What’s Wrong With the Million Pound Challenge?
When I was working at Kaiser Permanente, management launched a campaign to donate a pound of produce to a food bank for every pound an employee lost. “Lose a pound, give a pound,” they called it. I was struck by the campaign messages. Calling out “obesity rates” and encouraging people to lose weight was juxtaposed with the prevalence of poverty and food insecurity in this nation. I had an unsettling feeling as I read this campaign: “How can you be over eating and in a large body when people are suffering from hunger?”
This program wasn’t unique. There’s another one I just heard about called the Million Pound Challenge that “invites employers nationwide to collectively lose one million pounds over the next year.”
Where to begin?
When organizations pressure their employees to lose weight for its own sake, they’re sending a terrible message. These campaigns can normalize disordered eating — and can potentially aggravate existing eating disorders in employees. Competitive eating and extreme food challenges can also lead to documented deaths and ICU admissions, with people being hospitalized with problems like gastric rupture, electrolyte imbalances, or acute pancreatitis from extreme fat intake.
The message might be “anyone can do this if they try,” but the reality is that our bodies are shaped by genetic differences, life experiences, and (dis)ability. Many will turn to short-cut GLPs like Ozempic. Finally, these challenges reinforce diet culture extremes and trivialize food in a context of widespread food insecurity. And then what happens when a person at work doesn’t lose weight or even gains it? What happens after the campaign is over? The research says the weight loss from intense diet, exercise, and drugs won’t last — indeed, you’ll likely just gain the weight back again.
I don’t want to overstate my case. I can see company-wide health challenges as having a positive impact, in helping people rethink their relationship with food and adopt healthier eating and fitness habits. The problem with these programs is that they emphasize appearance over health, which is especially pernicious in the workplace, where fat discrimination is pervasive if largely unspoken. These challenges aren’t about health — they’re about spectacle, control, and comparing bodies. The sole focus on weight loss sends a message: “We don’t care what you do to lose weight, just do it since this is the only measure we are focusing on.” From a health or psychological standpoint, they’re closer to self-harm than to fun and actual wellness.
So, what’s the alternative?
Instead of aiming for “healthier employees,” companies should shoot for building systems that make healthy behaviors easier. They need to be opt-in, not body-focused, not competitive, and offer multiple paths to participate. They need to embrace safety, autonomy, inclusion, and sustainability. Better programs might include:
Movement challenges, like encouraging walking breaks at work, setting up dance classes, or yoga and stretching.
Stress and recovery challenges, like 10-minute daily relaxation practice and guided breathing or meditation breaks.
Food relationship challenges that encourage being mindful of eating patterns. Challenges could be about cooking meals or developing coping skills instead of using food to cope. In addition, they could provide free fruit and snacks in the office.
Mindfulness challenges that encourage employees to cultivate awareness of self dialogue and how they are spending their time. A challenge could be to spend less time on laptops and phones. Another challenge could be to note a self critical voice and find tangible ways to cultivate self compassion.
Mental health and belonging challenges, like gratitude practice or peer recognition boards.
With so many ways to encourage community and mindful, healthy compassion, why do we continue to solely focus on weight loss in such a demeaning and notably unhealthy way?
RESOURCES
Ragen Chastain on Substack: The Million Pound Challenge Part 1 - The Basics