Weight Control Among Coworkers

Abstract

Twenty-three coworkers participated in an 1 -week weight loss program based in the office in which they worked and studied. Treatment consisted of individual goal-setting, weekly weigh-ins, semipublic display of weight charts, and monetary refunds contingent on meeting weekly weight loss goals. A control group was exposed to an identical program minus the pyramidal monetary contingencies. Attrition was 50% for both groups for the first 4-week enrollment period, but did not occur during the remainder of the program. Of those who completed the program, all but one lost weight. However, weekly goals for the control group were met only 42% of the time and only one of five participants met their terminal weight goal. The experimental group met their weekly goals 97% of the time and all members met their terminal goals. Follow-up data collected 6 months after the program ended showed that most persons in both groups had regained weight since the end of treatment, but continued to weigh less than they had at the beginning of the program. Results are discussed in terms of (a) the social milieu of the work site as a means of reducing attrition and encouraging the achievement of weight loss goals, and (b) the effects of program length and fading of monetary contingencies on maintenance of weight loss.