I love this comment. You're right on! People hate on fat people and cover it with "Well, I'm just worried about your health" I say, tell the TRUTH "Fat people are gross and I don't want to look at it." I mean, really, let's be honest with ourselves!

Healthy obese people may live as long as thin folks........KEY WORD...MAY....If given odds on which life style to choose so as to increase ones odds of life longevity I'll stay thin!!!

Dysphoria: You're right that many who voice any opinion aren't really talking about health, but using it as a cover for their own prejudices. That said this study hardly gives obesity a blank check. It says its possible for SOME obese people who don't have other issues to live as long, but read the stats on all of the others. The fact remains obesity DOES cause health issues everyone has to pay for at the SAME time it causes these absurd prejudices you're talking about.

Midwesterner and AP -- I can't believe anyone has suggested that you NOT stay thin. We would, however, ask that size not be a determining factor in stating someone is not healthy. Some health issues result from genetic factors triggered in some obese people, not all. Where else is a group condemned for the lives of some? When speaking with prejudice, of course. And, please do not require everyone to be thin.

Thanks, Dyspohoria, for an excellent observation.

Oh please. Obesity IS IN FACT a health epidemic. That there are a very small number of people out there who can keep blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes under control while being obese, doesn't change the fact that those ARE the consequences of obesity for the vast majority of obese people.

If people were just naturally obese, the rates of obesity would not be rising every year.

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html

The rates are rising because our lifestyles are trending towards eating more, period. You can't gain weight if you don't take in more calories than you burn. And on top of that, everyone has a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), which is basically a freebie number of calories that you burn from simply being alive!

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

My BMR is around 1,600 calories a day! I can eat 1,600 calories and spend the entire day in bed, and not gain an ounce. Add on the calories you burn from normal daily activity, and you have a significant amount of food you can eat and maintain your weight. Of course, metabolisms vary, but we all still burn a significant amount of energy without lifting a finger.

So no, don't pretend you have to starve yourself or spend 3 hours a day at the gym in order to be a healthy weight. Most people for centuries were able to do it before we all started buying fast food meals and pre-packaged foods that pack a whole day's worth of caloric energy into a single serving, then sit around in our office cubicles all day and come home to spend all night on the sofa in front of the TV.

Unless you think people are magically fatter today than they were just 10 or 20 years ago (let alone back in the days when people ate less processed food and did more manual labor), then you can't deny that a lifestyle of perpetual overeating is the source of the problem.

And for the record, I'm sure there are lots of people who are offended by the appearance of large bodies, but I find the gluttony and wastefulness to be the disturbing aspect, not the aesthetics.

I personally know fat people in their 70's and 80's who are healthy and are still WORKING! And I know slim people in their 20's, 30's and 40's who are sick with various things- high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, etc.. A very good slim friend of mine, 43 years old just got diagnosed with prostate cancer. The fat 70 and 80 year olds I'm speaking of don't have high blood pressure, diabetes or cancer.

This study definitely has a lot of merit to it

I have been saying for years that we need to stop looking at the number on the scale and instead focus on things like blood pressure, blood sugar fluctuations and a person's general level of fitness (strength, endurance, etc.) for all people. These things, along with an understanding of your family's health history, are the things that more truly paint a picture of how healthy a person is regardless of their body type.

Here's something I've been wondering about for a while: if excess fat is the real health problem here and a person could become healthy by doing nothing more than losing that excess fat, then why aren't more doctor's suggesting liposuction instead of diet and exercise? The answer is because fat isn't actually the problem, it's just another symptom.

We need to treat the real problem here: an unhealthy lifestyle that includes not just too much food and too little exercise, but a lot of other factors that we don't ever think about because, culturally, we consider them to be acceptable or even admirable. Things like processed foods that are marketed as being "healthy" just because they don't have fat or calories, never mind the fact that they also don't have any nutrition. Things like too much stress, because culturally we associate high stress levels with being a hard worker and assume that if you're not stressed out then you must be lazy. Things like our obsession with using anti-bacterial and artificial air-freshening products everywhere in the mistaken belief that a sterile, "perfumed" environment is also a clean and healthy environment, regardless of the effect this chemical soup has on our bodies and immune systems. It's much easier to blame "fat" than to confront the fact that many of the most basic aspects of our lives may be what's killing us.

and it sounds like that chip on your shoulder is getting pretty heavy...

This is happens when a fat, insecure girl ends up losing weight.

It creates a thin, self-absorbed monster.

Carmen, so what you are saying is that people should set on their butts and look for excuses to be fat?

Your wrong. I've said it before on other articles. Just like varied dog breeds.....people are just as variable. Some people are Yorkies and some are bull dogs or pit bulls. We need to just be satisfied with being healthy at whatever genetic predisposition we have.

That's a depressing attitude and one of someone who's given up. Don't accept your unhealthy body and convince yourself it's just the way it has to be. It's not genetic predisposition. You're wrong. lol Spell check!

No, April R. Your attitude is depressing. I am glad that you can look at someone and know without a doubt if they are healthy or not. I wish I had that ability. I am what would be considered obese, but all of my vitals are just fine, thank you. My blood pressure, cholesterol, and heart rate are perfectly within range. I do exercise, and I don't gorge myself on unhealthy foods. But I appreciate that you can tell the opposite of all of that just by looking at me.

