Want to improve your finances? Losing excess weight might help. In fact, according to a recent study that made this peculiar connection between weight loss and finances, you could save as much as $30,000 a year by attaining a healthy weight.
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The findings carried it out at John Hopkins University, were published last Fall in the Obesity journal. And considering how huge of a health crisis obesity has become, they have caused quite a buzz in the industry.
What the Researchers Discovered
First things first. To better understand what the study unveiled, it is first important to understand what excess weight means. Many people are pretty familiar with the acronym BMI (Body Mass Index) and its general idea.
“Mathematically, this is the amount of weight someone has in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters”, explains biologist Matt Stathis of Lodlois—a site that helps people save on weight loss. Generally, a high BMI is an indication that someone has more fat. People with BMI values of between 25 and 30 are considered overweight, and those with a BMI of more than 30 are categorized as obese.
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Anyway, the researchers found out that when someone lost weight, they made cost savings because they lowered their medical costs and increased their productivity. The cost saving benefits of losing excess weight were optimized for individuals who were 50 years old, but the benefits were evident across all ages.
Even when individuals moved from being obese to overweight, the cost benefits were clearly apparent. For instance, an obese 20-year old dropping their weight class to overweight from obese could save about $17,655 in medical and productivity costs over their lifetime. The cost savings would rise to $28,020 if they could move from being obese to having a healthy weight.
For an individual who is 40 years old, the change from being obese to being overweight could result in cost savings of $18,262. The cost savings would increase to a more formidable $31,447 if that person could drop their weight until they attained a healthy weight.
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The research also showed that in addition to helping generate cost savings at an individual level, the costs were also substantial on a national scale. The state loses billions of dollars each year due to obesity.
Why Obesity is Expensive
But, the question becomes, how does obesity end up being so expensive? As regards productivity, obesity has been linked to absenteeism in the workplace. This results in wasted work hours. However, at other times, other employees have to suffer the blunt of obesity-related absenteeism by assuming more responsibilities.
The absenteeism is related to the medical challenges that come with excess weight. Productivity is also affected through “presenteeism”, a scenario whereby an employee is less productive than normal because of their excess weight.
A study conducted to see just how much obesity costs the U.S. several years ago found out that the chronic health condition was responsible for losses of more than $73.1 billion a year. The study was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
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Obesity was found to be responsible for 9% of the absenteeism cases in the workplace in a study done in 2014. In monetary terms, this amounted to $8.65 billion a year. Some states were also more affected than others. For instance, California lost about a billion dollars due to workplace absences related to obesity.
Furthermore, because of obesity, everyone ends up paying up higher health insurance premiums to ensure these companies can cover the medical costs of obese people and those suffering from related chronic health conditions.
Obesity is the root of many preventable chronic diseases and healthcare costs in the U.S. This comes to between $147 billion and $210 billion. Obese people spend about one and half times as much on medical costs as people of healthy weight.
The nation also has to pitch in financially to accommodate the medical needs of the obese. As far back a 2000, the country had to spend about $11 billion on morbidly obese adults. So, you can imagine how much worse the situation has become now that obesity rates have increased considerably since then.
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Why Obesity is Fatal
The greatest worry for obese people are the diseases that it might cause. Obesity is linked to many deadly chronic health conditions such as stroke and heart disease, high blood pressure, gallbladder diseases. diabetes, some forms of cancer, gout, osteoarthritis, and even breathing problems.
Getting these health conditions once you become obese is not a given, but the risk rises significantly once your BMI is over 30. Obesity is considered fatal because the chronic health conditions it causes are by and large deadly. Heart attacks and cancers are claiming lives at alarming rates.
Since there is a strong link between obesity and such diseases, obesity is pretty much considered a precursor to a health condition that will lead to an early grave.
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That is not to say that once obesity catches up with you there is little you can do to stop its deathly threat. On the contrary, there is plenty you can do. Even slight improvements in weight could cause significant declines in risk of serious obesity-related chronic health conditions.
In fact, with a health system such as the Nutrisystem weight loss program, you can move from being obese to having a healthy weight in a safe way and sidestep all the risks of having excess weight. Considering that obesity is a national health crisis, policymakers should definitely be concerned about ways to get the obese population attains healthier weight depending on the severity of their conditions, their age, and other key parameters.
But the battle should be personal for those who are obese. This is why you should try plans like Nutrisystem. Such programs have clinical evidence of their effectiveness and safety. More importantly, they have helped many people lose weight and avert the grave risks obesity had in store for them.
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