higher weight people live longest! *New study*

hmm... i dont really know where this would go into, but since ppl around here seem to have troubles with gaining weight and this was the 1st place i posted so.........or w/e...... i'd just like to motivate ppl and all :)

just google up "longest lives bmi" or something similar and apparently, some japan research group found that highber bmi's live longer....

soooooo.... yeah :) lucky meeeee!

anyone have a say on this?

(if theres a better form for this topic, please move?)

edited overweight to higher weight :/

Makes a lot of sense when you think about it.   There's a grey area between a 'healthy weight' and 'clinically obese' ... and I think people in that zone, especially if they're active people that don't smoke or harm their health in other ways, aren't in too bad shape.  And if they live longer I'd be willing to bet that it's because the few extra pounds 'insurance' means they're better placed to fight off diseases, something like that. 

My mother who has always been very small and slim is a case in point. Any viruses doing the rounds and which affect other people for a few days have her knocked sideways for a week at least.  She loses 8lbs and she looks like the walking dead.... if I lost 8lbs you'd probably not notice!

It's not to say anyone should be deliberately overweight but if you find your BMI is 26 or 27 rather than the strictly healthy 25, it's probably not the end of the world.

Having worked at a nursing home for years, I can report that those who were normal to overweight seemed to bounce back from the type of crap that runs through all such facilities (pneumonia, flu) Those who were underweight didn't seem to have the reserves to pull them through a short (10-14 day) illness and emerge at full capacity.  Some of the underwieght people would survive the initial illness only to function at much lower levels, and die in the year (or less) following infection.  Just what I have observed.  Fat in this case was doing exactly what it is supposed to do, protecting the body during times when food intake is not adequate.

Heather

On the other hand, there is also supposedly evidence in mice that long-term caloric restriction can increase your life span. This has led to a group of people (And ED tag-alongs) who promote very restricted diets in order to live, as they claim, up to 125 years. Why you would even want to live that long without many of the pleasures of life that food can bring I don't know; nor do I know why people are basing their lives around evidence of longevity in mice, not humans.

But it just goes to show that there is 'evidence' that swings both ways (or more likely, there are a lot of nutcases out there on the internet).

http://www.optimal.org/peter/cron.htm

http://www.longevitymeme.org/topics/calorie_r estriction.cfm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRON-diet

Personally, if I can never eat chocolate or drink wine again, you can count me out.

Makes me very happy to read this! With a BMI of 25.1 I am fairly pleased... though I don't like being classed in the 'slightly overweight' group - such negative connotations!

And just like meryl i will continue to have my chocolate and wine... possibly both tonight!

Original Post by merylwhite1:

Personally, if I can never eat chocolate or drink wine vodka again, you can count me out.

Yep.

perhaps it also has to do with the large numbers of people from 3rd world countries that die at relatively young ages from starvation than people from countries with good health care systems and enough wealth to allow large numbers of people to have higher BMI's.  That could sway the numbers quite a bit.  Without seeing the study, it is hard to say how they conducted the studies, which groups of people they included in the study, and which BMI ranges they claim live longest.  Would like to see a link.

I definately believe this. When I lost a ton of weight my doctor warned me that not having a "few extra pounds" could mean that an illness could knock me on my feet....he was so right....when I was overweight (not that I am saying that that was healthy either in itself) I NEVER got sick....115 lbs later, if the smallest bug is going around I am sure to get it and lose weight (and look it)....so I could see how having a slightly higher bmi could be beneficial....plus I think mental health wise I was a little more sound when I weighed more, but that's an entirely different issue