It’s been known that weight is a critical metric for the airline industry. According to US Center for Disease Control & Prevention, the average weight of Americans increased by 10 pounds through the 1990’s. In 2000, the airlines calculated that they burned an extra 350 million gallons of fuel to compensate for this increase in weight. (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/95247/should_overweight_consumers_pay_extra.html). In 2000, that extra cost was estimated at $275 Million and the total number of passengers was 660 million or an extra 6,660 million pounds that airlines transported. In 2008 jet fuel cost equivalent, that expense has inflated to $1.5 Billion! Lose weight, reduce airline costs?
But let’s look closer to home and our everyday out of pocket expenses. The US Surgeon General estimates that greater than 127 million Americans are overweight and 60 million are obese. (http://www.obesityinamerica.org/bythenumbers.html). Health care costs continue to rise with $120 billion/ year average spent solely on obesity related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, sleep apnea, and osteoarthritis. (http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2001pres/20011213.html). This equates to an average health care cost of $945 per year per person who is overweight or obese. That’s better than the current US stimulus package!
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation 2006 study, there are an estimated 251 million registered passenger vehicles in the United States. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_vehicles_in_the_United_States). We estimate that ~50% of those auto owners are overweight or obese. One of the factors affecting automobile fuel expense is the weight of the cargo load. Therefore, it makes sense that being overweight or obese would require more fuel usage than for a non-overweight/obese individual with the same automobile driving the same distance, all other factors being equal. A study published in 2006 by the University of Illinois regarding overweight Americans and effect on gasoline consumption indicated that an extra 983 million gallons of gasoline are burned to move the extra weight. (http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_3213.cfm ). Adopting the same argument as the airlines, at greater than $4.30 per gallon, that savings could be upwards of $3.30 per extra pound. Therefore, if an individual and their passenger are both 25 pounds overweight, then the savings per year would equal $165 or $82.50 per person.
On average since 1971, Americans have increased their caloric intake by 300 calories per day and have a more sedentary lifestyle. This has attributed to the increase in overweight and obesity in the U.S. Assume that each overweight and obese American reduced caloric intake by 300 calories, the impact to the household grocery bill could be significant. There are multiple websites that have documented the estimated costs. (http://lifehacker.com/394843/see-what-300-calories-looks-like-and-costs, http://www.healthassist.net/food/300kcal/300.shtml). Adopting a rough estimate of those costs, 300 calories is about $2.10. Therefore reducing daily caloric intake would save about $14.70 per week off the grocery bill. Assuming a consumption reduction of 300 calorie/day, an individual would burn about 1-2 pounds of fat per week. Therefore to lose 25 pounds, it would take a maximum of 25 weeks at 1 pound of fat per week. That’s $367.50 saved in grocery expense to meet the 25 pound goal. Maintaining that goal is an additional estimated grocery savings of $132.30 (Assumes $4.90 per week grocery savings for 27 weeks to round off the 52 week year).
To recap, an overweight/obese American can save substantially by losing fat. At $945/yr in health care costs, $82.50/yr in gasoline costs and $499.80/yr in grocery expense, a total of $1,527.30/ year can be saved.
For those Americans who are not overweight, you have an estimated cost avoidance of $1,527.30/year. Either way, America wins when everyone is healthy.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Burning Fat vs. Losing Weight: Which Would You Choose?
Two-thirds of Americans are overweight and the cost of health care due to obesity related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, etc. exceeds $117B per year. As Americans experience continued frustration over our rising health care costs, there is an immediate opportunity do something about it by actively participating in the near and long term solution.
The key is gaining control of one’s fat metabolism. There is a great article in the May 2008 edition of BICYCLING magazine, which exemplifies the fact that simply losing weight isn’t the answer. It’s the building of muscle and losing the fat that should be the goal of a successful weight management program or achieving peak athletic performance.
Current methods for monitoring our health can’t measure fat metabolism. You can’t measure your fat metabolism by stepping on a bathroom scale. Using a body-fat scale gets you closer to understanding your body fat content but these scales are not accurate unless you invest in the higher end (>$2000) models. Still, even a lower end body-fat scale moves one closer to the goal of understanding fat burn. Ideally, optimizing one’s fat metabolism would be closer to the holy grail of managing individual weight goals.
For those interested in optimizing their fat metabolism, measuring and monitoring one’s breath acetone is the best approach. Breath acetone is a well documented biomarker of fat metabolism. Studies as far back as the late 1960’s have shown that breath acetone is a scientifically accepted indicator of an individual’s fat burn rate, or fat metabolism. Let’s put this in perspective….if you are a healthy individual and enter into a successful weight management program (exercise or diet or both), then you should experience an increase in acetone levels in your breath. If you then maintain an increased acetone level, then you are burning fat…..it’s that simple.
So how is breath acetone measured outside the laboratory? Kemeta is revolutionizing the approach to gaining a healthy lifestyle. In a single exhaled breath, an individual will know their rate of fat metabolism. Kemeta is commercializing a patented palm size breath analyzer that specifically detects acetone, THE known breath biomarker of fat metabolism. Our breath analyzer is not affected by fluid and muscle mass fluctuations often observed on the common scale. The breath analyzer provides immediate feedback to the efficiency of the weight management regime, unlike a body-fat scale. If you cheat, your acetone level drops back to baseline levels.
The goal for Americans is to burn fat, not just ‘lose weight’. Keep the eye on the prize…feeling and looking good.
Two-thirds of Americans are overweight and the cost of health care due to obesity related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, etc. exceeds $117B per year. As Americans experience continued frustration over our rising health care costs, there is an immediate opportunity do something about it by actively participating in the near and long term solution.
The key is gaining control of one’s fat metabolism. There is a great article in the May 2008 edition of BICYCLING magazine, which exemplifies the fact that simply losing weight isn’t the answer. It’s the building of muscle and losing the fat that should be the goal of a successful weight management program or achieving peak athletic performance.
Current methods for monitoring our health can’t measure fat metabolism. You can’t measure your fat metabolism by stepping on a bathroom scale. Using a body-fat scale gets you closer to understanding your body fat content but these scales are not accurate unless you invest in the higher end (>$2000) models. Still, even a lower end body-fat scale moves one closer to the goal of understanding fat burn. Ideally, optimizing one’s fat metabolism would be closer to the holy grail of managing individual weight goals.
For those interested in optimizing their fat metabolism, measuring and monitoring one’s breath acetone is the best approach. Breath acetone is a well documented biomarker of fat metabolism. Studies as far back as the late 1960’s have shown that breath acetone is a scientifically accepted indicator of an individual’s fat burn rate, or fat metabolism. Let’s put this in perspective….if you are a healthy individual and enter into a successful weight management program (exercise or diet or both), then you should experience an increase in acetone levels in your breath. If you then maintain an increased acetone level, then you are burning fat…..it’s that simple.
So how is breath acetone measured outside the laboratory? Kemeta is revolutionizing the approach to gaining a healthy lifestyle. In a single exhaled breath, an individual will know their rate of fat metabolism. Kemeta is commercializing a patented palm size breath analyzer that specifically detects acetone, THE known breath biomarker of fat metabolism. Our breath analyzer is not affected by fluid and muscle mass fluctuations often observed on the common scale. The breath analyzer provides immediate feedback to the efficiency of the weight management regime, unlike a body-fat scale. If you cheat, your acetone level drops back to baseline levels.
The goal for Americans is to burn fat, not just ‘lose weight’. Keep the eye on the prize…feeling and looking good.
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