Fired for being Fat?

Saturday, I ran across an interesting debate on a morning news show.

Can Employers require you to lose weight as a condition of employment or health insurance benefits?

Whew! It got furocious!


One side actually invoking the bill of rights and the pursuit of happiness! Not sure a double whopper was what our founding fathers had in mind, but...


The other side making the case for employers shouldering the high cost of health care for employees with lifestyle related disease/illnesses that are preventable with exercise and appropriate diet.


Point well taken. We must be responsible for our personal health. Nobody is debating that healthy living is a good thing. The issue is whether exercise and weight management is enforcable as a condition of employment.

For 90% of people with coronary heart disease, their disease was caused by factors within their control:

• how you eat,


• how you move,


• how you manage stress,


• how much sleep

Is it an invasion in your personal rights to ask you to be responsible for the cost of health care premiums if you chose not to control the areas that you have the ability to control? Do you have the right to kill yourself on the installment plan at company expense?

Regardless of whether companies have the right, it is impractical to think lifestyle could be regulated effectively. Most people work better by putting a benefit in front of them rather than a fine if they do not.

Increasingly companies are realizing the value of incentivising exercise and weight loss, smoking cessation, etc. Rather than a cost, employers consider it a real investment in their employees and future cost containment.

I work with a company called Health Coach . As we have taken our weight management program into businesses to provides group weight loss coaching we've seen several neat asides. Yes, participants lost weight, but more importantly, they lowered their cholesterol, lowered their blood pressure, bonded as team members, and built positive self esteem.

How is your personal responsibility factor?

Tim Russert's heart attack was tragic and cut short a valued, and loved life. Make sure you are not on a similar surprise track. For the sake of people you care about and care for, Please, look at your lifestyle.