We are all obese now
Or at least, the vast majority of us are, according to a recent re-definition:
Obesity rates in the United States may increase dramatically under a new definition introduced earlier this year by the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology Commission.
Researchers at Mass General Brigham discovered that applying the updated criteria—which expands beyond the traditional body mass index (BMI) to include measurements of body fat distribution—raised obesity prevalence from around 40 percent to approximately 70 percent among more than 300,000 participants. The increase was especially notable among older adults. The study also revealed that many of the newly classified individuals faced a greater likelihood of negative health outcomes.
Who’s celebrating? The makers of diet drugs and the purveyors of diet programs.
It’s all very odd – particularly since there’s also been evidence that being somewhat overweight – even by the old definition – is somewhat beneficial for the elderly:
In fact, the nationwide study found that people who were slightly overweight in their 50s but kept their weight relatively stable were the most likely to survive over the next 16 years.
They had better survival rates than even normal-weight individuals whose weight increased slightly, but stayed within the normal range.
There are other studies that say something similar:
… [N]umerous studies suggest that carrying some extra weight can sometimes be protective in later life. For people who fall, fat can serve as padding, guarding against fractures. And for people who become seriously ill with conditions such as cancer or advanced kidney disease, that padding can be a source of energy, helping them tolerate demanding therapies. …
Experts are more concerned about a lack of activity in older adults who are overweight or mildly obese (a body mass index in the low 30s) than about weight loss. With minimal or no activity, muscle mass deteriorates and strength decreases, which “raises the risk of developing a disability or a functional impairment” that can interfere with independence, said John Batsis, an obesity researcher and associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.
Weight loss contributes to inadequate muscle mass insofar as muscle is lost along with fat. For every pound shed, 25% comes from muscle and 75% from fat, on average.
Since older adults have less muscle to begin with, “if they want to lose weight, they need to be willing at the same time to increase physical activity.” said Anne Newman, director of the Center for Aging and Population Health at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.
Ideal body weight may be higher. Epidemiologic research suggests that the ideal body mass index (BMI) might be higher for older adults than younger adults. (BMI is a measure of a person’s weight, in kilograms or pounds, divided by the square of their height, in meters or feet.)
One large, well-regarded study found that older adults at either end of the BMI spectrum — those with low BMIs (under 22) and those with high BMIs (over 33) — were at greater risk of dying earlier than those with BMIs in the middle range (22 to 32.9).
Older adults with the lowest risk of earlier deaths had BMIs of 27 to 27.9. According to World Health Organization standards, this falls in the “overweight” range …
And then, to top it all off, there’s this seeming paradox:
Deficiency of the gene melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) is linked with obesity among adults. A recent study has found that the same deficiency also leads to surprising outcomes such as reduced risk of heart disease, lower cholesterol, and triglycerides. These results contradict the well-established correlation between obesity and cardiovascular diseases.
The researchers scanned the genetic profiles of 7,719 children from the Genetics of Obesity Study (GOOS) cohort. They identified 316 probands—first person in a family to draw medical attention to a genetic disorder—and 144 adult family members with obesity due to loss-of-function (LoF) MC4R mutations.
Even after adjusting for weight, these individuals showed better blood pressure profiles and cardiovascular health when compared to 336,728 controls from the UK Biobank.
The gene defect ordinarily causes severe obesity, and I don’t think it’s all that common even in that population. So unless you’re very obese I don’t think there’s any chance you have it.
I think the issue of weight and health is quite poorly understood – and that includes why some people can eat a lot and be thin, and vice versa. Except for the new weight-loss drugs – and who knows how they affect health long-term – it’s very hard for most people to lose weight and keep it off.
And for people who become seriously ill with conditions such as cancer or advanced kidney disease, that padding can be a source of energy, helping them tolerate demanding therapies. …
I’ve long thought the above to be true. Eventually, at advanced age, we are likely to have some ailment that will adversely impact our appetite. Will we weather through it?
And about moving the standards metrics around, such as redefining the BMI levels: I hate that. Long before I was on Medicare I was paying a lot for health insurance because my platelet count was slightly low. Then a couple years later those levels increased for me, and I thought, “Great, now I’m in the normal range.” Nope! They moved the definition of normal on me.
Round is a shape.
BMI was never intended to be a measure of an individual’s obesity–it was developed as a population measure–and fails badly for athletes. It’s high time the obesity measure WAS redefined and judging by what I see around me 70% does seem about right…
Derek Lunsford,, 2023 and 2025 Mr Olympia, is 5′ 6″ and 220 lb in competition. That is a BMI of 35.5 which under the definition we are used to makes him “obese”.
Whatever you want to say about the bodybuilder lifestyle, “obese” is not the right word for it. IF they are doing something unhealthy, it is not what obese people are doing, that’s for sure, and their health risks are quite different.
