Posted on 11/28/2025 6:07:53 AM PST by daniel1212
Excess weight or obesity boosts risk of death by anywhere from 22% to 91%—significantly more than previously believed—while the mortality risk of being slightly underweight has likely been overestimated, according to new CU Boulder research.
The findings, published Feb. 9 in the journal Population Studies, counter prevailing wisdom that excess weight boosts mortality risk only in extreme cases.
The statistical analysis of nearly 18,000 people also shines a light on the pitfalls of using body mass index (BMI) to study health outcomes, providing evidence that the go-to metric can potentially bias findings. After accounting for those biases, it estimates that about 1 in 6 U.S. deaths are related to excess weight or obesity.
“Existing studies have likely underestimated the mortality consequences of living in a country where cheap, unhealthy food has grown increasingly accessible, and sedentary lifestyles have become the norm,” said author Ryan Masters, associate professor of sociology at CU Boulder....
He noted that BMI, which doctors and scientists often use as a health measure, is based on weight and height only and doesn’t account for differences in body composition or how long a person has been overweight.
noting that Tom Cruise (at 5 feet 7 inches and an extremely muscular 201 pounds at one point), had a BMI of 31.5, famously putting him in the category of “obese.” “It isn’t fully capturing all of the nuances and different sizes and shapes the body comes in.”
To see what happened when those nuances were considered, Masters ... discovered that a full 20% of the sample characterized as “healthy” weight had been in the overweight or obese category in the decade prior. When set apart, this group had a substantially worse health profile than those in the category whose weight had been stable...
“The health and mortality consequences of high BMI are not like a light switch,” said Masters. “There’s an expanding body of work suggesting that the consequences are duration-dependent...
Contrary to previous research, the study found no significant mortality risk increases for the “underweight” category. While previous research estimated 2 to 3% of U.S. adult deaths were due to high BMI, his study pegs the toll at eight times that.
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Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness [from shathah; intoxicaion]! (Ecclesiastes 10:17)
A day late I suppose
Risk of death reaches 100% eventually even among the not so obese. That said being obese puts a lot of things in life in the difficult category.
Amazing changes since 02/23/2023 with GLP-1.
ping
Hurry and buy more Ozempic or you will die!
Why this morning with this post of an old article, d?
Mighta posted it a couple of days ago, but now....
So if you’re fat (pardon me), if you have ‘excessive weight’... Then your risk of dying is greater. Hmm...
Well... Doh!!! on that.
Restating the obvious over and over again, doesn’t make it new. Fat people live shorter lives... One thing that you rarely see is overweight people in their 80s and 90s.
Yet there are headlines such as The Healthiest Weight Could Actually Be 'Overweight. A study spanning almost four decades and involving more than 100,000 adults in Denmark found that those with an 'overweight' body mass index (or BMI) were more likely to live longer than those in the 'healthy', 'underweight', and 'obese' - https://www.sciencealert.com/the-healthiest-weight-could-actually-be-overweight-huge-study-finds
Which is what the article here attacks.
True, but I just saw it.
My attitude is you either pay now that small annoyance "fee" for having to exercise and watch calories consistently ... or pay later in your declining years with obesity and all the obesity-related diseases, possible infirmity/immobility, pain, depression, feeling lousy from being unfit and fat, all of it ... and that bill will be substantially higher than the first one.
The risk of death for all people is 100%. Everything before that is a combination of personal choice and what food producers put in the food.
And if you are even thinking of fattening foods, take a little bit, too. We'll call it pre-obesity.
Side effets? Well, many a pharmaceutical treatments are soon to be at the ready!
It does go hand in hand with the promotion of Ozempic type drugs.
A big boost to Big Pharma too.
Although we all know obesity is unhealthy. But do we really know yet how safe the Big Pharma solution is?
From what I understand Izempic causes 20-30% muscle loss...that is very hard to regain. Muscle mass is key to longevity.
I have also heard that you have to stay on it or you can regain the weight back. That means taking the stuff forever?
I do not know how true that is though.
Fair enough.
Never too late to bring an end to the utter carb-a-palooza that is the typical American diet.
Sounds like something pharma would love.
Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed.
It still won’t phase out the stoners.
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