Headline Reuters Health: Does weight loss up death risk for obese people?

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - It may run counter to advice from almost every quarter, but a Finnish study suggests that losing weight may not be wise for overweight people….

According to the investigators’ report in PLoS Medicine, the final group included 2957 subjects who were overweight or obese in 1975. Two hundred sixty-eight of these subjects died during follow-up.

Individuals who lost or gained weight between 1975 and 1981 were roughly 40 percent more likely to die than those who kept a steady weight. Moreover, intentional weight loss raised the risk of death by 87 percent compared with maintaining a steady weight.

Headline Reuters Health: Obese women run risk of frailty in old age

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who are obese after age 70 are more likely to become frail — and perhaps disabled — than normal-weight women, new research shows.

Headline AP: Survey: Most Adults in Idaho Overweight

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho - Most of the adults in Idaho are overweight or obese, according to an annual survey by the Centers for Disease Control….

In 2003, nearly 60 percent of adults were considered overweight by CDC standards, and 22 percent of that group was obese.

Put these reports together and we learn some valuable lessons. The death rate in the general population is 100%. But if you lose weight, you are between 40% and 87% MORE likely to die than if you maintain a steady weight. So if you want to have a chance of living forever, keep a stead obese weight.

However, if don’t lose weight as an obese woman (and do manage to avoid the statistics that catch up with everyone else) the chances are good that you will be very frail as those eternal years wear on. So you pay the price of frailty and disability for a less than 100% death rate. It is a steep price indeed.

And finally, there seems to be a clear link between obesity and potatoes. Just to be on the safe side, you might want to steer clear of Idaho entirely.