I used to be fat. Not morbidly obese, but I was tipping the scales at more than 200 pounds, dragging my miserable self to plus-sized lady shops, wishing the label read size six and not size 16. I managed to lose 70 pounds (and keep it off ) through good-ol’ exercise and healthy eating — sans personal trainers, expensive nutrition plans, complicated supplement guides or fad workout regimes. Do I know a thing or two about losing weight and saving money? Yeah, I do.
There is a common misconception that losing weight requires ample amounts of cash; the more nutritious the food is the more it will cost the consumer. Not true, says Bethany Thayer, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.
“You can buy a 10-ounce bag of potato chips for $2.59 and someone might think that’s a good deal but you can get, for that same price, four pounds of fresh red potatoes which are going to have vitamin C, fiber and all kinds of nutrients, or three pounds of carrots, which again, are loaded with vitamins and minerals,” she says.
Americans spend roughly $30 billion annually on weight-loss products and programs, yet the country is fat and getting fatter. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight and an estimated 79 million adults, approximately one-third of the population, are considered prediabetic, according to the Center for Disease Control. Obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10 percent of U.S. medical spending, or an estimated $147 billion a year.
Obesity will not only affect how much you dole out in medical expenses, but it can also affect how you’re going to pay for them. Due to a loss of productivity and workplace discrimination, a difference in weight of two standard deviations (approximately 65 lbs) is associated with a difference in wages of nine percent, according to the research paper The Impact of Obesity on Wages by John Crawley for the Journal of Human Resources.
There is a common misconception that losing weight requires ample amounts of cash; the more nutritious the food is the more it will cost the consumer. Not true, says Bethany Thayer, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.
“You can buy a 10-ounce bag of potato chips for $2.59 and someone might think that’s a good deal but you can get, for that same price, four pounds of fresh red potatoes which are going to have vitamin C, fiber and all kinds of nutrients, or three pounds of carrots, which again, are loaded with vitamins and minerals,” she says.
Obesity will not only affect how much you dole out in medical expenses, but it can also affect how you’re going to pay for them. Due to a loss of productivity and workplace discrimination, a difference in weight of two standard deviations (approximately 65 lbs) is associated with a difference in wages of nine percent, according to the research paper The Impact of Obesity on Wages by John Crawley for the Journal of Human Resources.
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