Oh, and your words of encouragement make all of the obese-but-healthy people on this board cringe. No wonder depression is a weight-related illness now.

@April: this is from Dr Joel Furhman, quoted from his rawfoodsinfo web site:

"Each individual may have unique biochemical and physiologic differences that have to be considered to devise the optimal recommendations to get well and maintain optimal health."

In other words, what works for you may not work for someone else. AND, notice: not one word in there about weight or body fat, just that we should strive for optimal health.

Kinda what everyone else here is trying to say.

Except you.

Bye.

Art-GREAT post!!

Replying to April R - you *know* fat people are unhealthy just like once upon a time people *knew* that black people were less intelligent and best suited to be slaves. People also *knew* once that the earth was flat (perhaps it still is in your view?). Everyone *knew* that women were inferior to men and not suited to vote or hold jobs or even be educated. This kind of thinking benefits those who hold the power and the benefits (in this case, the thin people) and ensures continued oppression of the minority or target group (in this case, the fat people). This scientific study tells you that healthy fat people live as long as healthy thin people, yet somehow you just *know* that fat people are unhealthy no matter what and it's okay to find them ugly. This is beyond backward thinking.

Yet, if an obese person follows that advice, chances are pretty good he'll lose weight anyway.

Probably some ... but not necessarily. Muscle weighs more than fat. And some people are just bigger than others. Bigger bones, more muscle mass, etc.

While I don't think the super obese people are healthy, I'll bet there are thousands that are "overweight" and healthy. They eat balanced meals, exercise and in general, enjoy life. They just aren't a size 00.

However, it's also the right of business establishments and health-related industries to impose reasonable limitations on how this person may be serviced due to his weight condition.

You just go right on believing that. Businesses and others that act that way will, eventually, find themselves without customers - or not enough to stay in business.

You want to ostracize the fat? Fine - just consider one thing: it's a fact that the overweight are becoming a larger percentage of the population every year; meaning you thin folks are becoming a minority. What do you think will happen to you when the majority - the large folks - become totally fed up with the minority?

it's a fact that the overweight are becoming a larger percentage of the population every year; meaning you thin folks are becoming a minority.

The overweight and obese are already the majority in one of the fattest nations. It is almost pathetic to see so many people abuse their bodies like that. No one should care if these people become "fed up" with healthy people. They will be the people that die younger then us. And it is not our fault that their condition is the result of years of overeating and a sedentary lifestyle.

Ah, the old "muscle weighs more than fat" line.

So, does a person get those beefy muscles from lifting BigMacs to their mouth, or what?

No, it takes serious commitment to build muscle mass, especially if you do it naturally. Only a true bodybuilder (who is already in shape) is going to gain any weight from their workouts. On the other hand, a fat person WILL lose weight if they exercise!

I just started on a medically supervised weight loss/healthly living plan with a nutritionist. They did a body fat calculation. I am female,55 years old, don't get enough exercise and am about 30 lbs. overweight. I have 115 lbs. of lean muscle mass. The average for women is 80-100. I don't lift BigMacs thank you (I am vegetarian), so I guess the only explanation is genetics since I haven't been particularly committed to building muscle. And yes, muscle does weigh more than fat. That is why the BMI is a joke.

Overall being obese is more likely to lead to health issues than maintaining a normal, healthy, weight. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the best way to live a healthy life.

Pardon me if I am interpreting this the wrong way, but it really sounds like you are saying that people who are obese or overweight don't live healthy lifestyles- which isn't true at all. There is no way for anyone to tell by weighing someone if they are healthy or not; these are two completely separate things.

A "normal, healthy weight" for me won't be the same as someone else. I am overweight according to the standard charts, but I am extremely healthy and live a very healthy lifestyle. I eat right, exercise regularly, don't smoke or drink, etc. I could run circles around all the "normal" weight people I know. My doctor says I don't need to lose weight and that I'm doing great the way I am. Thankfully, she recognizes that being fat does NOT equal being unhealthy. Like I said - two completely different issues.

Unlike another poster here, I would not take a pill or "worse health" to look better, because I think I look just fine - and the people who matter do too. I think everyone- not just fat people- should try to be healthier - and to accept what they look like. Confidence makes people shine.

My mom who has been overweight and obese most of her life is 77, her sister who has also been obese most of her life is also in her 70s. They both are still active and maintain their own homes without help, both still work by choice not due to financial necessity, and both are very active in the lives of their young grandchildren. Maybe because obese seniors have dealt with being ostracized and ridiculed over their appearance for decades they don't have the same need as other seniors to band together when they no longer exemplify what society glorifies. Maybe you don’t see elderly obese people in your retirement community because they learned long ago to survive in a world that doesn't value them equally and therefore do not need to surround themselves with people who are only like themselves. Maybe like my mom, my aunt, and my next door neighbor, other obese 70 year olds are still engaged in a world full of people of a different generation, culture, or background then themselves - rather than being dead as you have insinuated, maybe they are still out there living life with the rest of the world. But thank you for your notsosmart insight.

Wow. Did no one actually read the article? They are not advocating that people become obese, or that people take this as an excuse to remain obese. They actually advocated that the group of people who are overweight-but-healthy continue eating right and exercising. Just sayin' . . .