It is a good thing that whoever is in charge of measuring Navistar’s wellness program outcomes is not in charge of manufacturing tractors. There’d be crops rotting in the fields.

Wellness, of course, is five years behind disease management in measurement, which is like being five years behind Iraq in democracy. Even so, the published results of their "Body-for-LIFE" 2 for 2 Challenge stand out for their cockeyed optimism. 92 obese people lost an average of 3 pounds each, with three people losing an average of 70 pounds each. So three people lost 210 of the 276 pounds shed in total, meaning the remaining 89 lost…hmm…lemme see…11 ounces apiece. (Maybe a few grams more.)

Oh, yes, and that’s before regression to the mean, which of course they have never heard of. News flash: 92 people with a BMI of 31 will lose roughly 276 pounds in the next six months regardless of any intervention. Meanwhile 92 other people who weren’t as obese to begin with will gain it, leaving the total weight roughly unchanged.

We recently tried linking to their site and it looks like we have scared them away.

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