initiative, which pays the patients to lose some extra flabs and almost half of them lost more than 5 pc of their body weight.

On an average, the subjects shed 8.8lb (4kg) in a year and were paid about 180 pounds.

The researchers say that it shows the scheme works equally well as existing weight-loss programmes and could be extended across the country.

The successful recruitment to this programme suggests that a financial incentives weight-loss programme may be acceptable to the general public and to NHS employees, and to both men and women, the Telegraph quoted Dr Clare Relton, of the University of Sheffield as saying.

The pounds for pounds initiative recruited 402 people, 42.5 pc of whom were NHS employees, more than half of them being females. Their mean age was 45.1 years and the mean starting weight was 15.8st (101.8kg).

The subjects were assigned weight-loss plans of varying lengths and then measured again at the end of them.

In total, 44.8 pc of the patients achieved clinically significant weight loss of more than 5 pc of their body weight, with 23.6 pc losing more than 10 pc.

However, only 38 pc of the participants could complete their plans, fewer than in existing schemes such as Weight Watchers.

The study shows that the estimated mean weight loss at 12 months of 11lb (5kg) including those who dropped out was greater than the 8.86lb (4.02kg) previously recorded in Weight Watchers trials.

Even if it is assumed that those who dropped out returned to their original weight, the figures suggest that the overall mean weight loss for all those who took part was 8.81lb (4kg), which is an encouraging figure in itself.

The poun! ds for p ounds scheme cost 75,000 pounds, an average of 186.57 pounds per patient.