Overweight People Live Longer

[T-Bone]

6' 0" and 207 - my BMI is 28.1. The high end of the "normal" spectrum would have me weighing 183. I think I'll keep those 24 fork-lifted, hard-earned pounds.

[5kgLifter]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

I mentioned this study in the Shout Box and am posting it for reference.

Study: Overweight People Live Longer

Are they basing the study on people of "normal" and not athletic stats though, since a more muscular person can still be considered overweight but with essentially less bodyfat than those of the more non-muscular body compositions. Pretty sure they would be basing the study on the vast majority of the population which may mean that muscular people, even though they have a weight/BMI that will put them in the overweight category, may in fact not fit in with the study's principles at all...but would in fact need to have more bodyfat in order for it to apply. Just a thought.



I stand at 26.5 BMI according to that calculator, can't be bad

[BigTallOx]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Calculate your BMI:

Calculate Your BMI - Standard BMI Calculator

Of course, my BMI says I'm obese. It's 36.2, whatever I'm not obese. It's a useless index, IMHO, you get penalized for having muscle mass.

[Soldier]

It's completely useless. I'm about as lean as MC, but with less mass, and I'm at 28.6 (I'm a little leaner than my profile pic). Almost obese, yeah right. Guys work for years to try to get as "overweight" as I am.

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by 5kgLifter

Are they basing the study on people of "normal" and not athletic stats though, since a more muscular person can still be considered overweight but with essentially less bodyfat than those of the more non-muscular body compositions. Pretty sure they would be basing the study on the vast majority of the population which may mean that muscular people,

You're exactly right Babs. No lifter slant...

In the documentary Fat Head it talks about how the obesity standards were moved, and the result - more people are now considered overweight. Shocker.

This is part of the equation. How much it skews the resulting statistics, I do not know.

[J_Byrd]

I am near death according to those scales lol.

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by J_Byrd

I am near death according to those scales lol.

Well, take away your muscle mass and you probably weigh the same as your doctor. And I imagine he doesn't exercise much.

[5kgLifter]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

You're exactly right Babs. No lifter slant...

In the documentary Fat Head it talks about how the obesity standards were moved, and the result - more people are now considered overweight. Shocker.

This is part of the equation. How much it skews the resulting statistics, I do not know.

I've often wondered whether daily calorie intake has been altered over the years, by nutritionists/health departments etc, reading the bit about obesity standards being tinkered with would lead me to believe that the calorie intake has been equally messed with.

Though, to be fair they did lead more active lifestyles as a whole than we do today; they had allotments and grew veg, now we've got Farmville.

[BendtheBar]

I imagine caloric intake has increased, as we have moved from a more fat dependent culture to a carb based diet.. But again, speculation on my part.

The consensus in the Paleo realm is that fat provides a greater degree of satiety, and leads to a naturally lower intake. Also not controlled as much by the insulin roller coaster.

[Chillen]

5FT 7In, 175 (as of this morning empty bowels/bladder) BMI: 27.4

Online BMI calculators are extremely inaccurate. They do not take into account so many personal attributes: bone density (size), age factors, and the difference of Muscle to fat ratio. I don't even pay attention to them. What I do, is go to my local doctors office, and get a Dexa Scan, which separates these issues above (and many others), and is extremely accurate.

There are so many variables to living a long healthy life, and to corner it to being a variable-point over weight is far too easy in a biological complex situation.

It all boils down on how the body (genetically) processes the things one does to their own body.

For example, right at home I have three sets of people: One who died at the average age of 76 (was active all of his life, and only slightly over weight--estimated visually), grandma (who at 5FT 3In, weighed over 200 pounds at one point, before forced to lose weight) had three heart surgeries, kidney failure, and many other health complications, and is still alive at 78 years old. Another member is 85, 5FT 5In female, I would guess weight/physique appropriate for her age (I wouldn't classify as skinny, just a very athletic-active look, if you understand what I mean for her age group). Heck she gets around better than those in there 60's, and definitely better than grandma (who confines herself to a chair watching TV all day). The 85 year old also smokes. Grandma never did. The 76 year old was male, the other two females.

It is beyond me ( just kidding ), why females live longer on average than males, with all their hormonal zig-zagging going on.........maybe its their hormonal imbalanced behavior that eventually kills the males in the end. (pun intended).