Marker check · 2 questions

Body weight

In the million-person Prospective Studies Collaboration, moderate obesity cost about three years of life and severe obesity around ten. Where the weight sits matters too — waist size tracks visceral fat, the metabolically risky kind, independently of BMI. Being meaningfully underweight carries its own mortality risk, especially later in life.

The research

  • Prospective Studies Collaboration, Lancet 2009 — moderate obesity ≈ −3y, severe ≈ −10y
  • Cerhan et al., Mayo Clin Proc 2014 — waist circumference independent of BMI
  • Global BMI Mortality Collaboration, Lancet 2016 — underweight J-curve