Rae Finds the Weight vs Money Link

One of the things I've been wondering about for a while is whether losing weight will actually, realistically save money. I know that in an overall sense, being overweight causes healthcare issues that not being overweight would prevent. My back pain is a big part of that, and I'm a little nervous about the looming concept of diabetes, though I've never been tested. It's always been kind of abstract, though.

But here it is. I finally found something concrete. The whole article is worth a look, but here's what it boils down to:

The overall, tangible, annual costs of being obese are $4,879 for an obese woman and $2,646 for an obese man. The overall annual costs of being overweight are $524 and $432 for women and men, respectively. For both genders, the incremental costs of obesity are much higher than the incremental costs of being overweight. 

Adding the value of lost life to these annual costs produces even more dramatic results. Average annualized costs, including value of lost life, are $8,365 for obese women and $6,518 for obese men. 

That is a lot of money. A lot of money. Basically, by going from obese down to normal weight over the next year, I'll get a $4879/year raise. That's 50 bucks paid annually per pound I lose. A dollar per 70 calories burned.

Investing $4879/year with compound interest at a 7% rate would be 500k by the time I hit age 65 (thanks, online calculators). That's a retirement level amount. Seriously. Holy crap.

Kind of a nice way to look at things, and it might be the motivation I need to get back to my goal.