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Obesity Is Three Times As Deadly For Men Than Women, Says Study (telegraph.co.uk) 202

An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Telegraph: Researchers at Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard universities found in the biggest ever study into weight and death that obesity is three times more deadly for men than women, and that being slightly overweight raises the risk of dying early. Telegraph reports: "Obese people can expect to lose three years of life while the average overweight person will die 12 months sooner than they would have if they were a healthy size. Usually fewer than one in five men will die before the age of 70, but that jumps to nearly one in three for the moderately obese, and eight in 10 for the morbidly obese. In contrast around one in 10 women can expect to die early, with obesity raising the risk to one in seven. While obesity raises the risk of early death by just three per cent for women, it is 10 per cent for men, more than three times as much. Around 61 per cent of adults are currently overweight or obese and the average weight of Britons has been steadily increasingly since the 1970s. In 1975 the average Briton had a BMI of 23, which is considered a healthy weight. But today that has risen to 27, with the average person now overweight. It means that since the 1970s, every person in Briton has roughly gained more than three pounds (1.5kg) per decade. Ten types of cancer are linked to excess weight which can also lead to Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and a range of other health problems. Researchers compiled data from 10.6 million people who took part in 239 studies between 1970 and 2015, in 32 different countries. The study found an increased risk of premature death for people who were underweight, as well as for people classed as overweight." According to a study published in the Lancet in April, obese people now outnumber the underweight population for perhaps the first time in history.
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Obesity Is Three Times As Deadly For Men Than Women, Says Study

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  • by turkeydance ( 1266624 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @06:33PM (#52514603)
    there are more fat women than fat men.
    • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @07:17PM (#52514847)
      I don't expect it changes the overall rates that much, simply due to homosexuals being a small minority of the total population, but I remember one report [nbcnews.com] that found that homosexual women were significantly more likely to be overweight as heterosexual women and homosexual men were significantly less likely to be overweight than heterosexual men. I don't know if the researchers had any idea why this occurs, but it's kind of interesting.
    • Shouldn't be, women burn fat more effectively than men.

      "there is abundant evidence that the proportion of energy derived from fat during exercise is higher in women than in men."
      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu... [nih.gov]

    • Woman have a higher healthy BMI than Men do. But as men move away from physical labor jobs, I expect to see it rise.

  • by peterofoz ( 1038508 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @06:33PM (#52514605) Homepage Journal
    Yes, mentioning that your woman is too obese is certainly more hazardous for men.
    • ... just not necessarily [uncleardestination.com] in the way that you would think...
  • by Anonymous Coward

    We expect people to work ridiculously long hours at increasingly sedentary jobs and we wonder why people become more overweight. It's incredibly unhealthy for so many reasons. Poor people or those who were once poor are more prone to obesity because the fear of going hungry causes them to overeat when food is available. We have more than enough wealth to ensure that nobody goes hungry, but some people are too greedy to agree to part with any of their money for such purposes. And then we have fucked up peopl

    • false (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      People are overweight because they consume more calories than they burn. It is that simple. Almost no amount of exercise will change that. Your body will burn more calories doing nothing all day than you running a mile. Exercise will improve your health but it's affect on your weight are minimal.

      • Re:false (Score:5, Insightful)

        by AthanasiusKircher ( 1333179 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @07:24PM (#52514883)

        People are overweight because they consume more calories than they burn. It is that simple. Almost no amount of exercise will change that. Your body will burn more calories doing nothing all day than you running a mile. Exercise will improve your health but it's affect on your weight are minimal.

        This is misguided. I think I understand where you are starting from, but your general conclusion doesn't follow. (Nor does it negate GP's argument that sedentary jobs, etc. may contribute to obesity.)

        You're correct that calorie intake is generally much more significant in weight maintenance (or weight loss) than exercise. To lose a pound per week, for example, you'd have to have a calorie deficit of roughly 500 calories/day. That's much easier to achieve through dietary change than through exercise alone. And if you do it through exercise alone, you can negate that deficit simply by having a slice of cake for dessert.

        That said, your next step doesn't follow. Sedentary lifestyles can easily contribute to obesity, since effects of no exercise can add up significantly over time. The fundamental problem with "dieting" is that people pack on pounds over years, but then expect to lose them all in a month or something. It may have taken you ten years to put on those 50 pounds, but you just can't lose it in a few weeks... it's impossible.

        And the only way to lose weight at a significant rate is generally to reduce intake, as I said.

        On the other hand, that does NOT mean there's no effect of exercise on weight maintenance. Take that 50 lbs. gain over 10 years -- that's an excess of approximately 50 calories per day. 50 calories per day is an amount of exercise that can easily be expended by having a job that just requires you to move around a little bit more. But that lack of exercise CAN add up significantly over the years.

        All that said, the issue is much more complicated, since weight maintenance has to do with appetite and feedback mechanisms too, which are affected by mental state, physical fitness, level of exercise, and all sort of other things. But the main point is that lack of even a small amount of exercise CAN add up to significant weight shifts over time, at least in theory. So sedentary work lifestyle MAY be a contributing factor to a long-term trend. None of that has anything to do with the fact that diet can have a much larger effect than exercise when one is trying to make RAPID weight changes.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Exercise is generally recognized as being ineffective for weight loss. The problem is, if you increase the number of calories you burn by exercising your body tends to compensate by burning fewer calories at rest. The other problem is that you need to do an awful lot of exercise to burn off one chocolate bar, which didn't provide you with much nutrition anyway.

          Of course exercise has many other health benefits and is highly recommended, it's just not an effective weight loss tool.

          Calorie intake management is

          • Of course exercise has many other health benefits and is highly recommended, it's just not an effective weight loss tool.

            I know it's anecdotal, but that has not been my experience. I started doing Judo and Jujitsu about nine years ago, I was about 216 lbs. when I started (I'm 5'9"). I started working out one day a week, then two and finally settled in at three, sometimes four, days a week at the dojo. In a maybe three years time I weighed in for a grappling tournament at 176 lbs. I had not changed my diet one bit.

            I have noticed that if I make it to the dojo three times a week, then I lose weight. If I make it twice a w

            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              I used to do judo as well, and found it had no real effect on my weight. If anything I gained a bit due to increased muscle mass.

        • by ndogg ( 158021 )

          Not to mention that if you're exercising, you're probably not eating something, like a snack. So many people have little snacks here and there, and that adds up.

        • Calorie deficit trumps exercise, strictly for weight loss. (Exercise has obviously has other benefits.)

          For example, your 500 calorie/day deficit results in a 3,500 calories deficit in one week to lose one pound. For a 200-lb individual, it takes about 3,500 calories to run a marathon. Want to lose ten pounds? Diet for 10 weeks, or run 10 marathons.* Your choice.

          (It's not that simple, since your body doesn't just tap into fat reserves unconditionally. Your body will also adjust your metabolism based on chang

      • People are overweight because they consume more calories than they burn. It is that simple. Almost no amount of exercise will change that. Your body will burn more calories doing nothing all day than you running a mile. Exercise will improve your health but it's affect on your weight are minimal.

        It is the modern, sedentary lifestyle that causes most of it. With a physical working job, just being moving on your feet, you will easily burn an additional 1500 calories a day.

        Easy-access food is less the problem.

      • Gaining weight is the result of absorbing more calories than you burn. Not all food that is consumed is absorbed.
      • People are overweight because they consume more calories than they burn. It is that simple.

        No, it's not that simple. Recent studies have shown that your gut biome helps to determine if you stay thin or gain weight.

        In 2006, Jeffrey Gordon, MD, and his colleagues at the Washington University Medical School in St Louis published a paper in the journal Nature demonstrating that thin mice and obese mice have different populations of gut bacteria. Furthermore, they proved that one particular type of bacteria caused obesity, rather than obesity changing the types of bacteria. When the scientists isolated a strain of Firmicutes bacteria from chubby mice and then introduced them into the bacteria-free guts of thin mice raised in a sterile environment, the skinny mice fattened up in just 10 to 14 days.

        Why You Can't Lose Weight [wddty.com]

      • People are overweight because they consume more calories than they burn. It is that simple. Almost no amount of exercise will change that. Your body will burn more calories doing nothing all day than you running a mile. Exercise will improve your health but it's affect on your weight are minimal.

