Save Money by Loosing Weight

No, I’m not writing about the latest get rich quick scheme; I’m writing about how being overweight costs you a lot of money and loosing weight will save you money.

Obesity causes or worsens a myriad of health conditions – diabetes, stroke, heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, cancer, sleep apnea, gout, bone spurs, and I could go on and on. When you add it up, obesity is probably the biggest reason health insurance costs go up so much every year.

If you maintain a healthy body weight and get a reasonable amount of exercise you will improve your health and you will reduce the amount of money you spend on health care. Think of all the copays, prescription costs, emergency room visits, etc you will be avoiding. And while the insurance company will bear most of the burden, you will face out of pocket expenses as well.

Then you can look at your earnings and how much less you earn because of obesity. The average obese person earns about $7,000 less a year than the comparable person with a healthy weight. Over a lifetime, that is a lot of money and this article gives a nice summary of the personal financial costs associated with obesity.

Finally, obesity shaves 10 years off of your life on average. 10 years less with your family and your friends.

That’s a lot of good reasons to finally do something about it and loose weight.