Slightly Overweight: Increased Health Risk?

These interesting findings seem to remind us of BMI's shortcomings. Large studies should be more accurate than smaller ones, because they use a larger data sample. If they are not, it could be a sign of inaccurate data samples, or even a poor study design.

I think that the reason so many of these studies contradict each other is that genetically everyone is so different. It all depends on what runs in your family. And it also depends on each person. We are trying to find a general conclusion for something that is not general. I tend to think that the BMI is faulty all by itself. There has been too many contradictions over this calculator to trust it. I think that people should be their own judge. People know when they have gotten too heavy. Their bodies tell them this, and I am not talking about the person that goes back and forth on 20 pounds. When you have gotten dangerously big your body will give you signals that enough is enough. I often wonder how much of our lives have been taken over with the obsession over health and illness. A bit psychosomatic isn't it? Certain diseases aren't, but still maybe the real curse of Pandora's Box isn't the illness it's the obsession over getting one of them.

I'm not sure what came of it, but a number of papers and studies back in 2002 proposed that the WHO recognize Asians as "overweight" at a BMI of just 23, up to 24.9; and in the obese category starting at a BMI of 25.

http://www.obesityresearch.org/cgi/content/full/12/3/440

As I do like that these studies were of large groups of people, they were differnt kind of people in different cultures. I do believe that being overweight does cause people to be unhealthy and leading to a shorter life but with healthy nutrition habits and regular exercise it will all work out.

I tend to agree with the BMI being a faulty way of determining whether someone is overweight. I would probably have more faith in the findings if they actually measured body-fat percentage and distribution instead of a BMI determined by "self-reported" figures.

Was the study conducted over the phone or something, did they even see the people they were studying? How many sports people are overweight or even obese going by the BMI standard, even though they have incredibly low body fat?

I will be continuing to lose my (baby) weight by doing what I have been doing all along, pretty much the same as Jims' conclusion.

Regina: Fascinating find. Asians tend to carry more visceral fat, and lower muscle mass than, say caucasian races. Therefore a global weight classification based on BMI is bogus.

The first study (in the US) uses self-reported stats. People tend to over and under-report weight...

All very good comments. I agree with BMI being a poor judge of weight because someone with a BMI of 23 could be normal, underweight, or overweight depending on how much of their weight is fat vs. lean mass.

We must also remember that death can be caused by lots of things that aren't really weight related at all. These studies could just be a correlation and not really a causation.

And then there are other studies....

Overweight Kills ... If You Use Shaky BMI Science

The news is aflutter this morning with reports of a new study in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) which claims that being even a few pounds overweight ups your risk of premature death. What got scant coverage was all the new medical literature casting doubt on the scientific underpinnings of this NEJM study.

Just last week the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet published a Mayo Clinic review of 40 obesity studies which found that "overweight" is in fact the healthiest weight category, with a lower risk of death than being "normal" and "obese" (let alone "underweight" or "morbidly obese"). This corroborates the findings of a major study we talked about last year by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which found that being overweight has a protective effect against untimely death. Since the Lancet study provided positive news, did it get much media attention? Take a guess.

What needs a lot more attention is the heavy criticism recently levied against the Body Mass Index, the simple measure of height and weight that many obesity studies use to classify people as "normal," "overweight," or "obese," including the NEJM study. An article by Dr. David Cundiff in the International Journal of Obesity concludes: "I suggest abandoning the use of the BMI as a surrogate for physical inactivity and poor diet." And a comment by Dr. Maria Franzosi in The Lancet declared: "BMI can definitely be let aside as a clinical and epidemiological measure of cardiovascular risk." Indeed, as a measure that ignores muscle mass (and thus calls President Bush "overweight" and Governor Schwarzenegger "obese"), not to mention the question of where in the body fat is located, the BMI clearly has some serious flaws.

Even before it was processed, this new NEJM study's data was a little sketchy. As Tufts obesity expert Aviva Must told The Boston Globe, the study "used participants' own reports of their height and weight" (emphasis added).

Patricia,

Funny you should mention this study. I just finished writing about it.

I always wonder about those BMI studies...
There are certain behaviors that can make it more likely to be overweight... that just are not good for you.
I'm not convinced that the weight itself is a problem, other than (maybe) aesthetically.

Walter Willett touched this subject in his book 'Eat, Drink and Be Healthy'. According to him, many studies come out favorable for higher weights because people with low body weight often have underlying illnesses, or are smoking for example. So, they do not get ill because of their weight: their weight gets low because of their illness. It makes sense to me.

I agree with your conclusions and I sometimes get tired of all the conflicting research as well, especially since every "expert" seems to only cite those studies they agree with, or only finds the angles in those studies that support their point of view.