Medical weight loss can do a lot more than help you to lose a bit of weight. It can also reduce your risk of serious health concerns and save you a decent amount of cash.
How is that? Simply put, being overweight is really expensive. You may not have noticed the missing bulge in your wallet, but between the personal living expenses that occur due to obesity along with the city and corporate costs, obesity is a real financial concern.
The Dollars and Sense
Across the United States businesses and government buildings are being forced to replace items like toilet seats, buses and office chairs. These costs are often unnoticed by the average person, but in many situations it is tax dollars that are going into these replacements. More directly, obesity increases the cost of health insurance, in addition to often requiring more health services due to poorer health.
There are a lot of numbers to back this up:
- $190 Billion U.S dollars are spent every year in the U.S for medical costs due to obesity
- The average overweight person spends $1,850 more than a healthy weight individual every year for health care costs, while for an obese person this number increases to $3,086.
- $5 Billion dollars are spent annually on additional jet fuel to accommodate for the added pounds of overweight and obese individuals
- A “bariatric office chair” has a price tag of $1,056, while a bariatric toilet costs $1,049
Wage discrimination is another unfortunate truth that many obese and overweight individuals are faced with. The average overweight U.S employee makes on average $1.25 less than a healthy weight counterpart—that is a full $0.50 more than the gender pay gap! In fact, obese women are even more subject to discrimination in the workplace, making up to 24 percent less than a healthy weight woman.
The Bottom Line
Losing weight can help you to cut down on your living expenses. A lot of people do not realize all of the extra cash that they are spending on medical bills, groceries and clothing as a result of their weight. Weight often builds gradually, and it can be easy to overlook the small growth in expenses over time.
The cost of living in the United States is about $6,400 more annually for an obese person. And by the way: if you smoke, you can add another $6,000 to that price tag.
Imagine having an extra $6,400 every year! That is a vacation waiting to happen, and too many people are losing that much cash while simultaneously putting their health at risk. If your health hasn’t been enough of a reason to start taking your weight loss goals seriously, then maybe your wallet will.
