Here is another article indicating that employees who are overweight or obese tend to have more absenteeism from work than normal weight employees.

In the Netherlands, the study consisted of 1,742 employees aged 18-59 years who have been employed for at least 1 year and who worked 24 hours per week or more.  They were classified as normal weight BMI [body mass index, which is defined as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared] 18.5-24.9, overweight as BMI 25.0-29.9, or obese BMI equal to or greater than 30.  After excluding underweight employees, of the 1,284 remaining employees in the study, 32% where overweight and 7% obese.  In the overweight employees the frequency of medium long term absenteeism was significantly higher than in normal weight employees; and among the obese they had significantly more sick days and a higher frequency of absenteeism than did employees of a normal weight.  On the average, obese employees were absent 14 days per year more than normal weight employees. 

This study also showed that among employees who did not practice sports on a regular basis, obesity was related to a higher duration and a higher frequency of medium and long term absenteeism.

This study shows that excess body weight should be a concern to the business world, since absenteeism is associated with increasing cost of doing business.  JOEM, VOL 49, #9, September 2007, P 975-980.