14 DAY TRIAL // A new and quite worrying study in the scientific journal The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology warns that being overweight or obese can take as much as 8 years off a guy's or gal's life.
Besides, the paper shows that, when cardiovascular disease and diabetes risks are also factored in, folks who carry too much weight for their own good can even have their life expectancy cut by an impressive 2 decades.
Not to freak anybody out or anything of the sorts, but earlier this year, one other paper published in The Lancet showed that, in 2013, the world was home to a whopping 2.1 billion overweight and obese individuals.
Just to put things into perspective, it must be said that, not too long ago, in the 1980s, the number of overweight and obese people documented on a global scale was one of just 857 million.
What this means is that, in this day and age, a whole lot of folks risk having their lives cut short not by some freak accident or incurable condition, but by the sheer size of their waistline. Even more troubling, kids and teens are not without risk either.
The link between body weight and life expectancy
In their paper in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, specialists with the McGill University Health Center and the McGill University in Canada detail that, to determine how body weight influences life expectancy, they employed a computer model that they themselves developed.
The computer model, created in collaboration with University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia researchers, provided estimates concerning lifespan and cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk in adults of a different weight, EurekAlert informs.
It was thus determined that extremely obese individuals and obese people risk losing up to 8 and 6 years of life, respectively. Individuals who pack extra weight but who do not qualify as obese, on the other hand, risk losing up to 3 years.
The Canadian researchers behind this investigation into the link between obesity and life expectancy stress that, according to evidence at hand, those who put on weight while still young have higher chances to develop all sorts of health trouble and die at an early age.
“The pattern is clear – the more an individual weighs and the younger their age, the greater the effect on their health,” Dr. Steven Grover said in a statement. “In terms of life-expectancy, we feel being overweight is as bad as cigarette smoking,” he added.
Helping people lose weight and get back in shape
Having found that being overweight or obese can shorten a person's life expectancy to a considerable extent, the specialists are now trying to use this information to convince folks to get behind a weight loss program. The idea is to teach people about the health threats associated with obesity and encourage them to embrace a healthier lifestyle.
“These clinically meaningful models are useful for patients, and their healthcare professionals, to better appreciate the issues and the benefits of a healthier lifestyle, which we know is difficult for many of us to adopt and maintain,” Dr. Steven Grover explained.
