Fat people use more gas

B_Marius567

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REPORT: Fat people waste gas - Autoblog

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Gas prices have settled a bit in the past few months, but with the cost of a gallon still lingering well in the two-dollar range, many Americans are looking for ways to save a few bucks at the pump. But what if you are happy with your current car and don't want to be a new one that's more fuel efficient? One new study suggests you dump your spare tire.

No, not that spare tire. The one around your waist. This new study suggests that Americans are burning nearly 1 billion more gallons of gasoline every year because of the extra weight we're are toting around. At $2.20 a gallon, that amounts to $2.2 billion wasted on gas each year. "If a person reduces the weight in their car, either by removing excess baggage, carrying around less weight in their trunk, or yes, even losing weight, they will indeed see a drop in their fuel consumption." This from study co-author and University of Illinois researcher Sheldon Jacobson.

Jacobson points out that the lost mileage for any single driver is pretty small. Even by losing 100 pounds, the average driver would only save about $40 a year over a typical 12,000 miles. But it adds up when you consider how many motorists are on the road. Other research, including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies support these findings. In a related study, the CDC found that heavy fliers have contributed to higher fuel costs for airlines.

The study will appear in the October-December issue of The Engineering Economist, one of those academic/industry journals published by the American Society of Engineering Education and the Institute of Industrial Engineers. Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, former CDC director points out that although valid, the study conclusion is only partially helpful: "The wrong fuel is being focused on. If you're heavier, the most important fuel you use more of is food.
 

snoozan

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yet another reason why being fat makes you a bad person-- environmental and social irresponsibility.
 

vince

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Considering that U.S. consumers use 142 trillion gallons per year, 1 billion is not much of a savings is it? I'd bet that the energy cost to produce the extra food fat people consume is higher.
I wonder how much additional greenhouse gases are produced as a result of all so many people in the world being overweight?
 

transformer_99

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No, it's true, fatties need more vehicle to move them around. Then there's the late night run to the fast food restaurant, if it's not the load of food they get at the grocery store (perhaps even more often/multiple trips than others make in the same time frame reference). And naturally their fat asses wouldn't get out of a car to go inside and order from the counter, they have to sit in their V8 powered vehicles for their order. Yeah, some drive 4 cylinder cars, but to move that extra weight in traffic, the engine has to rev higher and work harder which requires even more gasoline in a fuel efficient vehicle. Then there's driving up to the front of the store and blocking that while some obese f*cker climbs out of the vehicle, they hold up others. These are driving habits a lot of people have, the elderly too. Wasted time and fuel in terms of everyone as a collective whole. I stop everyday on a highway that is posted 55 mph/40 minimum everyday, and it's not just once that it happens, but a 3-5 mile stretch that is a miserable experience everyday. And then there are times within that same section 30-50 mph happens, before inevitably having to stop again for no "real" reason. :biggrin1:

School is on spring break this week, then there's Good Friday, I can only conclude that when traffic moves relatively freely during these times, it's all those people that have children or are religious that are causing the delays ? :biggrin1:

Theories on that ? Those with children have to drop those little brats off obviously and they find a way to piddle around with that effort. And the religious folk, they are relying on faith to get them safely from point a to point b, rather than just going to their destinations and actually knowing where they are and the relationship of where it is ? :biggrin1:
 

ZOS23xy

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If food and gas prices go up and people can't afford to eat what they normally eat, maybe Americans (as a whole) will loose weight.

Some friends of mine caught up in the quandary of having the six pack costing the same as a gallon of gas...what to do...?

Anyway, when I travel these days, I do more than one thing on a trip.
 

Northland

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Ah, but it all balances out in the bigger picture. Whereas it may be true that heavyset persons end up needing more fuel to keep their vehicle moving, it has also been shown in numerous case studies, that, heavyset persons use less in the way of heating fuel because they have natural body warmth in the form of fat cells. Have you never noticed how skinny persons are usually the first to cry and moan that it's fer-eezing, while everybody else is still sweating profusely?

So, what have we? Heavier persons use more auto fuel, thinner people use more heating fuel (or fuels needed to keep the electric running if they have electric heat). All balances out in the end.

An added point of observation is that skinny persons are also more likely to be grandstanders. They zip around town in gas guzzler SUVs, often with nobody other than the driver. Heavyset persons, have more conservative cars which have better gas mileage.
 

SyddyKitty

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Wow, with all of the overweight people on this site, nobody has lashed out. Yet, when I talk about my views on bisexuality, promiscuity, and other stuff I don't look highly upon, people freak. People are usually most sensitive about their weight and less about their sexuality... but here, that's pretty questionable.

Granted, this post is a bit comedic in tone.
 

DC_DEEP

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Interesting thought, but has it occurred to anyone that, since muscle weighs more than fat, bodybuilders are much worse energy wasters than fat people? I'm guessing that a muscle-bound man with a 60-inch chest weighs a lot more than an obese man with a 60-inch chest.

Just sayin'.
 

Principessa

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I understand the point of the article, however I hate to see gasoline consumption used as yet another excuse to vilify fat people. Actually all the overweight people I know drive compact or economy cars. One even drives a Prius. :smile: It's the skinny, fit people driving around in Cadillac Escalades and Hummers that are truly using more gas. :cool:
 

B_becominghorse

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There was another strange article about the obese and cigarette smokers, lumping them together recently. While always talking about how 'wrong' it is to pay for smokers' 'self-inflicted' diseases, the article points out that both groups are cheaper medically speaking because they die younger! I couldn't believe I was reading it, but I suppose it's true. Not that any of that will have any effect on policy. Insurance is about making money for insurance companies.
 

B_Jennuine73

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Let's pick on fat people some more.

It's not ok to pick on people of different ethnic backgrounds, handicaps, height, facial features, disfigurements, different religions, different sexualities or alcoholics and drug addicts though.

So keep on talking bad about fat people, judging, insulting and laughing at them, cause everyone knows it's ok.