Dubai dieters have been rewarded with gold for losing weight during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The Your Weight In Gold campaign gave away £474,000 worth of gold to about 3,000 contestants, who won one gram of gold for every kilogramme shed.

Contestants that lost more than five or 10 kg received a greater proportion of gold per kg.

Ahmad al-Sheikh, a 27-year-old Syrian architect, won the top prize of 63 grams of gold, worth £1,700, after he lost 26 kg.

“I actually registered 15 days later in the campaign and was worried at first, because I thought I lost a head start to all the other contestants,” he said.

He added that support from friends and family helped him achieve his goal.

“My friends and colleagues have also been of immense support when they found out I was trying to lose weight, so now I play football once a week and basketball twice every week as well,” he said.

Nearly 17 kg of gold was given away in the competition as more than 17,000 kg were shed by contestants.

Omar Ahmed al Marri, a public-relations executive from Dubai municipality, told The National that the gold was a key motivator in getting people to participate.

“Nobody tries to be healthy,” he said. “So we thought about how we could make them think about it. We found that you have to give them a gift, to motivate them.

“Most of the people, they first of all thought about the gold. And then afterwards, they thought about what they could do for their body.”