In 2008, the annual healthcare cost of obesity in the US was estimated to be as high as 147 billion dollars a year.¹ The annual medical burden of obesity increased to 9.1 percent in 2006 compared to 6.5 percent in 1998.¹ Medical expenses for obese employees are estimated to be 42 percent higher than for a person with a healthy weight.¹ Workplace obesity prevention programs can be an effective way for employers to reduce obesity and lower their health care costs, lower absenteeism and increase employee productivity.

What is the cost of obesity to your organization?

"CDC's LEAN Works! Leading Employees to Activity and Nutrition" is a FREE web-based resource that offers interactive tools and evidence-based resources to design effective worksite obesity prevention and control programs, including an obesity cost calculator to estimate how much obesity is costing your company and how much savings your company could reap with different workplace interventions.

Be the first to benefit! Get started with CDC's LEAN Works! today by choosing one of the stages below.

Obesity Cost Calculator
Use this tool to figure out how much obesity costs your company and how much you could save by implementing an obesity prevention program in your workplace.

Advice from Experts
Ron Z. Goetzel, Ph.D., Director of the Emory University Institute of Health and Productivity Studies and Vice President of Consulting and Applied Research at Thomson Reuters, discusses return on investment.

Check out other expert interviews from:

• David Katz - Why is it important for employers to address obesity in the workplace?
• Catherine Baase - How do you convince company leadership that investing in the health and well-being of employees is good for business?
• Kristi Schalow - What are the health promotion beliefs that guide wellness policy at Trek Bicycles®?
• Tonya Vyhlidal - What are some of the incentives Lincoln Industries uses to encourage healthy lifestyles?
• David Anderson - What should employers know about using incentives?
• George J. Pfeiffer - How can you effectively market you work site programs?
• Ron Z. Goetzel - How long does it take for an employer to achieve a positive ROI?
• Robin Soler - What intervention components work best?

We encourage you to promote CDC's LEAN Works! to your memberships and networks by placing a CDC's LEAN Works! button on your web page. How can you do this? We have three sizes of buttons to choose from and instructions on how to put them on your page on our Graphics and Banners page.

Thank you for promoting CDC's LEAN Works!

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