Losing weight can save you money

Yesterday’s post on how spring cleaning can save you money helped me feel so motivated that I thought I’d try something similar with my other recent goal — losing weight and getting into shape.

I understand the importance of a healthy weight, regular exercise, and a good diet. But I don’t always make the right choices, despite the fact that I’ve been working to lose the weight I gained since my wedding. I’ve only managed to lose 4 pounds in 2 months. :(

Hopefully viewing weight loss from the perspective of how it affects my finances will motivate me to make better choices. So I’ve come up with a few ways that losing weight might help me save money.

Eating healthier can lower your grocery bills.

While healthier foods often carry a higher price than convenience foods, cutting unhealthy snack foods from your budget can drastically lower costs. I don’t go out to dinner a lot anyway, but cutting restaurant meals in an effort to lose weight will also dramatically lower food costs.

Exercise is a cheap hobby.

If you make exercise fun, it can replace expensive activities like movies, shopping, or going out to eat. Instead of spending money to have fun, take a hike, go for a swim, or bike a trail.

Better health can lead to lower medical costs.

There’s a long list of ailments that can be caused or complicated by excess weight — diabetes, heart disease, joint pain, even cancer. Maintaining a healthy weight can reduce your risk for these problems. You might not reap the financial benefits today or tomorrow, but in the long run your health care could cost considerably less if you maintain a healthy weight now.

Anyone else have any ideas? Leave them in the comments. I’d love to hear them!

4 thoughts on “Losing weight can save you money

  1. Abigail

    I think the funniest one I ever saw (MSN ran an article called, “What if no one were fat?”) was gas mileage going up. Because of less weight in the car. Not exactly obvious but kind of brilliant!

    I guess you could also argue that less weight would mean less wear and tear on shoes? Esp since I believe your feet deal with 4x your body weight in each step. So losing 10 pounds overall could be equivalent (for your feet) of 40 lbs. Not sure if this is true. Just following the logic of it all. Anyone who actually knows should feel free to contradict if it’s necessary.

    Abigail’s last blog post..Carnivals

  2. Karen

    Abigail – Ha! I guess you probably would get better mileage if you weighed less … especially if it was a family goal and everyone lost 10 pounds. Makes sense to me.

  3. Pingback: Weekly Blog Reads: Pecuniary Associates Edition and Personal Finance Carnivals | The Passive Dad

Comments are closed.