Governments and businesses are now looking at various incentives and penalties for employees to lose weight. but all of these are problematic and simplistic. There is no quick fix to this complex problem.

The latest is the British Government's plan to offer fat people cash incentives to lose weight and do more exercise. People will get money, vouchers and other rewards for shedding the pounds. Which adds a new meaning to the terms "pound of flesh" and "pound for pound".

This is actually a profoundly stupid idea. For a start, it's likely to encourage yo-yo dieting. What do people do when the cash incentives run out? It fails to tackle the real problem of the lifestyles that have contributed to this pattern. Put simply, people are eating more and exercising less. Anyway, it probably won't have much effect and is more spin for a Government behind in the polls and beset by problems ranging from a weakening economy to a police investigation into party funding. In any case, when was it the Government's responsibility to tell us how we should look?




As the Daily Mail's Tom Utley notes, you have to be extremely fat to get any benefit and it's a waste of taxpayers money. "What never ceases to astonish me about this Government: its unshakable belief in both the duty and the power of the state to put right everything that's wrong with our lives," Utley writes. "I don't dispute for a moment that, by and large, it would be a good thing for fat people if they ate more healthily - just as it would certainly be better for my health and wallet if I were to give up smoking. But there's a world of difference between saying something is desirable and insisting that it's the Government's job to spend public money on cajoling or coercing us into behaving in a way of which it approves. The Government just can't grasp that distinction."

Certainly there are some jobs that make you fat. Being a secretary, lawyer or teacher can be health hazard, according to a study done last year and published here.

Using incentives, and in some cases penalties, to change employee behavior raises a host of legal and moral questions, according to experts from Wharton.

That starts with invasion of privacy and unfair discrimination. What qualifies as obese? And what do you do when most of the population is overweight?

Clearly, what's needed might be some more sophisticated solutions. Obesity is a complex problem and there are many forces contributing to it.