Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreamliner
*Although even here I've seen research which has the most morbidly obese of women outliving normal weight males.  |
I thought that women outlive men in general, regardless of weight.
...
Anyway, I have another theory as why overweight may outlive "perfect" weight.
I suspect that the body generally shuts down slowly over time. Eventually, the ability to process calories/nutrients from what we eat becomes compromised, and part of what the body does is turn to fat storage to make up the difference (along with other strategies like shedding muscle that isn't being used).
IF you can buy that, of course a fat person is going to live longer. They have more to pull from.
to illustrate:
2 people, same age, one fat, one not (some fat, but not excess). At the same point in time they contract the same disease that shuts down the digestion/absorption of calories at the same rate. The thin person is going to run out of storage and then die before the fat person.