Paying cash to people with obesity for losing a specific amount of weight or completing weight-reducing activities works better than many other methods, a new study shows.
Cash beats offering stand-alone free tools, such as weight-loss programs, diet books, and wearable fitness trackers, the researchers report.
The researchers tracked the weight-loss efforts for up to a year of 668 low-income, mostly Hispanic men and women whose average weight to start the trial was 218 pounds. The researchers randomly assigned all participants to receive one of three sets of incentives for six months, including some who received cash payments and those who received none….