"Overweight" people live the longest!

mickrock

Overweight is defined as having a BMI between 25 and 30.

Many studies have shown that people in this range live longer than those in the normal or underweight range:

"Perhaps you think I am being selective and only choosing one misleading paper. Well, here are the conclusions of another study done in Canada in 2010: "Our results are similar to those from other recent studies, confirming that underweight and obesity class II+ (BMI > 35) are clear risk factors for mortality, and showing that when compared to the acceptable BMI category, overweight appears to be protective against mortality." I love the way they couldn't bring themselves to say "normal" BMI. They had to call it "the acceptable BMI category". This, I suppose, helps to fend off the inevitable question. If people of normal weight have shorter lifespans than those who are overweight, why do we call them normal? Surely we should call them "mildly underweight", at which point we would have to call people who are now considered overweight "normal"."

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/why-being-overweight-means-you-live-longer-the-way-scientists-twist-the-facts-10158229.html


Do you find this surprising? I did when I first heard about it and I know that many will refuse to believe it but facts is facts.

frag420

Live longer...eat cake!

Cutie 3.14

Anyone else getting ads on their page advertising chippers and takeaway ordering apps after opening this thread?

Sam Kade

BMI is based on China men so 25-30 really isn't overweight.

allthedoyles

This has to be fake news

MonkieSocks

Inside every Fat person there is a thin person struggling to get out!

Ipso

To the kebab truck!

AllForIt

Don't think I've ever ever seen a report of an obese person reaching the age of 100. Just picture it, a fat 100 year old? Never seen it myself. Ppl who reach 100 are always lean in my experience.

suicide_circus

Beyondgone

Most skeletons are skinny. They also said butter was bad for you, and don't drink or smoke kids - drinking and smoking kill you. Here's the news, you're dying regardless. No one gets out of here alive. Eat, drink and smoke. You're fcuked anyways. You ain't living forever, no matter how choirboy you go on it. Some seriously fit people karked it before 40. I know one woman who is 80 and still breaks all the rules. She's helped bury all her goody goody mates. If you're going to die in a fire, you can go to sea in a basket.

mickrock

AllForIt wrote: »

Don't think I've ever ever seen a report of an obese person reaching the age of 100. Just picture it, a fat 100 year old? Never seen it myself. Ppl who reach 100 are always lean in my experience.

That may be true about extreme old age but studies do show that being overweight (as defined by BMI) does not reduce life expectancy compared to those of normal weight and may actually increase it.

Will I Am Not

It's because they bounce when they fall from a height and their bones and organs are protected in car crashes.
Simple science.

Shenshen

AllForIt wrote: »

Don't think I've ever ever seen a report of an obese person reaching the age of 100. Just picture it, a fat 100 year old? Never seen it myself. Ppl who reach 100 are always lean in my experience.

I can't say I ever met a 100 year old - the closest would have been my great-grandfather who died aged 98. He was quite solid-built.
Also, this isn't about obese people, but overweight people.

Burial.

Wouldn't view it as a good thing. Living a super long life in an obese body would be worse than hell.

wakka12

BMI is a ridiculous way of measuring health. Lots of people in that category could be muscular, and weigh the same as a fat person of same weight and height

wakka12

Beyondgone wrote: »

Most skeletons are skinny. They also said butter was bad for you, and don't drink or smoke kids - drinking and smoking kill you. Here's the news, you're dying regardless. No one gets out of here alive. Eat, drink and smoke. You're fcuked anyways. You ain't living forever, no matter how choirboy you go on it. Some seriously fit people karked it before 40. I know one woman who is 80 and still breaks all the rules. She's helped bury all her goody goody mates. If you're going to die in a fire, you can go to sea in a basket.

If you're healthy youll generally live considerably longer than somebody who lived an unhealthy life, thats the reality

Outlaw Pete

Dot Cotton, Kirk Douglas etc (and almost anyone over 90 really) always tended to seem quite trim to me.

jester77

They do have less chance of getting killed cycling to work

uch

frag420 wrote: »

Live longer...eat cake!

I'm In

megaten

Isn't this because they have to go to the doctor more often.

_Brian

Look round at men over 70 or even 80.
Essentially none of them are overweight. Even for women, the older people I can think of are thinner rather than overweight.

If you hope to make it onto your 80's being overweight seriously reduces your chances and the more overweight you are the less chance you have of living into old age.

Teyla Emmagan

mickrock wrote: »

This, I suppose, helps to fend off the inevitable question. If people of normal weight have shorter lifespans than those who are overweight, why do we call them normal? Surely we should call them "mildly underweight", at which point we would have to call people who are now considered overweight "normal"."

I'd be all for this. "If at first you don't succeed then move the goalposts" is my motto.

My grandmother is almost 94 and is fairly overweight. Doctors often can't believe how old she is as she's in good health for her age and her mind is sharper than most people I know in their 20's.

She was driving up until last September but stopped due to her eyesight. I put it all down to how laid back she is about everything. But that includes being laid back about what she eats, hence the weight She has never smoked though. Her husband (my granddad) died in his late 50's from a heart attack and also had a stroke before that. My granny reckons he died young because he smoked 30 a day and was "highly strung".

