Live lean and live longer

Posted March 27th 2009

by DPS

Overweight and obese people are now cutting up to ten years off their lives with a British eight year study of around one million published in ‘The Lancet’ finding that those least likely to die earlier had a low body mass index (BMI).

Those with the healthiest body shapes – a BMI of 22.5-25 lived the longest while those classed as overweight with a BMI of 30-35 died up to four years earlier than expected.

The most extreme BMI of 40-45 reduced people’s lives by eight to ten years or the same reduction as life long smokers.

People who are 170cm tall and weight 70kg have a BMI of 24.2 which is within the healthy range.

If the same person weighed 100kg the BMI would be 34.6 in the overweight range. With a further 20kg added the person would have an obese reading of 41.5.

The CSIRO leader in human nutrition, Dr.Peter Clifton, said the findings demonstrated the importance of maintaining a healthy weight throughout life, especially in the early years.

“The risk of early death is even stronger as you’re exposed to being fat even longer”, he said.