        How did this get modded Insightful? Almost no amount of exercise will change the amount of calories burned? That's ridiculous.

    • And then we have fucked up people who think it's okay to shame people and mock them for being fat. It's awful to do that to any person, but it's also counterproductive and leads to self esteem issues that can lead to becoming even more obese.

      They aren't "fucked up", they're bullies who simply latch into any excusable target since political correctness is making those so rare nowadays. From their point of view harming you is a good thing both because they get their kicks from it and because it keeps you whe

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @07:10PM (#52514819)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • where is "Briton"?

  • I know this is true because my wife told me she'll kill me if I get fat.

  • Usually fewer than one in five men will die before the age of 70, but that jumps to nearly one in three for the moderately obese, and eight in 10 for the morbidly obese.

    I'm 47-YO, 5'-11" and 350 pounds (see pic link below). According to BMI and the experts on Slashdot, I'm morbidly obese and should have dropped dead three years ago.

    http://www.cdreimer.com/images/cdreimer_350.jpg [cdreimer.com]

    Except for one small problem: I don't believe that bullshit.

    Why? Because I take care of myself. I eat a 150g carbs/1,500-calorie diet, I walk 20 minutes daily and work out at the gym on weekends. I also maintain a positive attitude and don't allow fat shamers to bully me. I'll probably live longer

    • by Hasaf ( 3744357 )

      I am 49, 5'6" and 200 pounds. Today I cycled 45 miles and spent over half an hour in heart zone 5. Further, I do that several times a week. Accorw=ding to my doctor, other than the weight, my numbers are great.

      • I am 49, 5'6" and 200 pounds. Today I cycled 45 miles and spent over half an hour in heart zone 5. Further, I do that several times a week. Accorw=ding to my doctor, other than the weight, my numbers are great.

        I'd assume from that, your BMI is pretty low?

        • I'd assume from that, your BMI is pretty low?

          No, it would be high. BMI is just a function of weight and height and nothing else. It's a good predictor of whether or not you're obese (95% accurate for men, 99% accurate for women). It's particularly useful because it relies on one readily measured variable (weight) and unlike waist measurement (which is actually a better predictor when measured accurately), it's much harder to measure it wrong.

          But it's only a predictor. Your status of overweight or not is con

    • \

      I'm 47-YO, 5'-11" and 350 pounds (see pic link below). According to BMI and the experts on Slashdot, I'm morbidly obese and should have dropped dead three years ago.

      Similar here, although I tip the scales around a hundred less. I cannot float, because of my density, but still considered morbid. But you can only get so much exercise, and waddya do when its unhealthy to get rid of any more body fat. At my Ice hockey "thinnest" I was 225, playing three games a week. And it's simply not possible to get that much exercise as you age.

      Oh well, no one fat shames me in person for some reason.

      But my good man,you appear to know that life isn't a game where the idea is to s

    • Usually fewer than one in five men will die before the age of 70, but that jumps to nearly one in three for the moderately obese, and eight in 10 for the morbidly obese.

      I'm 47-YO, 5'-11" and 350 pounds (see pic link below). According to BMI and the experts on Slashdot, I'm morbidly obese and should have dropped dead three years ago.

      http://www.cdreimer.com/images/cdreimer_350.jpg [cdreimer.com]

      You're arguing against a bit of a strawman. No one claims that BMI is a perfect indicator of health for everyone, it's just a decent estimator for people with average body composition. You look to have an unusually high percentage of muscle so BMI doesn't really apply to you.

      Why? Because I take care of myself. I eat a 150g carbs/1,500-calorie diet, I walk 20 minutes daily and work out at the gym on weekends.

      Are you sure you're calculating that correctly? 1500 per day is extremely low for a woman [hc-sc.gc.ca], just to maintain an average sedentary male physique you're looking at 2350.

      I also maintain a positive attitude and don't allow fat shamers to bully me. I'll probably live longer than my hard-drinking, chain-smoking relatives who are dropping like flies these days. Although I haven't been to a doctor in 15 years, I'm in better health today than I ever was before.

      You're not obese but you still have a decent amount of body fat, just

    • If you haven't been to a doctor in 15 years - how do you know you are "in better health today than I ever was before"?

