Body Healthy. Soul Happy.

A new UC study of employees in the manufacturing industry showed that workers whose BMI was above 30 had a loss of 4.2% productivity due to health-related limitations. The loss of productivity while at work is known as “presenteeism” The UC study concluded that based on a $21 per hour job, workers whose BMI exceeded 30 cost their employer $1,800 per year, about $500 more than their lighter colleagues.

According to Dr. Donna Gates, the study’s lead researcher, the new results suggest obesity has a “threshold effect” on presenteeism, with moderately/extremely obese workers being significantly less productive than other workers. Limitations in performing job tasks and completing work in the expected time could be related to difficulty moving because of increased body size or weight, or because of an increased rate of pain problems due to other maladies such as arthritis.

Dr Gates goes on to say, “The study’s results support other research that has indicated that a weight loss of ten percent can yield substantial health and economic benefits. Even modest weight loss could result in hundreds of dollars of improved productivity costs per worker each year.”

Now more than ever, I believe that employers are focused on reducing costs and getting everything they can from their employees. With healthcare costs being front and center in the news and at the top of employer costs, now is the right time for employers to invest in their employees and place a serious focus on workplace wellness programs. Our lives are very busy and the average American adult spends more time at work, with their colleagues than at home with their families. A healthy America starts with a healthy workplace and employers owe it to their teams and to themselves to be a positive force in the battle of the bulge.

If you or your company are interested in shedding those unwanted pounds, check out www.slimcinnati.comThe team at White Oak Nutrition is happy to help you create a weight managment plan that works for you and your employees. And remember, there’s no charge for your initial consultation, so you’ve got nothing to lose but those extra pounds!

To your health,

Kim

We all know people who look like this. Sure, they’re overweight, but they’re not bed-ridden or even close to the weight of some of the people featured on the Discovery Channel and TLC. Yet wait until you hear their story.

The Chawner family

The Chawners, who live in Blackburn, England receive a monthly stipend that equals a yearly salary of $30,000 American dollars because, “they’re too fat to work.” Philip and his wife Audrey, 57, weigh 336 pounds each. Daughters Emma, 19, and Samantha, 21, weigh in at 236 pounds and 252 pounds, respectively. Audrey Chawner, who has epilepsy and asthma as a result of being overweight, told “Closer” magazine her family’s weight is genetic and they cannot afford to eat healthier. Philip Chawner has Type 2 diabetes and was eligible for gastric band surgery until he developed a heart condition.

“I’m a student and don’t have time to exercise,” Emma Chawner said. “We all want to lose weight to stop the abuse in the street, but we don’t know how.”

“What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table,” Philip Chawner, 53, told the The Daily Telegraph, a London newspaper. “It’s not our fault we can’t work. We deserve more.”

This article gulls me on several levels. First of all, no one wants to help people live healthier, eat more nutritiously and feel better about themselves than I do; I’ve dedicated my career to it! I know that our relationship with food is often a very personal one and I absolutely get that changing that relationship can be difficult both physically and emotionally. I myself battled with my weight most of my life.

But, this family is NOT completely unable to work and it’s not fair to place the burden of their care on the shoulders of the tax payers. Moreover, it’s doubly unfair to both the family and the taxpayers to provide the family with money for the rest of their lives and no support or guidance helping them to change their lifestyle and live healthier, productive, enjoyable lives.

Which leads me to the second level on which this article gulls me. Hearing a 19 year old student say that her family doesn’t know how to lose weight simply makes my face turn pink. It’s hard to believe that in this day and age anyone doesn’t know *how* to lose weight. It’s been scientifically proven time and again that to lose weight you need to burn off more calories than you take in. I wholeheartedly agree that losing weight is often difficult and that many people benefit from and even need help, whether in the form of a professional coach, a support group, a nutrition/meal plan, an fitness trainer or exercise buddy and perhaps a physician or any combination thereof, is 110% perfectly understandable and OK. But to say that you simply can’t lose weight because you don’t know how really is absurd.

The third thing in this article that gets my goat is that the family says they can’t afford to eat healthy. Yet look at what they are choosing to purchase at the store. “We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner,” Mrs Chawner told Closer magazine. Purchasing prepackaged foods is at least as expensive as buying fresh fruits and veggies and cooking meals at home. The difference is that it takes considerably more effort to plan and prepare meals than it does to simply pop a high fat, high sodium, high calorie one in the microwave.

What do you think? How fat is too fat to work and should families (or individuals) who are overweight be paid a monthly disability stipend without being taught and assisted in losing the excess pounds?

If there was ever a case of the truth being a harsh mistress, this might just be it. A study published by New York University shows that a woman’s weight is directly correlated to her financial well-being.

The study found that each 1 % increase in women’s BMI means a .6 percent decrease in future family income. So, a 60-pound weight difference between two 5-foot-4 women would account for a 30 percent difference in their future family incomes. Simply put: the skinnier woman’s family earned $100,000 annually compared to $70,000 for the heavier gal. According to the study, much of this income difference occurs because the heavier women are, the poorer their spouses are likely to be and that’s if she gets married. For each 1 percent BMI increase, the prospects of matrimony decrease .35 percent.

But discounting the marriage effect for a moment, take a look at the absolutely shocking affect of a woman’s weight on her salary in the business world.

For every 1 percent increase in BMI, the study found a .4 percent decrease in future job prestige, with prestige measured by public surveys long used by sociologists. So, a 100 percent difference in BMI — a 5-foot-4 woman weighing 120 pounds versus one weighing 240 — meant the difference between becoming a lawyer, a high prestige job, and an insurance agent, a medium prestige job or between a medium-prestige secretary and a low-prestige housekeeper.

While I absolutely DO NOT agree that weight *should* play a role in a woman’s earning potential, I can say that I know that this discrimination does take place. As women, together we ought to rail against the portions of our society who objectify women and perpetuate the idea that skinny = better.

That being said, we as women also have a responsibility to stand together and admit that the cultural and societal pressure that pushes us to be everything to everyone all the time, often leaves us hurrying from place to place and doesn’t allow us to eat well or take proper care of our bodies.

Take a moment to think about what life would be like if your body stopped working or your health failed. I’m betting just the mere thought is enough to take your breath away.

Today, and everyday, make a commitment to support one another, love another, try to eat healthy and take good care of yourself and the women you love. After all, it’s our job to take care of everyone else – what would the world do without us?