Being in weight insufficiency could be more deadly than being overweight

If you ask if you prefer to be too thin or fatty, most people would answer that they prefer to be too thin. Distorted beauty standards and their spread on social networks are certainly to blame for this, in addition to the knowledge that overweight generally brings a multitude of health risks. A new study, however, suggests that being too thin can be more deadly.

The researchers used health data to study the relationship between the body mass index (BMI) and mortality in 85,761 individuals, revealing that people can be “big but fit”. They presented their results at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), which began today.

The BMI measures fats according to size and weight and classifies individuals as sub-middle (less than 18.5), normal (18.5 to less than 25), overweight (25 to less than 30), obese (30 to less than 40) or seriously obese (40 and more). In research, scientists have divided the normal beach in normal lower (18.5 to <20), average (20.0 to <22.5) and upper (22.5 to <25.0). 81.4% of the participants studied were women and the median age was 66.4 years. The researchers took into account sex, level of comorbidity and level of education.

What range of BMI has higher mortality?

“There are contradictory results on the BMI range linked to the lowest mortality,” said the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University, author of research and a researcher from the European Corcanic Medicine Department of the University of Aarhus. “We once thought of 20 to 25

7,555 (8%) of the participants died during the five years of team follow -up, and the researchers compared the probability of mortality in different RMI ranges to those of people with a BMI at the normal higher level. Their results indicate that individuals in weight insufficiency were 2.73 times more likely to die than individuals with upper normal. Individuals with low normal were twice as likely to die, and the average individuals of normal were 27% more likely to die than individuals with upper normal. Interestingly, overweight individuals as well as individuals in the lower part of the obese range (30.0 to <35.0) were just as likely to die as normal superior individuals.

Researchers sometimes call for this as metabolically healthy or “fat but in shape”. However, individuals with a BMI between 35 and under 40 were 23% more likely to die. The seriously obese people (BMI of 40 and more) were 2.1 times more likely to die than normal superior individuals. In other words, a high BMI was not linked to higher mortality before a score of 35, and even scores between 35 and <40 had only slightly higher risk of death. The team found similar mortality schemes in the relationship between BMI and obesity at different ages, sexes and levels of education.

“In accordance with previous research, we have found that people who are in the insufficient range are faced with a much higher risk of death,” said Gibsholt. A possible explanation could be that some people lose the weight of the disease. “In these cases, it is the disease, and not the low weight itself, which increases the risk of death, which can give the impression that having a higher BMI is protective,” she admitted. However, “it is also possible that people with higher BMIs who live longer – most of the people we studied were elderly – may have certain protective features that influence the results.”

BMI does not reveal everything

In addition, fat distribution plays an important role in the health of an individual, said Jens Meldgaard Bruun, co-author of the study and also researcher in the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Aarhus. “Visceral fat – a very metabolically active fat and deeply stored in the abdomen, wrapped around organs – secret compounds that negatively affect metabolic health,” he explained. As such, people with a BMI of 35 who are in the form of apple (with fats around their abdomen) can have unfavorable health problems that do not affect others also with a BMI of 35 but who have fat on their hips, their rear and thighs.

“It is clear that the treatment of obesity must be personalized to take into account factors such as the distribution of fats and the presence of conditions such as type 2 diabetes when fixing a target weight,” concluded Bruun.

In a world governed by social media and unrealistic advertising expectations focused on advertising, the study joins previous research by trying to put the record directly on a healthy body weight. In addition, it highlights – once again – that BMI scores alone do not necessarily provide the complete image, although the scale seems to be exact about American obesity.