DALLAS — The desire to drop pounds, look thinner and feel fitter has spanned generations and produced a seemingly never-ending list ofMethods and results may vary for each individual but an engineering firm in Addison found one that worked like magic in 1977.
A WFAA story archived in the SMU Jones Film Library took a look at a new weight-loss program started at Forney Engineering Company after nearly a dozen employees suffered heart attacks. Nearly 60% of employees took part and waistlines started shrinking by nearly 1000 pounds between all of them combined. A map of the country charted how many total miles the staff walked on their lunch break and posters throughout the office reminded them to watch what they eat.Forney started the program with the promise of paying a silver dollar to an employee for every pound of weight they dropped.
The program may have cost the company an extra expense but they did not seem to mind. Their staff was healthy and, as management put it, a dollar a pound is a bargain for anything.