If you’re an overweight woman in 2024, the statistical cost of your excess BMI will cost you over five thousand dollars in increased medical costs, AND in reduced wages alone. But your personal weight costs could be much higher.

The Biggest Cost Of Obesity Is Your Health!

The most serious extra medical costs driven by excess weight include: 

• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Type 2 diabetes
• Certain types of cancer

According to the CDC, all of these additional weight costs are among the leading causes of preventable, premature death. The 2019 analysis for how much overweight related health expenses cost individuals was equal to $1,861 or 16% more than the medical costs for people with healthy weight. The latest historical year of data analyzed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is 2021 where health expenses were found to sky-rocket 13.2%. Still, the latest National Health Expenditure Projections are expected to grow 5.4% in the coming years. But even using a conservative 3% increase in costs (to coincide with the average annual raise for the last decade), the added medical costs for excess weight in 2024 is still expected to be $2,905.

The Added Medical Cost Of Obesity Is At Least $2,905!

This does not include other significant overweight related costs like premature mortality, added disability costs, added food costs, loss of Quality Adjusted Life Years, etc. But after a decade of analysis by David Lempert (author of Bureau of Labor Statistics Working Papers such as, “Women’s Increasing Wage Penalties from Being Overweight and Obese“), a 10% increase in a woman’s BMI is equal to a 6% decrease in income. Based on the 2022 median woman’s salary, an obese woman was paid $2,381 less than women with a healthy weight. Factoring in a 3% annual raise, that would make the median 2024 weight wage penalty for women $2,524.