Lose The Belly, Save Some Money

If you’re fat and frustrated, it’s time to put your wallet where your mouth is.

- Mike Zimmerman

“You can never be too rich or too thin” is an old saying, often attributed to the Duchess of Windsor. Of course, it comes off as snooty – if she had coined it today, imagine her Twitter ratios. Here’s the thing, though: body weight and net worth truly are intertwined, and research shows that the more kilograms people carry, the less money they tend to have. This works on different levels. Say you’re an obese 20-year-old who drops to a healthy weight. According to a 2017 study from Johns Hopkins University, your estimated lifetime savings in health care and productivity would be R353 331. For a 50-year-old, you’re looking at R457 464.

Jay Zagorsky, PhD, an economist and researcher at Ohio State University, has been examining the weight-wealth connection for more than a decade. His 2015 study, published in the Oxford Handbook of Economics and Human Biology, reveals this price tag: Another factor that impacts your income: weight discrimination. Past research has shown that employers find heavier employees less desirable as co-workers and bosses. It works both ways: a German study of nearly 18 000 workers found that underweight men earn about 8% less than those at the upper end of the ‘healthy BMI’ bracket. The effect was especially strong in blue-collar jobs.

Of course, no-one’s waiting to write you a cheque when you hit your goal weight. (Or are they? See “Hit the Fat-Loss Jackpot!” on the right.) But if you want to drop kilos and keep them off, bringing money into the equation looks like a smart play. Research shows that money can motivate people towards healthier behaviour.