As per a New Zealand study released Monday, a person’s size may have influence on how much he makes money. In the case of Kiwi men, they make more money if they weight more. But opposite is true in the case of women.

The study by the University of Otago has tracked the health and psychosocial development of over 1,000 children born in Christchurch in 1977. They have found that men who were classified as obese as per the body mass index (BMI) were making more money per week than the ones having normal BMIs.

Associate Professor John Horwood said that they have studied the participants at age 30 and 35. The researchers have assessed the relationship between a person’s size and his net weekly income, savings, household income and depression and life satisfaction.

After assessing all the factors, the researchers came to know being overweight or obese was linked with poorer outcomes only in the case of women. In the case of men, there was a clear relationship between larger men and larger weekly pay packets.

“There was a small but pervasive relationship between increasing body size in women and lower income, depression, low self-esteem and dissatisfaction with life”, said Horwood. The researchers said that being classified as overweight or obese did not impact negatively like self-esteem or mental health.

It is considered that there could be many reasons behind why obese and overweight women earn less and have poor mental health.

"The aim of the current study was to examine the longitudinal relationship between bedtimes and body mass index from adolescence to adulthood in a nationally representative sample," study authors wrote. "The results highlight bedtimes as a potential target for weight management during adolescence and during the transition to adulthood."

"The results are important because they highlight adolescent bedtimes, not just total sleep time, as a potential target for weight management concurrently and in the transition to adulthood," Lauren Asarnow, first author of the study and a doctoral candidate, said in a statement.