Being overweight makes a person earn less money than his peers, said researchers from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health in Maryland,

The institute said health risks stemming from obesity range from coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, cancer, osteoarthritis, gallstones and even reproductive problems.

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A new study reveals obesity also has the capacity to affect other factors in a person's life, including money a person can make.

Researchers studied 150,000 Swedish men who were obese at age 18. They found these men earned 16 percent less over their lifetimes than their peers with normal weights.

They found 18 year-olds with a body-mass index from 25 to 30 suffered these lower incomes.

The study published in the research journal Demography said this loss of 16 percent is equivalent to missing three years of college education.

The empirical analysis researchers carried out proved four points, with the first providing evidence for the loss of income.

The second point is they've replicated the results using data from the United States and United Kingdom.

The third is they've discovered a connection within the family between body size and cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

The fourth and final point is the more a teenager is overweight, it results in a much bigger penalty on acquiring new skills.

"Taken together, these results reinforce the importance of policy combating early-life obesity in order to reduce healthcare expenditures as well as poverty and inequalities later in life," researchers said.

The study calls on governments to address the obesity problem in children by introducing programs and policies.

Tagsobesity, Income, Demography, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute