Raleigh, N.C. ? People will lose weight for money, even a little money, suggests a study that offers another option for employers looking for ways to cut health care costs.

The research published in the September issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that cash incentives can be a success even when the payout is as little as $7 for dropping just a few pounds in three months.

Unlike providing onsite fitness centers or improving offerings in the cafeteria, cash rewards provide a company with a guaranteed return, the researchers said.

“They really can’t be a bad investment because you don’t pay people unless they lose weight,” said Eric A. Finkelstein, the study’s lead author and a health economist at RTI International, a research institute based in nearby Research Triangle Park.

The study involved about 200 overweight employees at several colleges in North Carolina, divided into three groups. One group received no incentives while the other two groups received $7 or $14 for each percentage point of weight lost.

For example, someone in the middle group weighing 200 pounds who lost 10 pounds, or 5 percent, would get $35.

Participants didn’t get any help on how to lose weight. In the end, employees who received the most incentives lost the most weight, an average of nearly 5 pounds after three months. Those offered no incentives lost 2 pounds; those in the $7 group lost about 3 pounds.

Those in the $14 group were more than five times as likely to lose 5 percent of their weight – the amount research has shown to be clinically significant.

Finkelstein and co-authors Laura Linnan and Deborah Tate, professors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health, are analyzing data from a follow-up study that observed about 1,000 participants for a year. In that study, financial incentives were tested against a Web-based weight-loss program and changes in the office environment, such as healthier cafeteria food.