_Brian

Lia_lia wrote: »

My grandmother is almost 94 and is fairly overweight. Doctors often can't believe how old she is as she's in good health for her age and her mind is sharper than most people I know in their 20's.

She was driving up until last September but stopped due to her eyesight. I put it all down to how laid back she is about everything. But that includes being laid back about what she eats, hence the weight She has never smoked though. Her husband (my granddad) died in his late 50's from a heart attack and also had a stroke before that. My granny reckons he died young because he smoked 30 a day and was "highly strung".

You donsee cases of some overweight women living on to older ages, but in particular for us men if we'd like to live on a bit longer then being overweight seriously reduces our chances.

Murrisk

Burial. wrote: »

Wouldn't view it as a good thing. Living a super long life in an obese body would be worse than hell.

Overweight, not obese.

ScumLord

Damnit, I didn't get a pension because they told me I'd be dead by then. I'll have to get back on the crack.

mickrock

_Brian wrote: »

You donsee cases of some overweight women living on to older ages, but in particular for us men if we'd like to live on a bit longer then being overweight seriously reduces our chances.

Yes, that's what we're told and it seems intuitively to be correct, but studies don't back it up.

They show that being "overweight" (BMI of 25 to 30) doesn't hamper life expectancy and may even extend it.

Chiparus

This is well know for years but the media are on a fattist bullying agenda,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_paradox

DEFTLEFTHAND

Humans are so complex.

Think of somebody like Keith Richards, chain smoker, recreational drug user, heavy drinker and still ticking along nicely at 73.

I truly believe that a lot comes to down to our individual genetics. Some of us are just predisposed to certain ailments and conditions from the day we're born.

Burial.

Murrisk wrote: »

Overweight, not obese.

Meh same principle. It's not healthy, it's not functional, it's not attractive, and one cannot have a good sense of self worth if they allow themselves to overeat and dwindle into that state.

Wesser

AllForIt wrote: »

Don't think I've ever ever seen a report of an obese person reaching the age of 100. Just picture it, a fat 100 year old? Never seen it myself. Ppl who reach 100 are always lean in my experience.

But that doesn't mean that ....on average...... overweight people don't outlive ' acceptable bmi people. The average life span of an Irish woman is 82. Anyone living to 100 is an outlier. Your deductions from the statistics given are incorrect.

Beyondgone

wakka12 wrote: »

If you're healthy youll generally live considerably longer than somebody who lived an unhealthy life, thats the reality

Never seen that as reflected in reality. I know some people who have been sickly all their lives and live to 90, people (the neighbour) who smoked 40 woodbines every day and finally keeled over just shy of 85, the massive chubby lad who defies all normal mortality rules and soldiers on, on a diet of fries and pints, well into their 70's, and the fitness fanatic who carks it at 40 while out jogging.

I've an older mate who, for as long as I have known him, has been a raging alcoholic while smoking about 60 Marlboro a day. He downs a bottle of jack and a bottle of wine for the evenings, every day. The fecker refuses to die. In fact, he appears hugely hale and hearty. My own Da was the same age as him, never smoked, never drank and keeled over 10 years ago. "He who refuses to die" is still going strong today. That one amazes me tbh.. The chap who comes in to cut our hedges had a stroke last year, at the grand old age of 76. So far so ordinary, but the fcuker puts away c.a 20, yes 20 pints of beer most weekend nights. "Oh he does yeah!" I hear the cries. He does tho. I dread meeting him if I'm out because he'd have me paralytic after 5 and he'd only be getting started. 5 or 6 to him is "popping in for a beer on the way home". And he's far from alone.

My best mates Mum just got out of Hospital having been brought in as "at the end.." -she's over 90, I'm not sure exactly. The woman lives on cigarettes and gin. I've never seen her without a cigarette in her hand... and she's back home, moaning about how she couldn't smoke in the Hospital..

_Brian

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Humans are so complex.

Think of somebody like Keith Richards, chain smoker, recreational drug user, heavy drinker and still ticking along nicely at 73.

I truly believe that a lot comes to down to our individual genetics. Some of us are just predisposed to certain ailments and conditions from the day we're born.

Yea.
Genetics account for the outliers like the guy smoking 60 a day and lives to 90.

However most of us will fall within the norm expected experience regarding health. I go back to what o said earlier. You don't see overweight men in their 70's walking about other than the odd outlier through genetics.

People cling to the outliers data as it justifies their less than perfect lifestyles and somehow justifies not following general health advice, but in the end they are only lying to themselves.

Beyondgone

The kicker is this - My Mams a life-long chubber. She was never what you'd call "swelft". Always a "sturdy burd" weight wise. She's 81 this year. Since about 75, the weight has been falling off her. She is now officially "skinny". She's still going like a train. Maybe all them "skinny" oldies weren't always that way? Maybe when you hit 75, you start burning fat reserves to make it into your eighties. Blubber up, suckers. If you didn't stockpile it, you're not gonna get to burn it.

mickrock

Beyondgone wrote: »

Maybe all them "skinny" oldies weren't always that way?

That's true. Many elderly people tend to be skinny due to hormonal changes that reduce their appetites.

Many of these skinny oldies were probably normal weight or overweight in their younger days.