Fat Fuel

Soo good:

For a time, Beverly Hills doctor Craig Alan Bittner turned the fat he removed from patients into biodiesel that fueled his Ford SUV and his girlfriend's Lincoln Navigator.

A gallon of grease will get you about a gallon of fuel...according to Jenna Higgins of the National Biodiesel Board.

Some back of envelope math*:

- 300 MM in the US, 25% children, leaves 225 MM people. link
- 1/3 of population (75 MM) has BMI between 25-30, which is overweight. link
- 1/3 of population (75 MM) has BMI over 30, which is obese. link
- Average US male height 5'9"; average US female height 5'4"; average height 5'6.5". link

Some BMI stuff based on the average 5'6.5" height:

- Average weight midpoint = BMI of 22.5 = 141 lbs
- Overweight min = BMI of 25 = 157 lbs
- Obese min = BMI of 30 = 188 lbs
- Arbitrary cap on max obesity = BMI of 35 = 220 lbs links

So:

- 75 MM overweight Americans carry an additional 1.2 - 3.5 BN pounds of fat
- A different 75 MM obese Americans carry between 3.5 - 5.9 BN pounds of fat

Then convert units:

- 1 L of fat weighs 0.92 kg link so 1 gallon of fat weighs 7.68 lbs

Solve for our energy needs:

- Overweight and obese Americans carry somewhere between 482 MM and 1.2 BN gallons of excess fat.
- Assuming the rough 1-to-1 conversion holds true, we are carrying 1.2-3.1% of the annual US diesel consumption (40 BN gallons) on our backsides. link
- Or to frame it another way, we carry one to three times the amount of 2007 annual US biodiesel consumption (450 MM gallons) on our rears, and sometimes ankles. link

* I excluded children from the calculations out of respect for parents. We don't want kids to feel entitled to liposuction, they should earn it through good behavior.