‘Overweight’ Could Actually Be The Healthiest Weight, New Study Claims
People with an ‘overweight’ BMI (Body Mass Index) are more likely to live longer than those in the so-called ‘healthy’, ‘underweight’ and ‘obese’ categories, a new study clams.
Spanning four decades, the massive study carried out by Copenhagen University Hospital looked at the health data of a whopping 100,000 individuals.
The huge study isn’t suggesting that overweight people who shun exercise and gorge on fatty foods are healthy, rather that the definition of ‘overweight’, according to the BMI scale, needs revising.
According to the study, the BMI that carried the lowest risk of death went up from 23.7 in 1976 to 27 in 2013.
People with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 are considered to ‘overweight’, while a BMI of more than 30 sees individuals classified as ‘obese’.
The study also found that those in the ‘obese’ category had the same risk of death as those in the ‘normal’ category, even when factors such as family history of diseases were taken into account.
The new research isn’t the first to suggest that the BMI scale may not be an accurate indicator of health.
Earlier this year, a study showed that NFL star quarterback Tom Brady of the New England Patriots is classified as ‘obese’ by the BMI scale, despite being a musclebound professional sportsman with a high level of fitness.
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Via: ScienceAlert
