CatBBW
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quote:
ORIGINAL: kalikshama Thanks for the link! I wonder how many people who think of themselves as "overweight" are actually "obese," and therefore not in the "overweight people live the longest" category. http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/02/being-overweight-is-linked-to-lower-risk-of-mortality/ ...underweight defined as BMI less than 18.5, normal weight being BMI between 18.5 and 25, overweight being BMI between 25 and 30, and obese as BMI of over 30. Men or women who are 5’4″ would have “normal” BMI if they weighed between 108 and 145 pounds, for example, and overweight if they weighed 146 to 174 pounds, and obese if weighed more than that. ...interpreting the results may be confusing, since the names of the WHO “normal” and “overweight” categories don’t necessarily correspond to commonly held perceptions. Today, roughly 33% of U.S. adults are clinically overweight, according to WHO standards, and an additional 36% are obese. By those standards, the average American is not clinically normal weight at all, but considered overweight. So in fact, the overweight people in the study who tend to live longest may not be fatter than most people at all. Among Americans, at least, they may actually be of average weight. And this goes back to the point I made earlier - BMI was invented by an insurance company who could then put up the insurance premiums for the fatter people because "risk of early death was higher"!
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