As if there was another reason you needed to lose weight other than improved health, a recent study showed how much damage obesity can do to your wallet. Researchers at the University of Illinois sought out to see how much health care cost differs between people that are obese and smokers compared to people that are not.

What they found is that smokers and obese patients pay as much as $1,300 more in annual healthcare expenses than their non-smoking and non-obese counterparts.

Where does the additional cost come from? “Out-of-pocket medical expenses, inpatient and outpatient care, emergency room visits and prescription drugs all contribute to the added health care expenditures, with inpatient prescriptions contributing the most,” says Ruopeng An, professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois, as well as the conductor of this study.

As we have mentioned before, obesity comes with other ailments. The unfortunate reality is when those ailments need to be treated, in ways such as doctor visits and prescribed medication; it cost money, not only in the short-term, but in the long term as well.

When you look at your $30 a month gym fee or how much you spend on produce, it pales in comparison to what the potential and realistic rising cost your healthcare may take continuing down a less healthy road. Maybe we should treat obesity as those expensive shoes or clothes we at times need to pry ourselves away from and just say “I can’t afford it.”