New research says that excess weight around the belly, or a pot belly boosts the risk of premature death even for people who are considered normal weight.

‘Scientists who looked at nutrition survey data concluded that people of normal weight with belly fat have a higher mortality risk than people who are obese. A pot belly can be a bad thing – even if you’re not considered overweight.’

If you've got a belly above 40 inches for men and 34 inches for women, this is obesity [even if your weight measurements seem normal]. 




For the study, a team led by Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., used data from a national survey to compare the risk of premature death among more than 15,000 adults. The mean follow-up time was 14 years.
In the study, 11 percent of men and 3 percent of women were normal weight but had an elevated waist-to-hip ratio. Surprisingly, they were at greater risk – for men, roughly twice the risk – than more pear-shaped overweight or obese people.
They concluded that normal-weight adults with mid-body obesity have the worst long-term survival compared with any group, regardless of BMI.
In fact, the researchers said, a person of normal weight with so-called “central obesity” had twice the mortality rate of people who are overweight or obese based on BMI only.
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