Another reason to be fit: Economic opportunity

In these less-than-ideal economic times, it makes sense to give oneself as big of an advantage as possible in terms of employment.

A Forbes magazine article published on 5/21/08 entitled "Is Weight Affecting Your Career?" cites several sources suggesting that weight-based discrimination not only happens, but is prevalent.

Cort Rudolph, a Wayne State University researcher cited in the article states, "the bias appears to be most prominent during the hiring process, when an employer knows a potential employee the least and therefore is most likely to be influenced by stereotypes (such as fat people are lazy)".

The information I found most interesting was the mention of legitimate reasons employers have to discriminate against overweight people. A report cited in the article by The Conference Board claims that "obese employees cost U.S. private companies an estimated $45 billion annually in medical expenditures and work loss." Also, a study done by the Duke University Medical Center says that "between 1997 and 2004, obese workers filed twice the number of workers' compensation claims, had seven times the medical costs and lost 13 times the days of work from work injury or illness compared with other employees, and the average medical-claims costs per 100 employees amounted to $51,019 for the obese, compared with $7,503 for the non-obese." Given this information, of course cost-conscious employers with any accountability to their companies' bottom lines are going to be wary of hiring overweight people!

Michigan State University associate professor of human resources management, Mark Roehling states, "while employers may think they're saving money by not hiring an overweight person, they might not be taking into account an applicant's qualifications, which could be far more valuable."

True...but since being overweight is ultimately a choice (I know there's a genetic or chemical imbalance element in a small segment of the population, but the CDC clearly points out that weight management is still all about "balancing the number of calories you consume with the number of calories your body uses or "burns off"" on its "Overweight and Obesity" page) for the vast majority of people, why would I want to put myself in that situation to begin with?

I have decided I'm going to give myself an employment edge by being fit. Are you with me?