It would be nice if medicine could find hard and fast ules about weight, diet, exercise, sleep patterns, liquid intake and more that applied to everyone. Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be such rules.
Even when I was doing body building and had a 10% or less body fat, the BMI index showed me as being overweight. I realized then that the BMI was…..ah, an imperfect tool.
I eat a lot less today – I have no appetite. So, I eat the same things every day and it adds up to about 1500 calories. My weight stays about the same – a BMI of 28. My doctor says nothing about my weight – I have other, more pressing issues to deal with.
A neighbor has type 2 diabetes. He’s on Ozempic. It has some nasty side effects, but he tolerates them to keep his A1C down. Also, he’s lost muscle as well as fat. It seems an imperfect solution to weight control.
Medical magic bullets are the dream. We’ve experienced a few – polio vaccine, smallpox vaccine, anti-biotics, etc. But perfect weight control and the fountain of youth are still waiting to be found.
At my annual physical I had a BMI of 29.6 or so. I was classified as Obese. I have lost a little so now at 29.1, which am sure would still say I am Obese. The BMI calculator indicated that I should lose 24 lb, down to 160 from my 186. I would be skin and bones at 160. My goal is 178, but at age 79 losing weight is very hard. When I was retired in 2005 I weighed 221, got it down to 168, but could not stay there
Women who put on a little extra weight live longer than the men who point it out.
“…it’s very hard for most people to lose weight and keep it off.”
Watched 1/2 hour last night. Seems that contestants lost 100 lbs. or more and have since gained it back. Participants complain about mistreatment and humiliation during the contest. With all the suffering and effort, would expect they must have put effort into staying “slim”. Something different about these super obese. Most of us can eat all day and never get that fat.
“Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser Netflix.”
How things change..
I just saw a sideshow barker crying out to the crowds to see the thin man
this way to the egress..
on another note.
News: The Louvre failed to spot a gang of thieves early enough to stop the theft of €88m (£76m) worth of French crown jewels, the museum’s director has revealed. The only camera monitoring the exterior wall of the Louvre where they broke in was pointing away from the first-floor balcony that led to Gallery of Apollo housing the jewels, she said.
Artfldgr: Logic would say that they have a film of the people who did it, because they had to come in and case the place to know that there was no camera there, and that was the right window.
AI (duh)
That’s a sharp observation — and it makes sense from a practical standpoint.
If the thieves knew exactly which window to use and that a specific camera was pointed away, it suggests prior surveillance or “casing” of the Louvre. In high-value thefts like this, criminals often perform reconnaissance—sometimes even posing as tourists or maintenance workers—to study security patterns, guard shifts, and camera coverage.
So yes, as Artfldgr points out, there’s a strong chance that earlier footage (days or weeks before the heist) might show the suspects during their reconnaissance, even if the actual break-in wasn’t fully captured. That kind of pre-theft activity is often key evidence in investigations of art or jewel thefts.
on another nother note
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defied the advice of its own drug safety experts to warn pregnant women about Tylenol for nearly a decade, internal reports and presentations obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation reveal. FDA rank-and-file scientists repeatedly recommended the agency release information about Tylenol in pregnancy across three scientific reviews conducted in 2016, 2019, 2022 and two memos, one from the FDA’s maternal health division in 2016 and one from the FDA’s urological health division in 2017.
So what did all those leftist women who were pregnant do?
become a science experiment…
you know, babies are harder to fool with reverse psychology than a leftist
Got out of OCS at 6.2, 205. That’s “overweight” in the BMI. Immediately afterwards, following a debauch over Christmas leave, jump school was easy. I’d guess most of the guys in jump school were verging on if not “overweight”.
Talked to a high school wrestling coach recently. The old problem of some guy getting dehydrated–in some cases requiring hospitalization–trying to “make weight” is over. There’s some measurement of subcutaneous fat which is, if I understood it, yours at that weight class and if you drop one weight class, it will show in the measurement and you’re ineligible. If that’s true, and I was assured that whatever it is is far less dangerous than running around the gym in a sweat suit and then wrapping up in a gym mat.
Hope I understood that correctly.
If it’s Lancet, there’s an agenda attached….
And not necessarily a good one…
After Obama took office, Newsweek informed us:
–“We Are All Socialists Now” (Feb 06, 2009)
https://www.newsweek.com/we-are-all-socialists-now-82577
So now neo informs us, “We Are All Obese Now.”
Correlation? Causation?
The Left hates guys who go to the gym and women who keep themselves svelte.
Body positivity reins (as big as a horse).
I have the sense that a lot of what we do now is treating symptoms rather than underlying problems. My BMI is around 29, and I wouldn’t complain if I lost another 10-15 lbs, but I don’t see the need for my college weight of 175. Blood pressure started to go up, but hiking cured that, it was 116/69 this morning. But I will likely die in the next ten years whatever I do, so there is that.
