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> You're better off being relatively slim on junk food than being fat on good quality good. This has consistently proved false. Being 'underweight' is associa

> You're better off being relatively slim on junk food than being fat on good quality good. This has consistently proved false. Being 'underweight' is associated with significant excess death; being 'overweight' is associated with a lower death rate than 'normal' BMI: e.g. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/200731 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/20073... (many other sources are available)

albedoa 5y ago
Can you help me reconcile the apparent contradiction between the title and the results? Title: > Excess Deaths Associated With [...] Overweight Results: > Overweight was not associated with excess mortality (−86 094 deaths; 95% CI, −161 223 to −10 966).
- teachingassist 5y ago
  I'd translate this title into non-academic English as: "Are excess deaths associated with being overweight?" (The result is: no - or actually yes, but negatively).
proxyon 5y ago
> Being 'underweight' is associated with significant excess death; being 'overweight' is associated with a lower death rate than 'normal' BMI: This is nonsense. In many medical deaths such as cancer (and especially since euthanasia isn't available) the person dies by slowly withering away. One of the first things that happens is that they become skinny and frail. That doesn't associate underweightedness with mortality. It intentionally draws a false correlation.
- teachingassist 5y ago
  This criticism is apparently quite reasonable. You can also observe that being underweight is correlated with smoking. [Edited to add: this article explicitly considers the link to cancer, and rejects it, https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-14-371 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1... ] However, it doesn't explain why being 'overweight' BMI consistently proves to be protective against death, despite it being so stigmatised that it affects quality of medical care.
  - proxyon 5y ago
    > However, it doesn't explain why being 'overweight' BMI consistently proves to be protective against death I don't see how the "protective of death" conclusion is able to be maintained when it was determined by comparing the mortality of overweight people to frail and dying old people and cancer patients. The reality is that it's the opposite. It's well known that being overweight damages the organs and makes a person more susceptible to dozens of diseases.
gadders 5y ago
I said "relatively slim". I actually meant by that a bit of a tummy, but not morbidly obese. I'm not recommending six packs for all. God knows I don't have one. Also, being "overweight" could be for a variety of reasons, including excess muscle. I'd be interested to see mortality correlated with % body fat.

albedoa 5y ago

Can you help me reconcile the apparent contradiction between the title and the results? Title: > Excess Deaths Associated With [...] Overweight Results: > Overweight was not associated with excess mortality (−86 094 deaths; 95% CI, −161 223 to −10 966).

teachingassist 5y ago
I'd translate this title into non-academic English as: "Are excess deaths associated with being overweight?" (The result is: no - or actually yes, but negatively).

proxyon 5y ago

> Being 'underweight' is associated with significant excess death; being 'overweight' is associated with a lower death rate than 'normal' BMI: This is nonsense. In many medical deaths such as cancer (and especially since euthanasia isn't available) the person dies by slowly withering away. One of the first things that happens is that they become skinny and frail. That doesn't associate underweightedness with mortality. It intentionally draws a false correlation.

teachingassist 5y ago
This criticism is apparently quite reasonable. You can also observe that being underweight is correlated with smoking. [Edited to add: this article explicitly considers the link to cancer, and rejects it, https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-14-371 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1... ] However, it doesn't explain why being 'overweight' BMI consistently proves to be protective against death, despite it being so stigmatised that it affects quality of medical care.
- proxyon 5y ago
  > However, it doesn't explain why being 'overweight' BMI consistently proves to be protective against death I don't see how the "protective of death" conclusion is able to be maintained when it was determined by comparing the mortality of overweight people to frail and dying old people and cancer patients. The reality is that it's the opposite. It's well known that being overweight damages the organs and makes a person more susceptible to dozens of diseases.

gadders 5y ago

I said "relatively slim". I actually meant by that a bit of a tummy, but not morbidly obese. I'm not recommending six packs for all. God knows I don't have one. Also, being "overweight" could be for a variety of reasons, including excess muscle. I'd be interested to see mortality correlated with % body fat.