By Emily Wang
At a community center in eastern China, Shu Fangqiang shrugged off his jacket and stepped on a scale, one of hundreds of locals who signed up for an unusual weight loss program – “Trade Fat for Beef”.
The rules are straightforward: for every half a kilogram he loses, Shu will gain the same weight in boneless beef, or 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds) of beef on the bone.
The program is one of many popping up across China, backed by local authorities anxious to tackle rising obesity rates, which are fast becoming an urgent public health issue.
Participants who are already keen on losing weight say the initiative is an added bonus.
“Even without the beef, I wanted to lose weight for my health,” said Shu, whose body mass index (BMI) of 30 is classified as obese.
More than a third of Chinese adults were overweight in 2022 and about 8.3 percent were obese, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), compared with the United States, where 72.4 percent of adults are overweight and 42 percent are obese.
However, the number of obese people in China has tripled between 2004 and 2018, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
If current trends continue, the share of overweight and obese Chinese adults could reach 70.5 percent by 2030, says the National Health Commission (NHC), whose obesity criteria are stricter than those of the WHO.
“This opportunity came at the right time, so I signed up,” Shu said.
Campaign participants in Wuxi City were weighed once in March and will return in January 2027 for a second and final weigh-in.
They will then be rewarded with expensive cuts such as oxtail if they lose more weight – although the total amount of free meat available is limited to 10 kilograms (22 pounds).
Organizers say more than 1,000 people have signed up since the Wuxi campaign began in March – with thousands more who did not meet the local community’s residency requirements.
Queues for weigh-ins reached up to a dozen people at a time in both the men’s and women’s sections, an AFP reporter saw.
At the front of the queues, participants stepped on scales which displayed their height, weight and BMI.
Staff members then measured their waists, recorded their data on a form and used an encouragement stamp to mark and cheer on the participants.
An on-site doctor provided personalized medical advice.
‘Flab for potatoes’
Similar grassroots initiatives have emerged in other localities across the country, with many shared widely on social media.
In the southwestern province of Yunnan, thin people can participate in the “Flab for Potatoes” program and if they reduce their waistlines significantly, they can upgrade to chicken.
Nationwide, popular supermarket chain Yonghui has invited customers to record their 10-day weight loss by weighing themselves in-store.
They can then exchange every 1.5 kilos lost for half a kilo of beef, lobster or kiwi.
When the AFP visited the Wuxi community center, banners at the weigh-in asked participants to lose weight steadily rather than quickly and to aim for health over frailty.
Organizers also posted warnings against weight loss drugs, self-induced vomiting and extreme fasting, with doctors on hand to offer guidance.
Participant Shu told AFP he wanted to lose 20 kilograms.
“Being obese affects your mental state, your work performance and your overall well-being,” he said.
“Sometimes when I’m heavier I don’t sleep well at night.”
As of 2021, there were 402 million overweight or obese adults over the age of 25 in China – the largest population in the world, according to a study published in the medical journal The Lancet.
Another study, published in The Lancet in 2021, attributed the problem to rapid urbanization and a shift towards processed foods, high in sugar and fat, as well as an increasingly sedentary lifestyle.
‘hard to resist’
In Wuxi, 44-year-old Zheng Haihua said she was signing up to encourage her to “move more and eat less” and commit to exercise.
“The biggest challenge for me is… controlling my appetite, because when you see delicious food, it’s hard to resist,” laughed Zheng.
Local doctor Wu Changyan expressed his sympathy, adding that “there is the pressure of life and the convenience of modern life makes it easy to overeat and overeat.”
The NHC and other authorities have launched national initiatives in an effort to counter the trend, concerned about links to chronic disease and rising health care costs.
Local efforts like the one in Wuxi are “a fun way to motivate people”, Wu told AFP.
But Li Sheyu, a clinical professor at Sichuan University’s West China Hospital, said the campaigns may have limited impact.
“I wouldn’t consider it a game changer in the big picture,” he said, noting that they were essentially just a traditional weight-loss booster method.
“But (they are) a good example of spreading weight loss ideas to the public.”
