Weight and finances have been discussed at length on personal finance blogs, but mostly the report [PDF] that put a figure to the staggering individual costs of being obese in America. Dr. Avi Dor, report author and professor and director of the health economics program at The George Washington University, and his colleagues quantified indirect costs, direct costs, and lost productivity to arrive at an estimated total cost of being an obese individual.<\/p>\n
After tabulating various costs associated with being overweight or obese, the researchers found that being an obese individual in the U.S. costs $4,879 for women and $2,646 for men each year. The overall annual costs of being overweight are $524 for women and $432 for men. The researchers defined “obesity” as a body mass index (BMI) higher than 30, and “overweight” as a BMI between 25\u201429.<\/p>\n
Adding the value of lost life to these yearly costs makes the price tag even higher: $8,365 and $6,518 for women and men, respectively.<\/p>\n
The analysis showed that obese women pay nine times more and obese men pay six times more in associated costs than do individuals at a healthy BMI. The results also showed that women are affected much more than men when it comes to obesity and job-related costs, including lost wages, absenteeism, and disability.<\/p>\n
Direct medical costs are an obvious cost driver\u2014for overweight individuals, it accounts for 66% of weight-related costs for women and 80% for men. It’s also the cost driver for obese men, but for obese women it accounts for just 30% of the overall costs. An obese female loses more income through lost wages (38%) than from medical costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe data demonstrate that an individual affected by obesity faces not only high medical-related costs, but also higher non-medical costs…,\u201d said Joe Nadglowski, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Obesity Action Coalition, in a press release. Non-medical, obesity-related costs accounted for in the research included the following measures:<\/p>\n
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the costs not<\/em> included are significant, says Dor.<\/p>\n More than 60% of Americans are at an unhealthy weight, with 33.4% classified as obese. If we continue at this rate, by 2030 half of the population will be obese. Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes and some types of cancer, among the leading causes of death, according to The Center of Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n Those are some scary facts and figures, and the George Washington University only underscores an already-critical situation. After all, paying $6,518\u2014$8,365 more per year for obesity-related expenses hardly seems significant in light of words like cancer, stroke, and premature death. Your health is your most important asset.<\/p>\n I wish I had answers, but I don’t. Education seems like the go-to solution, but I’m not convinced it’s enough. Like personal finance, getting healthy means making difficult changes in habits and lifestyle, not simply being taught that French fries are bad and spin class is good. So readers, I’ll turn it over to you. Has your weight noticeably affected your expenses<\/strong> or <\/em><\/strong> income?<\/strong> If so, share specific examples and costs. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Weight and finances have been discussed at length on personal finance blogs, but mostly the report [PDF] that put a figure to the staggering individual costs of being obese in America. Dr. Avi Dor, report author and professor and director of the health economics program at The George Washington University, and his colleagues quantified indirect costs, direct costs, and lost productivity to arrive at an estimated total cost of being an obese individual.<\/p>\n After tabulating various costs associated with being overweight or obese, the researchers found that being an obese individual in the U.S. costs $4,879 for women and $2,646 for men each year. The overall annual costs of being overweight are $524 for women and $432 for men. The researchers defined “obesity” as a body mass index (BMI) higher than 30, and “overweight” as a BMI between 25\u201429.<\/p>\n Adding the value of lost life to these yearly costs makes the price tag even higher: $8,365 and $6,518 for women and men, respectively.<\/\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[487],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span>A Bigger Problem<\/span><\/h2>\n
The High Price of a High BMI<\/h2>\n