Reducing obesity in the office

Obese employees are costing their employers millions of dollars a year. This excess amount in medical costs, lost production expenses, and sick leave are forcing many employers to take action against obesity. Some employers have started charging their employees money for being overweight because they are causing the healthcare costs to rise. Other employers are using incentives to encourage their employees to lose weight. There are several different programs out there you can try, but in the end you need to do something about the obesity problem in your office. Wellness programs are the perfect way to help reduce obesity in the office. Wellness programs do more than just encourage employees to lose weight; they also help people strengthen their physical and mental health.

If you aren't sure which employees are causing your health care costs to spike, here is a quick guide:

• Obesity is defined as a person that is 30-40 pounds overweight
• Severely obese is 60 pounds overweight
• Morbidly obese is 100 pounds overweight
• Super obese is 200 pounds overweight

In order to figure out if you have some employees that are obese, offer free health screenings as part of your wellness program. The physician can determine if they are meeting the recommendations for their age, height, and body structure. Normally a person will be defined as obese if they are 20% above average for their age, height, and body structure.

Obesity does lead to several health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, chronic knee pain, and other problems. Obesity is the reason for 70 percent of all health care visits, costing roughly $117 billion a year. Obesity also leads to 300,000 deaths per year.

If those numbers aren't enough to encourage employers to implement a wellness program, here are a few more:

• Obesity causes employers to lose about 39 million workdays a year


• Obesity is the reason for 63 million physician visits, which is paid mostly by employers


• Obesity causes an increase in workers comp claims and disability claims


• Obesity costs about $220 billion for lost productivity and medical care

So what can you do to help reduce obesity in the office? Start with an exercise routine. A lot of people don't want to be obese and they hate the way they feel and look. Most of these people don't have time to exercise or they just don't want to. If you really want them to lose weight, you need to start offering exercise during work hours. Offer aerobic or Pilates classes twice a week and encourage all your employees to go.

Create weight loss teams at the office and encourage everyone to participate in them. The teams will have goals they need to meet like getting a certain number of workouts in per week, losing a set number of pounds, and eating healthier foods. When people have a support group to turn to, it will be easier for them to start exercising. You may even consider installing a bike rack and encourage your employees to start riding their bikes to work. Search for a walking trail close to the office and let your employees know about it. If people have places to go to exercise, it will be a lot easier for them to find the time to do it.

Another way you can reduce obesity in the office is to toss out all the unhealthy food. Get rid of the doughnuts during staff meetings and start serving fresh fruits, whole grains, and juice over coffee. The vending machines need to be stocked with granola bars, protein bars, fruit snacks, and juice.

More Employee Health and Fitness Articles:

• The cost of unhealthy employees
• The cost of sick employees
• The cost of getting your employees gym memberships
• The benefits of encouraging employees to work out
• Simple changes to make in the office to improve employee health
• Reducing employee absenteeism
• Popular wellness programs
• Plans to improve employee health
• On-site employee fitness centers
• Office "Biggest Loser" challenges, why they work and how to set one up