George Washington University researchers found the annual cost of being obese is $4,879 for a woman and $2,646 for a man. The cost for just being overweight is $524 for women and $432 for men. That is a big difference. The reason there is such a big difference between costs for men and women is because studies show that larger women earn less than skinnier women. For some reason the pay doesn’t change at all if men gain weight. Obesity is also a cause of earlier death. Tow thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese and in the past three decades childhood obesity has tripled. 18% of teenagers are obese and will have diabetes, heart disease, and/or other ailments in the future. Dietary changes over the past 30 years and physical environments that don’t encourage physical activity may help policy makers consider the value of spending more money to prevent obesity. It is causing large problems for our economy. Many people believe that we need to make a really big effort to solve the problem of obesity to save young children from becoming over weight, diabetic, middle aged people. A big study that was done last year found that medical spending averages are $1,400 a year more for obese people than normal weight people. It also found that nearly 1 billion additional gallons of gas are used every year because car passengers’ weight has increased a lot since 1960.
Why is the annual cost for being obese higher for men that it is for women?
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