Based on the self-determination theory (SDT), the reason that financial incentives have the potential to undermine autonomous motivation, and thus maintenance after being removed, is that incentives are often experienced as subtly controlling. A meta-analysis of studies related to the undermining effect found that this is especially true of tangible, performance-contingent incentives [30], as were used in this study. As noted earlier, a number of studies have found that men tend to have a more controlling (and less autonomous) orientation to the world, in general [31– 34]. Recently, Hagger and Chatzisarantis [35] demonstrated that these same causality orientations can moderate the undermining effect of rewards on intrinsic motivation. Specifically, in the context of a lab experiment, the authors found that control-oriented participants assigned to a reward condition exhibited significantly lower levels of intrinsic motivation (less time spent on a puzzle activity during a free choice period) compared to those assigned to a no reward condition: a replication of the classic undermining effect. In contrast, there was no significant difference in intrinsic motivation levels between reward conditions for autonomyoriented participants. Hagger and Chatzisarantis interpret their findings as indication that autonomy-oriented causality orientation protects individuals from the undermining effect of rewards on intrinsic motivation. We offer a similar, speculative interpretation for the financial motivation by gender interaction observed in the present study. That is, we suspect that females in our sample tended towards a more autonomy-oriented causality orientation, which protected them from the undermined maintenance of healthy behavior changes that males in our sample exhibited. Because the present study involved secondary analysis of data, measures of motivational orientation were not included. A future study might test this interpretation by measuring global causality orientation and investigating whether the financial motivation by gender interaction remains significant after controlling for a financial incentive by causality orientation interaction term (i.e., mediated moderation [42, 43]). Related follow-up research might investigate further individual differences and contextual factors relating to the interpretation or experience of financial incentives in an intensive lifestyle intervention.