Another Way to Be Good on Your Diet

Need a little motivation to get into swimsuit shape this summer? Perhaps a little dose of charity will help you get the pounds off.

Weigh to Give, America's Weight-Loss-A-Thon, an initiative of the Foundation for Caregivers, aims to motivate 2 million people to lose a total of 10 million pounds while generating $50 million for charitable causes.  The program, launched in February and running for a year, uses a Web-based system to track the weight loss of registered participants and accept the donations of those who they recruit to sponsor their efforts. Participants can choose any charity, which will receive every penny of the amount they raise by losing. The $20 registration fee will support the Foundation for Caregivers, which works to ease the challenges faced by family caregivers.

There are several ways to plug in: register as a solo participant, join an existing team, or form a new team. If you're a Twitter user, participate in the TwittaChallenge, which aims to get 200,000 people to lose a total of 2 million pounds and raise $4 million for charity — name your team "Team Twitter @YourTwitterName" and designate the TwittaChallenge Event.

Extra motivation comes from special contests and prizes — the Biggest Giver contest for those individuals and teams that raise the most in donations, the Leadership award for whoever can attract the largest number of participants to a team, and the Biggest Loser recognition, offered to all who lose at least 10 pounds.

The Foundation for Caregivers sees its project as a perfect synergy between two activities that mutually reinforce each other. A press release stated that "with 70 percent of the population overweight or obese, most of whom will try at least once a year to lose a few pounds, Weigh To Give is a fundraiser’s dream."