Fat finances

It has already been established that America’s obese population is adding a significant toll to the nation’s medical bill, up to an estimated $75 billion a year. But how does one’s weight effect one’s personal finances?

Badly. Although there are no studies currently showing the exact figures, being fat in America penalizes you in several ways, including paying more for airline tickets, out-of-pocket medical expenses, missing work, being bypassed for management positions and diet spending. Researchers at New York University found that when a woman’s body mass increases by 10%, her income decreases by 6%.

Another study out of Ohio State traced 2,000 people from teenaged to 39 years old and found that “normal-weight people had accumulated nearly twice as much wealth as those who were obese.” But answering the question of whether being poor makes you obese, or being obese makes you poor is more difficult to answer.

It is better to look good than to feel good

How are today’s teens coping with the need to have six-pack abs, bulging biceps, trim little tummies and pert little buttocks? According to a survey in the August edition of Pediatrics, about how you’d expect them to. 12% of boys say they’re using supplements to achieve that rippled look, from protein shakes to steroids and HGH. Unrealistic expectations about how their bodies should look contributes mightily to this obsession, and 15% of the girls and 23% of the boys were chubby or seriously overweight.

But there’s good news, too. The obsession with a sculpted body is prompting more kids to join team sports and work out without supplements as well. That includes weightlifting, yoga and pilates.