@ brew – There is always an agenda, and we’re not in on it.
The BMI looks at height, weight, and age.
That’s it.
https://www.calculator.net/bmi-calculator.html
My BFF from HS was told, sometime around age 40, that she was obese.
She still looked quite svelte in smaller-sized jeans, but the BMI couldn’t lie!
It also was unaware that she had a Double-D bust.
Her husband thought she looked just fine.
***
During my first two pregnancies, all the expert advice was to cut back on salt.
So I did.
Then in the third one, the “experts” told us growing fetuses need a certain amount of sodium.
Oops!
Pregnant women were cautioned not to eat too much fat, until we were told we were eating too little.
Oops!
Spicy hot foods were a “no, no” for the gestating mom.
As my mother remarked: have you seen any of our Hispanic friends cutting back on their jalapenos?
Oops!
This is my favorite commentary on the experts’ advice:
This Is Why Eating Healthy Is Hard (Time Travel Dietitian)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ua-WVg1SsA
Best advice (Michael Pollan): Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
https://michaelpollan.com/reviews/how-to-eat/
Keeping up with the expert advice is an endless run-around — I gave up on the medicos long before Covid showed how morally, as well as scientifically, bankrupt most of them are.
Which isn’t to say I don’t look at the studies that we are allowed to see, and appreciate commentary by people I trust on whether or not the studies are credible or not.
Mostly, so it seems, not.
https://theconversation.com/flawed-medical-studies-can-end-up-in-doctors-advice-we-developed-a-tool-to-stop-it-253213
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40596-024-02021-6
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7673265/
And that doesn’t even include the Journal of Irreproducible Results.
We are all Constitutionalists now….
(Except that one really ought to replace “The Constitution”, below, with “Reality”…)
“How Progressives Broke The Constitution And Praised Themselves For It”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/how-progressives-broke-constitution-and-praised-themselves-it
+ Bonus (from the peanut gallery):
“Peanut Allergies In Children Have Dropped Significantly: Study”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/peanut-allergies-children-have-dropped-significantly-study
Gotta feed ‘em peanuts while they’re young, it seems…
The thing that has the weight loss drug companies singing in the rain is that they know if you lose weight by taking their drugs and want to keep it off, you have to keep taking their drugs for the rest of your life.
They’re creating addicts.
Yes, I know, “if they change their lifestyle, learn to exercise more and eat less, they could get off the drugs and keep the weight off”.
Very true. But if they could change their lifestyle, they could lose the weight without being on the drugs in the first place…so what are the odds of that happening? A few will, but most won’t.
I’m not a dedicated “prepper” but I do believe in planning for exigencies. I have emergency food, a generator and fuel, stored water, some cash stashed and I never let my gas tank get below half.
Fat is our body’s way of storing energy for lean times. I view the extra 40 pounds I’m carrying around as just another iteration of my emergency supplies.
@ Sailorcurt > “Fat is our body’s way of storing energy for lean times. I view the extra 40 pounds I’m carrying around as just another iteration of my emergency supplies.”
I’m going to try that one on my doctor next time I have a physical!
Her answer will probably include, “And what about the OTHER 30 pounds?”
Reference link to a very handy medical-adjacent calculator site, which also includes other subject areas.
https://www.calculator.net/
This is what it told me for my age and height; you can do the math, but don’t be tacky.
According to the World Health Organization’s recommendations, your healthy weight range is 94.7 – 128.0 lbs.
I don’t think the WHO is at all trustworthy on political or social subjects, but the formulas are probably standard, so I won’t get much different results elsewhere.
That’s a testable hypothesis, of course.
@Sailorcurt: The thing that has the weight loss drug companies singing in the rain is that they know if you lose weight by taking their drugs and want to keep it off, you have to keep taking their drugs for the rest of your life.
It’s a tried and true business model.
See Prozac and the SSRIs. My sister got on Prozac in the mid-nineties. She’s still on it and afraid to quit.
@AesopFan: the formulas are probably standard, so I won’t get much different results elsewhere.
Standard, yes, but meaningful probably not. The healthy weight range they calculate for a given height is based on BMI, but it’s meaningless to tell a person that their “healthy” weight has a 35 pound range! If their “normal weight” is in the middle of that range, being 17 lbs over or under is a LOT.
It might make sense for a population to give that range, since there are so many kinds of individual builds. And that’s the problem with BMI, it was developed for population averages, not for individuals. To say that for 100,000 people who are 5′ 10″ and 50 year-old males that the measured weights of “healthy” people ranges from 130 – 170 lbs is perfectly reasonable. It makes no sense whatever to apply that range to an individual.
“She’s still on it and afraid to quit”
Reminds me of “Pot is not addictive, I’ve been smoking it every day for twenty years and I’m not hooked yet!”
Oh oh oh Oprrahzempic…