Oi, fatty! You need to lose some weight

Published on Saturday 26 September 2009 02:09

TOO lazy to diet? Then according to one website all you need is a good nag.

With the mantra "we nag, you lose", internet-based weightnags.com aims to shift its members' excess fat by shaming them with abusive e-mails and text messages.

Calling customers "Tubbo", "Fatty" and "Chubbles", overweight users are taunted once a week with insults warning them to stay from away from calorific treats and offering sage advice such as "Take care of your own beefy carcass before you eat a few pounds of something else's".

Over 1,000 people have signed up to the service since it launched in February 2008, with willing victims told to "lay off the buffet" and "face it fatty, you need someone to bug you every 15 minutes, don't you?"

While not to everyone's taste, the site's founder Talmadge Boyd maintains the mixture of abuse and insults "inspire" users to shift the unwanted weight: "If you haven't heard, people spend billions to look prettier, feel younger and lose weight.

"All people really need is to be nagged."

Texas-based entrepreneur Mr Boyd came up with the idea after his girlfriend told him about a professor who hired an assistant just to nag him about his weight.

"The service really seems to strike a chord with people in the UK – for some reason you guys seem to love insults and respond to abuse better than others."

After attracting 200 members in its first two hours online, the site boasts hundreds more happily insulted customers.

Those tempted to use the service are asked to "Enter your e-mail address, Chubbles", while for "only" $5 a month, "real tough love" is dished out once a week via text message.

While sceptics may dismiss the idea as a gimmick, psychologists and health professionals remain optimistic that weightnags' approach might just do the trick.

Professor Andrew Hill, a psychologist of the Leeds University School of Medicine, said: "I'm not too adverse to the idea, but the language is pretty offensive."

The site is one of many mobile phone and e-mail based aids now used to help people beat unhealthy habits.

US based anti-smoking website fixnixer.com sends e-mails and text messages with personalised advice and encouragement, while Apple's iPhone has thousands of applications dedicated to fighting fat.

Heather Caswell, from the British Nutrition Foundation, said: "While it sounds wacky, people have different ways of trying to lose weight; e-mail and mobiles are just another way to make them to stick at it."

However, not all experts agree that abuse is the best way to help people lose weight. Professor Iain Broom, from the Clinical Obesity Research Centre in Aberdeen, said: "I don't think the site is any use – this type of abuse would just make people worse and they are already vulnerable enough."