The British govt has decided to wipe out the obesity epidemic through a novel strategy - by offering fat people cash incentives.
According to the latest measure, employers will be urged to set up competitions with money, vouchers and other rewards for people who renounce junk food in favour of healthy eating and living.
And those who will shed the maximum amount of pounds will earn the biggest prizes, reports the Telegraph.
One competition, called The Biggest Loser, has a 130-pounds gift in store for the participant who loses the most weight in eight weeks.
The announcement comes after experts estimated that most of the population in Britain would be obese by 2050 unless urgent action is taken and the related rise in ill health would cost the NHS 50 billion pounds a year.
According to ministers, giving people incentives to fight the flab will help avoid larger costs associated with treating cancer, heart disease and diabetes caused by obesity.
The govt said that it wants to make Britain the first major nation to quash the rising tide of obesity.
And the milestone strategy - Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives - is their solution to the problem.
The strategy will feature a series of projects run through a Well@work scheme led by British Heart Foundation, which will offer rewards to workers who lose weight.
Another key focus for the strategy is to reverse rising obesity among children.
The government has set itself a target of reducing the proportion of overweight and obese children to 2000 levels by 2020.
There will also be a "Walking into Health" campaign, aiming to get a third of the population in England walking an extra thousand steps -- around a kilometer -- every day by 2012.
"We will look at using financial incentives, such as payments, vouchers and other rewards, to encourage individuals to lose weight and sustain that weight loss, to eat more healthily, or to be consistently more physically active," officials said.
The UK Government is investing 372 million pounds over three years to implement the strategy and annual progress reports will be published.
