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.