A comprehensive study of 20 companies’ employer-sponsored wellness strategies, based on peer-reviewed articles published between 2005 and 2011, found that most companies reported between $1.60 and $3.90 saved versus spent on wellness programming.

A 2010 Harvard study published in Health Affairs stated that wellness programs cut absenteeism costs by $2.73 per dollar spent. Con-way Freight reported 75% fewer lost work days by one year following the initiation of its wellness program.

A study of BJC Healthcare, published in the March 2013 journal Health Affairs, found a 41% decrease in hospitalization for conditions targeted by its wellness program. The Harvard Nurses’ Health Study unveiled that as many as 9 out of 10 cases of Type 2 diabetes can be prevented with a healthier lifestyle, including exercise, proper nutrition and healthy body weight.

Results of the 2013 Workplace Wellness Programs Study sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services showed that participants of wellness programs that include weight management saw an average reduction of BMI of about .15 in the first year, with persistent effects for two following years. According to a 2010 editorial published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, as little as four hours of sitting can send the body into a harmful sedentary state, shutting down genes that regulate glucose and fat. The more excuses people have to be active throughout the day, the better.

“Exercise is the single best thing you can do for your brain in terms of mood, memory, and learning,” says Harvard Medical School psychiatrist John Ratey, author of the book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. “Even 10 minutes of activity changes your brain.”