How to Stop from Going to Pot

Growing legions of chairbound executives labor through pushups on the bedroom floor at dawn, or spend their lunch hours performing similar strenuous rituals in a gym. Bent on prolonging their useful lives, they pedal, bounce, pull and jog, sweating and puffing off excess fat. More and more companies encourage their employees to lose weight, but none have been quite so imaginative as Lowe's Inc. of Cassopolis, Mich. Lowe's is best known as the manufacturer of Kitty Litter, a granulated clay that is used to line cat boxes. The firm, which had sales of $4,000,000 last year from products for cats, offers a cash bonus to executives who shed pounds.

Surveying his own expanding middle and those of his 14 top men, Lowe's President Edward Lowe, 48, found that they were collectively 120 lbs. in excess. Last month he started ICATLYC, the "I Can't Afford to Lose You Club." Each member was weighed in by the company doctor, and a goal--his optimum weight--was set. Each was given as many weeks as he had pounds to lose. If he makes his specified weight by that deadline, he is paid 1 1/2 of his annual salary; the bonus will be renewed every year for as long as he stays in trim. Thus a $20,000-a-year man stands to gain $300 annually.

Lowe is sure that the company will gain. He figures that for every executive who keels over too soon, the company must spend twice his annual salary training a replacement. Additional savings are expected from slimmer expense accounts, since traveling executives can be expected to switch from steak and Scotch to Metrecal.

After six weeks, ten of the 15 members who were found overweight lost a total of 80 Ibs. Sales Manager Ed Burns, 50, who has to reduce from his original 199 Ibs. to 179, vows that he will make it even if he has to live in a sauna. The trouble is, he says, that if he wins the bonus, he will have to spend it all on altering his clothes.

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