Companies helping workers fight war against fat

At least four mornings each week, Jerene Guidry arrives at work wearing a T-shirt, gym pants and sneakers. Not because her employer, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, encourages such comfortable attire, but because she has a 6:20 a.m. date with a treadmill in the company's gym.

''Exercising at work is convenient. It doesn't take a tremendous amount of effort,'' Guidry said. ''Once I made it part of my daily routine, it became habit.''

For Guidry, using the at-work fitness center is an ideal way to stay in shape. But for her employer, the gym is much more. It's an investment that could help the company cut costs.

The number of obese Americans has doubled since 1980.

Nearly one-third of the U.S. population is obese, generally defined as having excess fat of 30 pounds or more.

As the country has gotten fatter, so have the costs associated with obesity. Obesity costs Americans as much as $117 billion a year: seven times the total revenue of McDonald's Corp. last year.

Direct costs of obesity -- such as doctor visits, hospital care and other treatment services -- account for $61 billion, or about 6 percent of total health care costs nationwide.

Indirect costs total $56 billion and include the value of wages lost by people unable to work because of illness or disability as well as the value of future earnings lost by premature death, said Anne Wolf, a registered dietitian, epidemiologist and faculty member at the University of Virginia who specializes in the economic impact of obesity.

The cost is determined by adding the percentage of the costs of certain diseases, such as type II diabetes and heart disease, and surgeries such as knee, ankle and hip that can be attributed to obesity. Of course, not all of those diseases and surgeries are caused by obesity.

In addition are hidden costs that usually are not included in that calculation, Wolf said. There are concrete costs that can't be wholly attributed to obesity, such as re-engineering a stadium, hospital or other public space to include wider seats, beds or doors. And abstract costs such as the cost of a diminished quality of life or the loss of opportunity, Wolf said.

In Louisiana, which almost defines itself by its food, statewide obesity-attributable expenditures total $1.37 billion.

Employers have three choices, said Manny Avramidis, senior vice president for global human resources for the American Management Association. They can offer less coverage, require employees to pay higher premiums, or pay for the increase. The first two options likely would lead to disgruntled workers, and the latter is unlikely because companies are trying to capitalize on the upward tick of the economy by making money, not spending it, Avramidis said.

''Some people say that insurance companies should pay for obesity, but what happens when coverage is mandated? It increases health care costs,'' said John McGinnis, a spokesman for Blue Cross/Blue Shield Louisiana. ''Every time health care costs increase 1 percent nationally, 300,000 people are thrown into the uninsured pool.''

So some companies have taken it upon themselves to make their employees thinner. According to a 2003 survey by the American Management Association, 71 percent of companies said they have a responsibility to promote employee wellness.

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