[QuilterInVA]

I have had 3 overweight friends die in the last year, all before they were 60 and due to complications from their weight. I don't really think overweight people live longer, they certainly consume their share of health care.

[sunflowergirl68]

Just because one study draws that conclusion, doesn't mean it's true.

[sunflowergirl68]

Originally Posted by caryesings

Interesting. I have personally wondered about the "healthy" arguments about normal vs. overweight. I sing with a group of women. In the 45-75 age group the last few years we've had 3 with breast cancer (all normal weight), 1 heart attack (normal wt), 1 stroke (overweight). We have an number of women with joint issues including knee replacements and shoulder surgeries, all of those women have been overweight/obese. Only 1 person has developed adult-onset diabetes, she's probably the high side of normal weight.

So in my personal observation except for the joint issues, haven't really seen a correlation. On the other hand I had observed there were almost no obese folks in the nursing home where my mother lived, so appears the obese do die at earlier age?

I'm overweight and I had cancer.

Cancer happens to everyone, regardless of their weight. Some people are genetically disposed to it, others have a genetic abnomality (like me) and just get it. A gene mutates in utero and then it turns into cancer. My weight was most likely due to my cancer, not the other way around (since it was thyroid cancer).

Also, heart disease is also genetic. Sometimes it has nothing to do with weight. Sometimes these things just happen, and sometimes it has nothing to do with weight.

but the general rule is, being overweight can contribute to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc. It just means that you're more likely to get it, not that you WILL get it. It's like if you're a smoker vs being a nonsmoker: Smokers are more likely to get lung cancer, but nonsmokers can get it too.

[Naama]

I wanted to point out something here. The article says:
"The study, led by Statistics Canada's Heather Orpana, was devised to estimate the relationship between body mass index and mortality in Canadian adults."

So the indicator to the different weight categories (obese/overweight/normal...) is BMI. But when I started my "journey" two months ago, my BMI was 23.4 - which would have put me sqaurely in the normal weight. HOWEVER, my fat percentage was %36.8 - putting me squarely and much more accurately in the obese category! I was not exercising at all and eating like there's no tomorrow.

While my story is merely anecdotal evidence, it has made me extremely skeptical of the value of BMI as indicator of.... well, anything really.

I do wonder, though, are there any similar studies where the indicator is fat percentage?

[sunflowergirl68]

@Naama: Muscle isn't taken into account with BMI either. arnold Schwarzenegger and Russel Crowe, for example, are two very large men with a lot of muscle (so is Gerard Butler). And I bet you anything their BMI says that they are obese, but they don't have a lot of fat on them, it's that they're very muscular.

Shawne Merriman, a linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, is 6'4, and weighs 272 lbs and has a BMI of about 33. He's certainly not fat, and it's ALL muscle. The downfall of the BMI is that it doesn't account for muscle AT ALL. So that's why a study like this is flawed. For all we know, it could have profiled people who had a lot of muscle mass, but were healthy and who have high BMIs. They should have measured it in regards to body fat percentage. I bet you anything Shawne Merriman has a very low body fat percentage.