Longterm benefits of being overweight

It’s a pretty common belief nowadays that being overweight is unhealthy. But a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, analyzing over 100 studies encompassing nearly 3 million people, made surprising discovery: “Overweight” people (as measured by the BMI scale) actually have a lower mortality risk than those whose BMI falls in the “normal” range. Moreover, even though “obese” did have the highest mortality risk overall, the lower boundary of this category actually had the same mortality risk as normal weight. This finding not only challenges the common conception of weight and health, but it also emphasizes the important point that BMI alone is not a sufficient – or even valid – indicator of health.