The Fat Factor: The Link Between Obesity and Early Death

According to a study conducted by Dutch researchers and published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, people who are overweight at 40 are likely to die at least three years sooner than those who are slim.  This means that being fat during middle ages is just as damaging to life expectancy as smoking.

• Nonsmokers who were classified as overweight, but not obese, lost an average of three years off their lives.
• Obese people died even sooner.

Scientists have long known that overweight people have shorter life expectancies, but few large-scale studies have been able to pinpoint how many years they lose.  "This study is saying that, if you are overweight by your mid-30s to mid-40s, even if you lose some weight later on, you still carry a higher risk of dying," said Dr. Serge Jabbour, director of the weight-loss clinic at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. 

"The message is that you have to work on your weight early.  If you wait a long time, the damage may have already been done."

 

Acres USA, April 2003

 

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Editor's note: While I have no doubt that being overweight can cause other health problems and early death, I suspect that studies like this have one serious shortcoming: They're rooted in the idea that overweight is a simple matter of taking in more calories than are being burned.  I'm convinced that this model is faulty.

I've struggled with my own weight problems for nearly 30 years.  In 1978, I went from about 130 pounds to over 200 pounds in a few months, without an significant change in diet or level of activity.  If anything, I was eating better and exercising more.  I've also seen too many other overweight people struggling with diet and exercise, with no significant gains, to believe the calories in/calories burned equation.

The fact is: When you eat less, your body goes into conservation mode.  When you exercise more, your body goes into conservation mode.  It just seems that there must be another dynamic at play here.

When looking at the issue of overweight and its effects on life expectancy, it seems there are other questions that should be asked.  Making a 1:1 connection here between overweight and life expectancy might not be addressing the real problem.  The issue isn't nearly so much the weight factor, itself, as much as what lies behind the extra weight. 

At least, that's one fat guy's opinion.