A new craze is gaining popularity in homes, offices and workplaces up and down the country : Diet Betting! People that have been struggling with their weight are now staking bets with their friends and co-workers to help shed the pounds and win pounds in the process.
It has been studied that monetary incentives do help individuals lose more weight, even the NHS have recently started a reward scheme where they pay individuals with weight problems to lose weight and keep it off for a fixed period.
Diet Betting takes it to another extreme, however. Fistly, you are in competition with one or more individuals - competition can be a healthy incentive as long as it remains friendly. Secondly, your putting money on yourself - of course there can be side bets involved but we are focusing on the participants within the diet betting ring. Thirdly, there are also different betting schemes which you can run - instead of a winner-takes-all scenario, bettors can choose a charity that will win the betting pot.
It seems that diet betting may be around for some time to come, as long as people act responsibly, and if it motivates individuals to lose weight then it sounds like a fun way for people to get into shape.
