Did you know that your wealth can increase dramatically as your weight goes down?
This seemingly incredible link between your weight and your wealth was revealed in a study published in the Economics and Human Biology journal by Jay Zagorsky, author of the study and a research scientist at Ohio State University's Center for Human Resource Research.
But before you get too excited, it's important to know that losing a little weight here and there won't make a significant difference to your wealth.
If you really want to impact your wealth, you have to move from overweight or obese into the normal range. A drop of 5 or 10 pounds is simply not enough.
"The typical person who loses or gains a few pounds had almost no change in wealth, but those who lost or gained large amounts of weight had a more dramatic change," Zagorsky said.
For example, white women who dropped their body mass index score (BMI) by 10 points saw a wealth increase of $11,880.
It's also interesting to note that a person's net worth tends to reach a peak when the weight is in the normal range. Coincidence?
Of course, nobody can say for sure from the study whether a person's wealth affects obesity, or whether obesity affects wealth.
However, the researchers also reviewed the people in the study who had a sudden increase in their wealth after receiving inheritances, and found no significant differences in their BMI scores in the following years.
This seems to suggest that wealth doesn't affect weight.
And from a "gut feel" perspective, it seems intuitive that it's probably weight that affects wealth.
Unfortunate as it is, obese women do tend to get discriminated against at work, and bring home a lower salary than their non-obese colleagues.
Plus, there are a number of health problems associated with obesity, and these obese women will have to fork out more money to tend to these problems.
In short, obese people make less, and spend more unnecessarily. With a double whammy like this, it's no wonder obese people will have more problems when it comes to increasing their wealth!
So, now that you've got a good incentive in front of you, please go and take immediate action to shed those unwanted weight... NOW.
Remember, as you make yourself slimmer, your wallet will grow fatter!
