by Tricia
I caught an article on Bankrate.com that suggests that credit cards can make you fat.
I’m fat (although working to change that! 😉 ). I have credit card debt. Is there really a connection?
The article claims that the convenience of credit cards make one spend more money than they would with cash or checks. Now that you can use credit cards in most fast-food restaurants, there’s nothing stopping you from quickly grabbing that burger when hunger strikes.
“In 2002 Visa USA conducted a poll and found that 32 percent of customers admitted that they had limited their drive-through orders because they did not have enough cash to pay for what they wanted. The ability to use credit cards eliminates that obstacle.”
[Via Bankrate.com]
I have mixed feelings about this. I do believe that the convenience factor of credit cards and the available credit make it easy to spend money you don’t have. We are a prime example of that. But I’m not so sure that they make you fat.
It also doesn’t sit well with me that the article is highly based on credit card spending studies per the assumptions below.
- You use a credit card at fast food restaurants
- You spend more with credit cards
- Therefore, you spend more at the fast food restaurants and buy more food
- Therefore, you get fat from eating more food
- Therefore, your credit cards make you fat
Only one study discussed is related to weight, and that study only showed that supersizing a meal resulted in a weight gain of 0.07 pounds (comes out to roughly 1 pound gained for every 14 supersized meals). Again, another assumption is made in the article by suggesting that spending more with credit cards results in a supersized meal. When we occasionally have the fast food meal, we actually spend more now because I buy the more expensive (and healthier) salad!
All in all, this article needs more solid facts and less assumptions before I believe it. But then again, they wrote that credit cards can make you fat. There’s a bit of leeway there.
I was overweight long before fast food restaurants started accepting credit cards. I’m fat because I didn’t exercise enough and I ate too much. As much as I’d like to blame my credit cards, I can’t. It was all me.
Your thoughts?
Hmmm… rather than thinking of credit cards as a *cause* of weight gain, I’d think of them more as an enabler. Like fast food. You can choose not to eat fast food, or to eat healthy choices, but the convenience, speed, cost, and tastiness of McDonald’s and other fast food have made a lot more people overweight. It’s not because of Mickey D’s that people are fat – but having quick cheap food makes it easier to gain weight quickly.
I’d say the same about credit cards. They don’t make you fat, but if you are in the mindset to eat too much and exercise too little, credit cards can make that even easier.
If they’re going to put buying fast food with CCs on that list, they might as well put shopping from home without having to move, too!
Have you seen the Visa commercial where the the people are standing in line ,at a doughnut shop,waiting to pay- with their credit cards. The line is moving fast until one guy tries to pay with CASH and the line stops and everyone looks at the guy like he’s an idiot.
Now I guess they’re going to say “if you don’t pay with your credit card, you are an idiot”.
Ok, my new rule is “never trust an article published by a bank” unless it contains interest rates.
Tricia, you keep doin what ya doin. Sounds like you are right on track. By the way, try daveramsey.com for ideas on debt reduction.
Hmmm…I don’t eat fast food (hate it) and yet I am chubby. Who’s fault is that? I’d love to find someone else to blame!!
Unfortunately, I’ll have to agree with you that it’s the calories in/calories out equation that actually controls weight. Bummer.
One question…
If credit cards are making us fat and most of us have either been maxed out or are maxed out or are in financial mess….how come when that happened we didn’t watch the pounds melt off. After all, it was the credit cards enabling us to be fat. Once they were not “able” to help us how come we didn’t become beautiful models?? How about slip down a size?
I’m fat because I eat too much. 🙂
I have debt, and I am not fat, nor do I eat fast food. I do not think they are related at all other than using credit cards for anything other than an emergency is a bad choice, and chooing to eat fast food is an unhealthy choice. So, they are both bad choices.
I hate to say that I’m fat….I suppose I’m in denial. I weight more than I should by about 45 pounds. I can’t blame my battle of the bulge on credit cards. I think that perhaps learning moderation can be a them between eating and spending too much. But I don’t think one can say that credit cards make a person fat. That’s faulty logic!
Thanks!
I think it would be truer to say that accumulating debt / weight is a symptom of issues such as lack of awareness, lack of discipline and a desire for instant gratification. I am overweight and have debt and I think it’s changes in thinking that are affecting how I manage my money / health.
I think by having credit, I was able to eat out more often instead of cooking more healthy meals at home. However, I would not say that my debt is the cause of my weight gain! I think they are rather indicative of a more root problem of being undisciplined, ignorant, and indulgent. These qualities in myself are what caused me to go into debt (no budget, no plan, too many purchases) and gain weight (no exercise, no plan, too much eating out). So while I think debt and weight have correlation, just like debt and owning Jimmy Choo boots have a correlation, they are both signs of a deeper personal problem rather than causal of one another.
My mother is borderline obese and while she is using credit cards she 1) has always paid her credit card balances in full 2) doesn’t have any debt at all 3) always eats at home. I have cousins in Russia and in Israel – neither has credit cards and both have no money for restaurants and always eat at home – and they are fat. Maybe not as fat as some Americans, but still in the obese category.
But…. This is all anekdotal and the plural of anekdot isn’t data. A study involving a poll of 32 people is hardly what you call rigorous or scientific – too few people and phone polls are unreliable. But I think Emma is right in that both getting fat and having debt indicate lack of personal responsibility. So there might be an overlap, but there are thin people who have debt and there are fat people who don’t.
I have no debt and I am slim. Yes I use credit cards but I don’t carry balances. I treat my credit card bill the same way I treat my electric bill or my phone bill – I have the full balance automatically deducted from my checking account every month. But while I was never terribly fat, I was slightly overweight a few years back and gaining weight. At some point I looked in the mirror and hated what I saw. So I went on a diet and started exercising, lost about 18 pounds over 6 month and so far managed to keep them off. But… I spend a lot more on clothes now than when I did when I was mildly overweight. I can easily afford what I buy, but I do buy more clothes than I need. I wonder if thin people spend more on clothes: when nothing you like fits and the styles you like don’t look good on you, you spend a lot less on clothes than when everything looks great, IMHO.
You can easily gain weight without ever eating out. You can get fat on “free” stuff – samples in the supermarket, pastries your co-workers bring, “events” at work. So before I believe that credit cards make you fat, I need to see some real studies.
i read that article too.
It gets my stupid article of the week award!
Tricia,
Interesting read but bad science:-) It makes the incorrect conclusion that if A causes B, and B causes C, then A causes C. You got it right. It’s not that simple.
My crackpot opinion is that it’s a corollary, rather than a causative relationship.
People who overspend tend to overeat, and vice versa. Because if you’ve passed your personal threshold for difficulty and you need to check out for a while, you’ll find a way to do it, and food & shoes are two of the easiest ways I know how 😉