A diet scheme worth its weight in gold (or £27)

Going for gold: Dubai is offering its people incentives to lose weight (Getty Images)

Competitive weight loss was the stuff of TV shows like The Biggest Loser, but now Dubai is taking it to the masses.

The state has launched the month-long “Your Weight in Gold” competition, to encourage heavies to slim down. Those who do, will be rewarded with around £27 for every two kilograms lost.

Rewarding people for staying healthy might sound like bribing children for exam results, but similar “wellness” programmes are increasingly popular in US firms, who are keen to keep the cost of private healthcare down.

The largest could be the biggest winners in this new trend, which healthy-types might claim unfairly rewards those who allowed themselves to become obese in the first place.