      I'm very suspicious about the claim that you are maintaining 350lbs on a 1,500 calorie a day diet. With any kind of exercise, you should be losing weight, not maintaining it. Maybe if you were eating 1,500 calories a meal, three times a day you would be maintaining that weight.

      I'm happy you feel good - but at 350lbs and not losing weight on what should be minimal caloric input, I suspect t

      • If you haven't been to a doctor in 15 years - how do you know you are "in better health today than I ever was before"?

        I feel better, look better and sleep better than 15 years ago. Back then, I was a butterball with nice legs from bicycling 20 miles per day. Today I'm more muscle mass than fat.

        Maybe if you were eating 1,500 calories a meal, three times a day you would be maintaining that weight.

        Nope. I eat 150 grams of carbs and 1,500 calories per day. This has been my current diet for the last four months. The fat is coming off my sides. That might be from the rowing machine at the gym.

        After all, you don't want those relatives of yours spilling drinks and cigarette ashes into your coffin.

        That's assuming I have any relatives left when I die. They're dropping like flies these days.

    • Except for one small problem: I don't believe that bullshit.

      What bullshit?

      Morbidly obese doesn't mean "you're guaranteed to drop dead", much like smoking 60 fags a day doesn't mean you're guaranteed to drop dead. Excess weight is, however, causally correlated with a wide variety of different health problems. If you don't believe that then you are simply engaging in denialism.

      You might have won the genetic lottery. It happens. Not everyone gets all or any of the health problems from being very overweight. T

      • Morbidly obese doesn't mean "you're guaranteed to drop dead", much like smoking 60 fags a day doesn't mean you're guaranteed to drop dead.

        Not according to the self-righteous fat shamers, fitness nuts and ACs. The morbidly obese label should apply to people who are 2X, 3X or 4X bigger than I am. I see them all the time on public transit.

        Excess weight is, however, causally correlated with a wide variety of different health problems.

        I've taken steps to reduce those health risks by eating healthy, exercising regularly and getting enough sleep. The only thing I'm not doing as some people encouraged me to do is commit suicide.

        That's an extremely low intake for an adult male.

        Not necessarily. The average American eat 300+ grams of carbs and 2,000+ calories. A low-carb diet is 150 grams of car

        • Not according to the self-righteous fat shamers, fitness nuts and ACs.

          Not sure where you got fitness nuts from, but sure if you pick whackos you can find someone with any stupid opinion. That proves nothing except there are idiots on the internet.

          The morbidly obese label should apply to people who are 2X, 3X or 4X bigger than I am.

          The medical profession defines it. Why do you care where they draw the line? Also dude, you're 350lbs: people 4x your weight don't exist.

          That's an extremely low intake for an adu

          • Not sure where you got fitness nuts from [...]

            Coworkers. I get lectured frequently on the virtues of drinking water — never mind that I have a pitcher of water on my desk. Another coworker loudly recommended that I get lap band surgery in the middle of a meeting.

            Also dude, you're 350lbs: people 4x your weight don't exist.

            The Internet disagrees with you.

            http://mostextreme.org/heaviest_man.php [mostextreme.org]

            • Coworkers. I get lectured frequently on the virtues of drinking water - never mind that I have a pitcher of water on my desk. Another coworker loudly recommended that I get lap band surgery in the middle of a meeting.

              Sounds like your coworker is a dickhead. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with "morbidly obese" as a term.

              The Internet disagrees with you.

              My point still stands. Almost no one is even 2x your weight let alone 4x.

              • Almost no one is even 2x your weight let alone 4x.

                The Internet disagrees with you on 2X.

                http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034839/The-worlds-fattest-woman-700-pound-California-woman-enters-record-books.html [dailymail.co.uk]

                Here's a 3X reference.

                http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a703/esq0806wifl-114-4/ [esquire.com]

                • The Internet disagrees with you on 2X.

                  How does finding a single example or even a handful refute my point that almost no one is that heavy.

                  • How does finding a single example or even a handful refute my point that almost no one is that heavy.

                    Because I've seen people who are heavier than me on public transit. I take up a single seat on the bus. These people take up two or three seats in the handicap area.

