Why weight-loss challenges at work are a bad idea

As the new year dawns, many people take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and some may decide it’s time to lose some extra weight.

In the past, workplaces have implemented specific challenges for workers to get rid of those extra kilograms, all with the laudable goal of promoting healthier living.

But by doing these number-based contests, employers risk doing a disservice to employees, says a wellness expert.

“At the start of the year in January, people want to implement healthier habits and weight loss tends to be a really recurring theme with being overweight and obesity in society but what [we should be] looking at, at the end of the day, is not necessarily a number to lose weight but implementing something healthier,” says Stephanie Moynihan, associate medical director at Dialogue, a healthcare and wellness platform in Montreal.

“What tends to be a more productive or long-standing challenge is the implementation of a healthier eating habit with the objective of improving your health and wellness.”

Wellness programs do work for many employers, according to a new study done by Alberta Blue Cross.

‘Be more inclusive, diverse’

Registered dietitian Andrea Holwegner agrees. Instead of these types of efforts, employers should be more aware of the workforce as a whole, she says.

“I would be more encouraging organizations to think about more inclusive, more diverse, and more healthy ways we can incentivize health — and that’s because weight is not the best measure of health,” says Holwegner, CEO of Health Stand Nutrition Consulting in Calgary.

For many reasons, these contests are the wrong way to approach the goal of encouraging healthier habits, she says.

“We also know some people will lose weight on weight-loss challenges, and some people won’t. We also know there’s people within an organization that have disordered eating and history of eating disorders and would be very triggered by a challenge like that, and then we know there’s gender differences in how weight changes on our body.”

In addition, “we can’t actually judge someone’s health by looking at their physical appearance,” says Holwegner.

“I really hope in time that we get to a more inclusive, respectful place where people aren’t just looking at someone and making a judgment about their health or many other things related to how people see size — and weight stigma in general.”

There are a number of myths people have about weight loss and there are number of factors that go into effective weight management, according to a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). 

More effective approaches

When it comes to persuading employees to take better care of themselves, there are evidence-based ways of doing this, according to Moynihan.

“What science has shown is that looking into small, repeatable healthy actions — and making them into a habit — is actually what’s going to have the biggest outcome and help you integrate something,” she says.

“Even without necessarily going into the full psychology of why, you would want to eat less saturated fat to maybe improve your overall heart health, as opposed to saying, ‘Well, I’m going to add two more vegetables to my meal plan for the day or for the week.’ And then just have that as a repeatable behaviour.”

When asked what benefits would be desirable, 14 per cent of employees said nutrition or weight-loss programs would be appreciated, found a survey.

Instead of a weight-loss challenges, there are better ways to promote healthy living, says Holwegner.

What we want to do is challenges related to things like hydration, or eating fruits, vegetables and proteins, she says, “which is important for workplace productivity. There’s a million different nutritional health challenges that would encourage people to establish healthy habits but we certainly don’t want to make it about weight.”

“I’m a huge advocate for companies moving away from that, especially at this time of speaking about diversity and inclusion; offering a weight-loss challenge would pretty much completely stigmatize your organization and lead to bad PR,” she says.

Even a running challenge, adding a numbered goal doesn’t always achieve the ultimate goal, says Moynihan. Some people may choose to run a five-kilometre race as a target but “once they’ve reached that objective of running 5K, they’re not necessarily going to stick with it, versus you decide: ‘I would like to be a runner, I’d like to be someone who does more physical activity.’”

That way, “you might still reach that goal of 5K but you’re much more likely to stick with it or implement that as part of your daily life because it becomes a part of your identity, that you are now someone who integrates activity in your life,” she says.

Happier and healthier employees are much more productive, according to research.

What’s in the fridge?

To reach a healthier workplace, organizations should take a hard look at some of the choices they make in the office, says Holwegner.

“Companies will spend thousands of dollars on productivity solutions when they haven’t actually dealt with the bare basics of the fact that maybe they’re stocking their refrigerator with pop or they’ve never thought about bringing in healthy snacks — which would be welcomed as a way to reward employees for showing up at work and performing well,” she says.

“People love to eat [so] give them healthy stuff. They don’t need doughnuts every day.”

Instead, it’s good idea to stock the fridge with nutritious options, says Holwegner.

“If you bring in veggies and hummus or if you bring in build-your-own yogurt parfaits as a breakfast theme, or you bring in soup on Fridays, people will get excited about that because it’s a fun team-building, experiential type of thing from a retention perspective in this job market,” she says.

“And it’s also great for their health and their healthy habits and sometimes exposing them to foods that maybe they don’t eat as often as they know they should.”