Obese Americans who lose a lot of weight also build wealth as they drop pounds. A new study found that the link between weight loss and wealth gains was particularly strong among white women. Black women and white men also got richer as they lost weight, but not as much as did white women. The wealth of Black men was basically unaffected by their weight. Anne Strieber, who recently lost 100 pounds, asks: “Is this because you have more energy when you?re thinner or because society sees thin people as more legitimate, and thus more hirable?”
There’s no way to tell from the data whether losing weight was the reason for the gain in wealth, but the linkage was definitely there, according to researcher Jay Zagorsky. He says,”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.”
For example, white women who dropped their body mass index score (BMI)?a standard measure of obesity?by 10 points saw their wealth increase by $11,880. White men saw an increase of $12,720 for a similar drop, while black women increased wealth by $4,480. The study involved about 7,300 people.
Art credit: http://www.freeimages.co.uk
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