"Diet betting" is becoming popular in work places, colleges, among friends, and on the Internet. Participants challenge each other in a weight loss competition, and the person who loses the most weight wins an agreed-upon sum of money.

Diet betting may actually work for some people. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that financial incentives could be an effective tool in helping people lose weight or quit smoking.

One diet betting website reports more than 23,000 participants, who use their credit cards to register. If a player does not lose weight during a certain week, his credit card gets charged. Some bettors who fail to lose weight have to give money to a charity that they do not support.

Prof. Geoffrey Greif of the University of Maryland said believes diet betting is helpful to one group in particular.

"Betting makes the approach to weight loss more acceptable to men," he said.

Labels: competition, betting, competing

Posted By: Aspen Education Group