In a Recession, Healthy Choices Can Fatten Your Wallet

Karin Kopty of Kenmore says spending money on healthy things, like personal training and nutritious food, saves her money in the long run.

Forget recession-friendly products like ramen noodles and velveeta, eating healthy and investing in things like personal training can actually help you to come out financially ahead. Along with medical issues, being overweight can also drain your finances.

January 5, 2009

It's that time again. Department stores are putting treadmills on sale.  Infomercials are advertising magic weight-loss cures.  Fitness centers are hawking gym memberships.

With nearly two-thirds of Americans classified as overweight or obese, “Lose Weight” will no doubt top New Year’s resolution lists once again this year.

As if we needed any more incentive to get in shape, here comes another one: being fat is actually costing us money.

Studies show when it comes to costs such as clothing, plus-sized furniture, health care, insurance, food, travel and even earning power, being overweight is actually more expensive than getting — and staying — in shape.

“When you think of all the expenses associated with your health and lifestyle, it does make sense that it would cost more to be at an unhealthy weight,” said Laura Scala, a certified personal trainer, weight management specialist and owner of Wellness Now LLC in Williamsville, New York.

It’s a lesson Karin Kopty of Kenmore has learned well. Working with Scala for the past year, Kopty has gone from a size 20 to a size 16 and counting. She learned about the glycemic index and how to eat the correct combinations of carbohydrates, fat and proteins. She also meets Scala for personal weight training twice a week. It may seem an extravagance afforded only by movie stars and millionaires, but Kopty calls her financial commitment to fitness the best investment she’s ever made.

“If you add up every single penny I’ve spent on diet food, and all these plans and programs that have cost a fortune over my lifetime, this is much less expensive,” Kopty said.

She’s getting quite a return, too.

“I’m spending less on groceries, I’m wearing all my old clothes and not always looking to buy something bigger that fits,” said Kopty. “I was getting to where I couldn’t sit in a plane seat, I didn’t want to go out of the house. Mentally and physically I’m so much better. You can’t put a price on that.”

Here are some ways being overweight may unexpectedly be draining our finances:

Food and groceries

Sure, you can get an entire fast food “meal” for under $4. But you can make your own healthy fare for less than $1.50.

The emphasis is on fresh fruits, vegetables and lean meats.

“People think you have to spend a fortune to buy healthy ingredients, but if you know where to shop and buy in bulk, it doesn’t have to,” said Kopty. “All that packaging and processing in unhealthy food costs more.”

In fact, some of the lowest glycemic index foods — whole grains and legumes such as oats, brown rice, beans and peas — also happen to be some of the most inexpensive.

Fast food tends to be less satisfying, leading to repeat purchases, and being overweight leads us to eat more at one sitting, causing us to buy larger quantities, according to Scala.

In addition, New York State’s newly unveiled “obesity tax” on products such as fattening, sugary sodas will give the wallet another wallop.

Sapped earning power

Even setting aside the controversial theories about first impressions and employment discrimination, studies show obese people actually earn less money than their fit coworkers.

According to a study done by researchers at Stanford University, obese workers earn an average of $3.41 less per hour than their peers.

Health care

People consumed $250 billion in retail pharmaceuticals last year, much of it in the form of prescription drugs to do things such as lower blood pressure and cholesterol or control diabetes. Many of these ailments could be regulated or avoided by maintaining a healthy weight through nutritious eating and exercise.

“You wouldn’t believe the people who come to us on blood pressure medicine and cholesterol pills,” said Sandy Mannella, owner of Williamsville- based Bodyshaping By Sandy, which runs more than 2,000 community fitness and nutrition programs in Western New York.

Rising health care costs mean more money out of your pocket in the form of insurance copayments, medical treatments and health insurance premiums. In fact, medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States.

Prescription copays alone have doubled in the past five years.

The higher cost of employer-paid health premiums means less money goes into paychecks, too.

Studies published by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggest employers pass the increased costs of employer-paid health care to obese workers in the form of lowered wages.

Last year, a survey by Thomson Healthcare found moderately obese workers racked up 21 percent more in health care costs than those at a normal weight.

Costs jumped to 75 percent higher for severely obese workers.

Overweight workers were much more likely to suffer (and miss work) from costly and painful physical ailments and injuries, such as arthritis, back pain, high blood pressure and respiratory disorders.

As employers begin to understand how worker wellness impacts the company’s bottom line, could they use data about lost productivity and increased health care costs to discriminate against overweight workers?

For now, companies are taking a positive, proactive approach, enacting corporate wellness programs complete with on-site nutrition seminars, meditation, fitness centers and aerobics classes. Mannella administers about ten of these wellness plans for local businesses, and thousands of her community Bodyshaping classes are covered by BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York, Univera Healthcare and Independent Health.

Extra travel charges

When gasoline prices began skyrocketing, travelers started taking a harder look at the cargo they carried in their vehicles, removing rear seats in vans and emptying trunks to lighten their load and save money on fuel.

Airlines — which at one time limited the weight of their in-flight employees — have been conscious of cargo weight for decades, considering the massive quantities and expense of fuel they purchase. Most recently, airlines began charging fees for luggage and surcharging heavy bags.

Their policies toward heavy people are no different. In a 2004 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, airlines spent $275 million on the 350 million gallons of fuel needed to transport overweight Americans.

Southwest Airlines has required overweight passengers to purchase an extra plane seat for nearly three decades. As Americans have gotten larger, more airlines have adopted the practice.

Term life insurance

When life insurance companies calculate how much you’ll pay for your premium, the biggest factor in the formula is the proportion of your weight to your height, according to data collector J. D. Power. That ratio is called the body mass index, in which a person’s weight in pounds is divided by one’s height in inches.

In fact, weight is such a strong predictor of illness, injury and lifespan, a few extra pounds of fat can mean an extra few hundred dollars in insurance payments.

On the positive side, if you do lose weight and keep it off, you can ask your insurance carrier to recalculate your rate in accordance with your newly fit physique.

Source:   The Buffalo News