Could a few (just a few) pounds "overweight" be good, or not that bad anyway?

[alligatorob]

@Llama I believe you said something about this a while back.

From JAMA
Association of All-Cause Mortality With Overweight and Obesity Using Standard Body Mass Index Categories
A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1555137

From NPR
Research: A Little Extra Fat May Help You Live Longer
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...h-a-little-extra-fat-may-help-you-live-longer

From Web MD
Underweight Even Deadlier Than Overweight, Study Says Death risk nearly doubled for excessively thin people
https://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20140328/underweight-even-deadlier-than-overweight-study-says

From CNN
Thin is in, but fat might be better
https://www.cnn.com/2013/01/16/health/weight-study/index.html

From Scientific American
Could a Few Extra Pounds Help You Live Longer?
A new Danish study provides more data but does not resolve the question
May 10, 2016
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-a-few-extra-pounds-help-you-live-longer/

 

[Llama]

On the one hand it's reassuring to not feel as much at risk for health issues at my current weight. One the other I know I can get obese real easy if I don't pay attention so too much reassurance wouldn't be good. Plus of course correlation doesn't equal causation. The last link you posted offers a couple of possible explanations:

Maybe it’s not the weight as such, but just the ability to gain weight that is a mark of health. (Losing weight without wanting to is often a sign of illness.) And so gaining a little extra weight with age is merely a sign of overall health until you end up gaining so much weight that it is unhealthy. In that case, it would be hard to parse the statistics finely enough to show the difference.

Or maybe doctors do not treat people who have normal weight as aggressively as they do those who are overweight. Or maybe, just maybe, it is simply harder to know what is going on in the border areas between a BMI of 25 and 27. Perhaps, for some people, a little bit of extra weight is protective; for others it isn’t—and researchers really can’t explain why. “These epidemiological studies do not give us an answer,” says Tapan Mehta, a biostatisticianat the UAB, who was not part of the study. “They give us interesting questions to go after.”

Other options that come to mind: people get older these days (on average), old people tend to struggle to maintain their weight, and underweight old people could be lowering the scores for the lughter group. Or maybe the strategies we use these days to avoid becoming overweight are unhealthy. Or maybe a specific group of unhealthy people has always been prone to gaining weight but in the 1970s "normal" weight gain put people in the 25-30 bmi group while these days it's more like 30+ (we've gotten quite a bit heavier since then, in quite a few countries) so that specific group of unhealthy people is now likely to be obese and no longer lowers the average for the 25-30 group.

And for those of us who want answers now? “What the data clearly show across most ethnicities and races—if you are extremely obese, having treatment will be beneficial,” Mehta says. As for those with just a few extra pounds, it never hurts to eat more fruits and vegetables, get more sleep and exercise and stay tuned.

That's really what it comes down to. Live a generally healthy life and don't obsess too much about 5 kg more or less on the scale.
The difference they reference, 3 bmi points, is 9 kg at my height. That's a lot for statistics but really not a huge difference in daily life. It's not like obesity is suddenly healthy.

 

[alligatorob]

I know I can get obese real easy if I don't pay attention so too much reassurance wouldn't be good.

Understand completely, not a license to overeat, just one to relax a little.

Studies like this are always hard to control for all the human factors, but it does say that being in the BMI 25 to 30 range isn't a death sentence, or the end of the world.

 

[Cate]

I have read in lots of places that it's good to be a little bit overweight as you get older. I think being between 25-30 BMI would be ok, but then I'm not at all qualified. I'll check out those links today. I know I need to get down 10 kg. I also haven't checked what my BMI is for a long time. Maybe I will do that now......30.1 I found a BMI calculator that includes the factors of age & sex. It was interesting. https://www.smartbmicalculator.com/

 

[alligatorob]

I found a BMI calculator that includes the factors of age & sex. It was interesting.

Thanks Cate, this is interesting, it gave me a 26, which is right in the middle of the green low health risk zone. Suggesting my weight may be fine where it is...

Any your 30.1 does look a little, but not a low high.

 

[overlandflyer]

i've been looking at this subject and wondering about a reply. about 8 months ago my weight shifted a bit (i know the reason) from the mid 160's (BMI about 23.5) and is now sitting just south of 25. i weighed into the doctor's office at 177 this morning (add ~3 lbs for street clothes)... BMI of 24.7. occasionally i'll be overly conscientious for a few days, and i don't have any out and out cheat days, but some days when i know i should end my eating window at 6pm, i have something albeit something light a little later which essentially resets my fasting clock. so i see 171 every once in a while and 175 every once in a while. i haven't noticed any changes in the way my clothes fit or my general appearance, and it seems a little more pleasant when i can eat something just for some satisfaction every so often. i believe my fears about this continuing to run out of control are getting less and less. i simply seem to have reset my weight set-point.

for a correction i could either move more or drink less beer.... neither sounds desirable at this time.