Another way for companies to intrude into your life

Swell. Now in addition to being discriminated because you're old, companies are discriminating if you aren't as skinny as Calista Flockhart:

The number of obese Americans is climbing — research from the National Center for Health Statistics determined 65 percent of U.S. adults are overweight, and 30 percent are obese. As health-care costs rise and more and more health problems are linked to weight, corporations are searching for ways to assess and address employees' weight problems to keep company expenses down.

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January is the biggest month for the weight-loss industry. Every year programs like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers see an early year spike in new customers as thousands sign up to undo the damage of the holiday eating season. Both companies have numerous corporate partnerships with businesses eager to reduce health-care costs, and they say employers have become more interested in taking an active role in weight loss.

"In business, it all comes down to the bottom line, and what they're realizing is that an overweight work force is hurting their bottom lines," said Barbara Fulmer, director of corporate sales at Jenny Craig.. "They're looking at how weight problems affect time off of work and office visits and how those things affect health-care costs."

At the same time, insurance companies are offering an ever-expanding list of weight-management services, and researchers are even trying to determine whether obesity limits the work done by employees while on the job.

One study published in the late 1990s showed that weight-related health problems lead to 39 million workdays missed every year and 239 million days of restricted activity.

In the past, most businesses calculated health costs only in terms of absences and medical expenses paid to an insurer. The question companies now ask is: How much does that "restricted activity" cost in terms of lost productivity? Researchers are trying to answer that question.

Integrated Benefits Institute, a nonprofit health benefits research organization in California, estimates that obesity is the seventh leading health problem in the U.S. work force. But in terms of lost productivity, obesity is the sixth-most prevalent health problem. Employees who might be considered "well" under the old paradigm of just measuring attendance and doctors' visits are actually a drain on overall productivity.

"It negatively affects productivity even when a person is sitting at a desk or working in a factory or whatever it is they do," said Thomas Parry, president of IBI. "It's not just an issue of absenteeism."

"The effort is to quantify how much work time is affected and tell people, 'This is what it really costs your company,'" Parry said.

At Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, employees have participated in a 10-week "Dump the Plump" contest for the past five years. More than 3,600 pounds were lost by 530 employees who competed in teams for cash prizes collected from employee entry fees last year.

Somehow I think that most companies "dump the plump" by laying them off or refusing to hire them in the first place.

Look, folks, I'm under five feet tall and I'm a 16. I also have blood pressure of 110/70, LDL numbers that I can keep down to 130 if I'm careful, and HDL of 54. I've taken exactly four sick days in the last five years. I work out 3-5 days a week, and have more energy than many people half my age. I get a mammogram every year and a blood draw and a pelvic exam -- and that's the extent of my non-dental medical usage. But if I were unemployed, all that the inevitable 25-year-old skinny size four big-haired Human Resources Bimbo Bitch would see is "old and overweight."

I'm really tired of people insisting that people like me -- healthy people who eat right and exercise and are still a larger size -- can't possibly exist. Well, I do exist, and here I am. And there are tens of thousands more like me.

And what makes these employers so sure that the size fours aren't going into the ladies' room after lunch to puke it all up? Is that healthy?

Companies don't care about the stress-related ailments that constant worry about job security can cause. They don't care about the stress-related ailments that come when you're expected to work 80-hour weeks. Nope. The only health issue they care about is if you're overweight. I'd say that's pretty damn selective -- and pretty damn ignorant.