The BMI (Body Mass Index) is a widely-used system that classes body weight into 4 categories: underweight, normal, over weight and obese. But if you assumed that being “normal” weight was best for your health, you would be wrong!
Here is an online BMI calculator to check what category you are in: http://www.mayocllinic.org .
Now, let me tell you about a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) back in 2005… It was entitled “Excess deaths associated with underweight, overweight, and obesity”. But in the results section, it states: “Overweight was not associated with excess mortality” (emphasis added!).
However, the study actually found that being overweight was associated with a significantly reduced mortality…in other words, an increased life expectancy. Yes, that’s what it said…Those who were “overweight” lived the longest!
But, most medical information sites (including the one I link to above) continue to state that being overweight is harmful to health…similar to obesity, but not as bad – a sort of “obesity lite”, as one author described it.
Another Canadian study, entitled “BMI and Mortality: Results From a National Longitudinal Study of Canadian Adults” published in Obesity journal in 2010 found that even the “obesity” class (but not the heavier “obesity II” class had lower mortality than the “normal” class of BMI.
So, with this evidence, why do many medical professionals and online websites continue pressure us to reduce body weight lower than is necessary to reduce risk to health? It is well established that many people, especially women, have issues with body image, with thinness being widely promoted as the ideal we should struggle to achieve. But these studies strongly suggest that we are reducing our life expectancy in the process.
Physician and author, Malcolm Kendrick, suggests this may be due to an unspoken rule of sorts in medicine: not to question those in authority, not to “buck the system”. Family doctors defer to the opinions of specialists and organizations, and success (and hospital privileges!) sometimes bypass those who ask uncomfortable questions.
I’ve noticed this. When asked for an opinion on the cholesterol controversy (see previous blog), my husband’s family physician simply said that they follow recommendations from the specialists. And when we asked my husband’s specialist what he thought about the controversy, he said he hadn’t read it and invited us to submit the article I’d read. We dropped off 3 articles to him, with our email clearly written on the front, but received no reply at all! I was surprised – I expected to at least receive some sort of rebuttal…
Perhaps something similar is happening to the “weight debate” … the BMI calculation is too well established for mere front-line doctors to challenge. However, a friend told me that her family doctor advises adding an extra 10 pounds as one ages, as he has observed himself that this additional weight enabled his patients to cope with disease more easily with greater chance of survival.
So, is it dangerous to your health to be moderately overweight? Studies suggest that it’s not only OK, but it’s beneficial to your health to carry a little extra weight as you age! It’s time to update BMI charts…
