As I’ve posted before, 58 is a bit of a fitness reboot for me. Working with clients and even with my own staff of over 500, we need a new way in order to help our staff and colleagues before they are broken.

The number of people who said they were active daily in 2019; 50%.

The number of people who were active daily in 2023 per Gallup; 24%

The percentage of people in the U.S. that were obese in 2019; 32%- already bad

The percentage of people in the U.S. that are obese in 2024; 40% according to Gallup.

The highest percentage I could ever get my staff to not just belong but attend the gym regularly if we paid- 15%

And yet, almost half of employers will offer weight loss drugs-GLP1’s as part of their insurance coverage in 2024. Up from 20% in 2023 per SHRM. This will just add more to already high insurance costs.

Physicians are increasingly disturbed at the overmedicalization of obesity as a disease. It is a serious condition but it cannot be dealt with using a $1,000 a month pill.

As my daughter just wrote in her university senior thesis, obesity and poor nutrition is a structural problem and needs to be dealt with in that way or we are on the way where only the wealthy can be healthy. Obesity drugs will be a $100 billion industry before 2030. Obesity rates, especially in underserved communities and our line employees will continue to rise unless we do something upstream to fix it.