Nothing Replaces Willpower

My friend Arabella sent me a link to an NPR story entitled “Money replaces willpower in programs promoting weight loss.”  The long and the short of it is that the new health care law allows companies with more than 50 employees to require over weight workers who do not exercise to pay a great portion of their insurance costs.  I think of it as a sin tax for being fat like smokers pay a steep tax for cigarettes.

The story goes on to say that some companies are taking this as an opportunity to help their employees get to a healthy weight by offering monetary incentives.  It surely is cheaper for a company to have healthy employees so offering some money directly to the employees is more economical than paying higher insurance premiums.   The story goes on to say that money is not a great motivator for losing weight.

The problem is money might help a small percentage of people lose weight, but if they only did it for the money what is going to prevent them from gaining it back?  Not your employer, your spouse, a parent or child is going to make you want to lose weight.  Only you can do it.  Not until you decide you want it will it happen in any meaningful and lasting way and then it is still a struggle.

The problem is you have to eat everyday.  It’s not like quitting drugs or drinking where you can never do it again.  We all have to eat.  So money can never replace will power.  There is not enough money in the world.  If you are someone who lives to eat you have to work at not letting it take over.

For most obese people they will just pay the penalty rather than actually work out and loose weight.  Food is a much stronger drug than money.  So no matter how much America collectively wants to be thinner because it is good for our health care bill it won’t happen because we legislate it.  At least it will be a little fairer that if you don’t do anything about it you carry a great portion of the burden your fat imposes on society.  No one is giving up Girl Scout cookies for the good of their country.