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It's true, and it's our first and most obvious (duh) point. When we are overweight, we typically consume more food because we've trained our bodies to accept food in higher quantities. We want to eat more often, and we eat greater quantities when we do. This translates into purchasing more food at restaurants when we go out to eat, and at grocery stores when we're purchasing our weekly groceries. When we lose weight and return our body to a more normal state, we begin to require less food in order to maintain a healthier weight. Naturally, if we're eating less food, we're spending less money in not buying all that extra food we no longer need, so we'll be reaping financial benefit. As we get our food proportions back into perspective, we're able to recognize the portions served to us in most restaurants are excessive and rather than stuffing ourselves to eat them all in one sitting we can bring home leftovers. Now we've doubled our value by making one meal into two.

More Fabric = More Money
If you're very heavy and have ever had to shop at specialty clothing stores, you may have found that you're forced to spend more money on the simple task of just clothing yourself. That's because large-sized clothing manufacturers have to spend more money on fabric costs to make the same item of clothing that they may be able to produce in duplicate or triplicate at smaller sizes. I n addition, often times mainstream clothing manufacturers simply don't make plus-sized clothing, so if you're shopping for larger-sized clothing, you're shopping in a more

limited market. When you consider the effects of basic supply and demand, you can understand why you'd be paying more for your clothing.

Wear and Tear
Besides having to buy specialty clothing, we often have to spend money replacing our clothing more often when we carry excess weight. Carting around extra pounds means our shoes take more of a beating with every step we take. That results in shoes breaking down more rapidly and needing to be replaced more often. Pants and shirts can break down more rapidly, too, since excess body weight can cause fabric and seams to stretch and strain.

General Health Care Costs
Unfortunately, being overweight is not healthy for our bodies. Carrying excess weight can be stressful to the joints, and because movement is difficult, activity levels are often lower among those of us who are heavier. As a result, our bodies get even less of the activity they need to build strong bones and muscles including strong hearts and lungs. At the same time, excess fat in the body can contribute to higher blood pressure, higher cholesterol and increased risks of heart disease.

Obesity is also linked with the onset of diabetes in certain individuals as well as many other conditions. If you maintain an unhealthy lifestyle which includes carrying excess weight, and you develop any condition that requires you to seek medical care, you will be spending a lot of unnecessary money on doctor's visits, tests, prescriptions, and perhaps even treatments and procedures.

Insurance Premiums
If you have or seek to get medical insurance to cover doctor's visits and treatments, you will be paying a higher premium to obtain coverage if carrying excess weight and living an unhealthy lifestyle. If you are seeking life insurance coverage, you will find the same situation applies. Insurance companies need to protect their financial losses in order to stay in business, and they know the potential risks associated with unhealthy weight. They know people are more likely to seek medical treatment for some disorder related to an unhealthy weight, and they are more likely to die at an earlier age because of some complication related to excess weight. In order to make up for the risk of higher costs associated with insuring the overweight, they have to charge a higher premiums.

Gas Mileage
We might not think about it often, but our size actually has an effect on the gas

mileage we're able to get in our cars. When our cars are overloaded with people and cargo, they are literally "weighted down", and actually take more gas to take off, accelerate, and to climb hills. It takes more gas to transport three people who weigh 160 pounds each the same distance in the car as it does to transport one person. If we're carrying enough weight for two people, or even one and a half people, then we can figure we're using more gas than is probably necessary. Given the high cost of fuel these days, that's a pretty good reason to get healthy and start shedding some pounds.