Is it better to be overweight?

[anoop]

Should you be overweight, normal, or obese to live longer? This was the subject of a recent study that created quite a lot of stir among researchers and the media. Check the article please and let me what your thoughts are.

Is it Better to be Overweight?

 

[Jester]

The meta-analysis has too many flaws, and whilst your article encompasses all the discussion-worthy points, I think the only real conclusion be the the one you've listed as your first criticism; the study is a pile of rubbish.

Furthermore, BMI is an incredibly poor statistic to use in today's day and age, and the prevalence of proper nutrition and resistance training within the middle classes (where the super-majority of study subjects come from).

That it raises a return-thought to the knee-jerk position of 'slightly underweight is best' that is generally applied to the question of longevity is a good thing, but there's countless flaws in this analysis, and the paper suffers fatally as a result.

 

[anoop]

Here is my bro

The meta-analysis has too many flaws, and whilst your article encompasses all the discussion-worthy points, I think the only real conclusion be the the one you've listed as your first criticism; the study is a pile of rubbish.

Love to know the flaws. I have read almost all the criticisms and corresponded with the author and even people who wrote the editorial. So if you have anything new, that will be awesome.

 

[Jester]

Too many variables in the group members.

This is the major flaw of almost all 'lifestyle' studies. I say 'lifestyle' because we're essentially looking at people's lives. It's not a totally accurate word but it's close enough.

There's also the major issue of BMI being an unrealistic and unreliable statistic. How do you adjust for skeletal muscle? A highly vascularised tissue that reduces blood pressure, the development of which assists in reversing metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. It's unquestionably a healthy addition to the usual untrained individual, but it increases the BMI of that person (we all know this).

BMI is the wrong statistic here. There isn't a catch-all one to use, so multiple should have been used to draw conclusions, and to create the study groups.



And again, meta-analysis should raise question marks.

As I said, it's not a worthless contribution and it makes the reader curious, question the dogma etc. That doesn't mean it's inherently reliable though.