Even After Weight Loss, Obesity Can Reduce Life Span

Among the people in the study, those who had ever been overweight were 19 percent more likely to die during the 23-year study period, compared with those who had never exceeded normal weight. Those who had ever been obese (with a body mass index, or BMI, from 30.0 to 34.9) were 65 percent more likely to die during the study than those who had never exceeded normal weight. The new study "sheds light on the need for greater efforts to stem the obesity epidemic," said study author Andrew Stokes, of