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That fat can cost you fuel

By Times Wires
Published October 26, 2006

A new study in the latest issue of Engineering Economist suggests that your weight could be bringing down your gas mileage. Researchers figured that every additional pound the average driver has in a car results in a total of nearly 39-million extra gallons of gas used. And since the average weight of Americans has gone up 25 pounds since 1960, and since gas was averaging about $2.20 per gallon when they did the study ... well, there was a lot of ugly math to do. And, incidentally, airlines figured this out a long time ago.

What the numbers say

191 pounds The average weight of an American man.

164 pounds The average weight of an American woman.

25 The number of pounds those averages have increased since 1960.

938-million Extra gallons of gasoline used due to the extra weight being transported.

0.7 The percentage of fuel consumed by U.S. passenger vehicles that that represents.

$40 The amount that the researchers estimate a person could save on gasoline in a year if they lost 100 pounds.

What the experts say

Sheldon Jacobson, co-author of the study: "The bottom line is that our hunger for food and our hunger for oil are not independent. There is a relationship between the two."

Kenneth Thorpe, Emory University health care analyst: "If you put more weight into your car, you're going to get fewer miles per gallon."

Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, chairman of an Institute of Medicine report on obesity: "The wrong fuel is being focused on. If you're heavier, the most important fuel you use more of is food."

John Felmy, chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute: "It's an interesting calculation. But we use about 140-billion gallons a year. The savings would be less than 1 percent."

Steve Mazor of the Southern California Automobile Club: "The difference between someone who diets and someone who doesn't is not much compared to the golf clubs you put in the trunk."

[Last modified October 26, 2006, 02:27:48]