When Polish researchers examined acupuncture as a diet aid, they found that people who got needled lost 10 more pounds and ticked 2 additional points off their BMIs compared with those who merely cut calories.

Marie Cargill, a licensed acupuncturist in the Boston area, explains that pressure points on the body—mostly on the ear—work as a switchboard to the brain, triggering electrical pulses that suppress appetite. “The ear system is very effective for addiction treatment,” she says.

From Men’s Health:

Your being in shape could be worth a cool $60,000. According to an Ohio State University analysis, obese people have a lower net worth than slimmer counterparts. OSU researcher Jay L. Zagorsky found that for whites at least, there was a very strong correlation between total net worth and body mass index, or BMI.

In one 2000 sampling, whites with a BMI of 24 – within “normal” range – were worth $100,000, while those with a BMI of 42 – obese – were worth only $40,000. (For unknown reasons, the health and net wealth link did not seem to apply to African-Americans). And these figures don’t take into account the whopping cost of assorted medical events associated with being sedentary: $50,000 and up for heart bypass surgery; an annual, average, per patient cost of $10,000 associated with Type 2 diabetes (as a result of heart disease, eye damage, stroke, kidney disease, and amputation).