                    Here's another example: 5,000 super-sized people per year are denied access to medical helicopters because their weight.

                    http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/too-fat-rescue-more-heavy-patients-denied-air-ambulances-f6C10485763 [nbcnews.com]

                    • Because I've seen people who are heavier than me on public transit.

                      You've seen people 2x heavier than you on public transit? How many?

                      Here's another example: 5,000 super-sized people per year are denied access to medical helicopters because their weight.

                      They're talking about problems with people around the 440lb mark. That's not twice your weight. And from your link:

                      At Airlift Northwest near Seattle, crews start to worry about any patient who is heavier than 250 pounds and wider than 26 inches across,

                      That's

                    • You've seen people 2x heavier than you on public transit? How many?

                      About two dozen people in the past year on bus lines that go into the local hospitals. None of these people have muscle mass.

                      They're talking about problems with people around the 440lb mark. That's not twice your weight.

                      You denied that 4X people exist, so I provided a link. Then you denied that 2X people exist, so I provided a link. And, just in case you're being nitpicky, I provided a link for 3X people. What's your point?

                      That's lighter than you.

                      There's a difference between 250 pounds of fat and 350 pounds of muscle mass.

                    • You denied that 4X people exist, so I provided a link.

                      Yes I did.

                      Then you denied that 2X people exist

                      No I didn't.

                      There's a difference between 250 pounds of fat and 350 pounds of muscle mass.

                      You posted a photo. You ain't 350lbs of muscle. Hulk Hogan at his heaviest was 303 lbs of muscle. The 5x winner of worlds strongest man is 320 lbs. You are not them.

                    • You posted a photo. You ain't 350lbs of muscle. Hulk Hogan at his heaviest was 303 lbs of muscle. The 5x winner of worlds strongest man is 320 lbs. You are not them.

                      Look at my picture. I'm not a butterball. I have more muscle mass than fat mass. When I worked at the gym for a year at the gym to increase my weight from 325 pounds to 400 pounds, I had a lot more muscle mass than I do now. But finding 4XL t-shirts was a bitch. So I dropped down to 350 pounds and wear 2XL t-shirts. If you compared me with a 250 pound fat guy, I have more muscle mass.

  • by penguinoid ( 724646 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @08:59PM (#52515275) Homepage Journal

    In unrelated news, men are 3 times less likely than women to care about their weight.

    • and women care 3 times less about their husband obesity than the opposite.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      No, they are not saying that men are more likely to be obese, they are saying that being obese seems to have a much worse effect on lifespan for men than it does for women.

      In other words, given a man and a women who are both obese, the man is more likely to have a significantly shortened lifespan.

    • by ndogg ( 158021 )

      And their health, apparently.

      Those Hungry Man commercials were probably the worst things to happen to men's health. How the hell did eating like a pig become manly?

  • Why do men die so much younger than their wives?

    Answer

    Because they want to.

  • I mean, seriously -- we're saying a guy can be moderately overweight and only lose an average of 12 months off his lifespan? How many hours of a person's life are robbed from trying to do workouts they don't even enjoy doing, or turning down the foods they really want to eat and enjoy, all in an attempt to maintain a weight that's lower than their body's natural "set point" wants it to be if they do nothing special to change it?

    IMO, the *real* questions are about QUALITY of life vs. how many months we can

    • How many hours of a person's life are robbed from trying to do workouts they don't even enjoy doing, or turning down the foods they really want to eat and enjoy, all in an attempt to maintain a weight that's lower than their body's natural "set point" wants it to be if they do nothing special to change it?

      None?

      It all depends on how you do it. If you try to go on a diet and gym spree and shed the weight you'll probably have a miserable time, lose a bit, flame out and then put it all back on.

      I found myself a

  • so i should stop trying to save for retirement or buy a house of any of that and just live like there's no tomorrow because there really isn't, i'm probably going to die before i ever get a chance to retire.

    and ironically a large reason why i'm fat is because i sit at a desk all day trying to make the money to actually live my life someday when i'm old, and then stress eat when work makes me hate my life because it's about the only enjoyable thing i can really afford.

Waste not, get your budget cut next year.

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