One factor is that some employers do not want to be burdened with higher health insurance costs. Other times it is a matter of appearances or a belief that "people of size," as Mr. Roehling terms the obese, are lazy, weak-willed or considered too unattractive to interact with customers.
"That heavier people have a harder time getting married is pretty well supported," said Jeffery Sobal, a professor at Cornell University who has studied obesity.
The obese accumulate only about half the assets of the normal-size American, said Mr. Zagorsky, the Ohio State University research scientist.
