didn't look into extra cost for clothing, air travel, car size or furniture size

Piling on the pounds will cost you £££! That is the conclusion of the recent research project undertaken by the The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services Department of Health Policy. In fact the researchers say that the cost of obesity to American individuals does not come cheap either. According to their calculations the average yearly cost of being obese is almost $5,000 for women [£ 3,200] and more than $2,600 [£1,700] for men.

The report which was entitled A Heavy Burden: The Individual Costs of Being Overweight and Obese in the United States was written by Professor Avi Dor, the Director of the Health Economics Program at The George Washington University along with his colleagues.  They made use of indirect obesity costs, lost productivity due to obesity-related illness and immobility as well as the more direct costs like obesity related medical expenses to come to their conclusions. 

In a separate set of calculations they also quantified the value of lost life which obesity causes and when this was added to the existing figures it was estimated the obesity was costing the women almost $8,400 [£5,400] and the men $6,500 [ £4,200] every year.The researchers said the costs are 9 times greater for obese women and six times greater for obese men [BMI 30 plus] compared to those men and women who are merely overweight [BMI 25-29].

The researchers also said that there was a significant difference between the impact that obesity had on men and women especially when it came to work related issues such as lower wages, lost productivity and disabilities. In fact Professor Dor said that if anything his estimates of the costs were understated and that the real costs could be considerably more. For example he did not look into extra costs for clothing, air travel, car size or furniture size all of which could pile on the expenses.

Another aspect of obesity which this report did not mention was the considerable reduction in quality of life which even though it would almost be impossible to actually quantify in monetary forms a significant burden that anybody who has a weight problem has to bear.

This research which was motivated by the increasing costs that the American medical establishment has to bear may make legislators in the American government set up and take note.  Too little has been done to deal with obesity in the United States and the American people are now paying the price!