Middle-age obesity cuts 3 years off life

BEING obese in middle age shortens life expectancy by three years in women and two years in men, research shows.

Experts at Northwestern University in Chicago took 1 0,000 volunteers in their 40s and 50s and tracked them over several decades.

Women who were obese – with a body mass index of more than 30 – at the start, died 3.4 years earlier than those of a healthy weight. For obese men, life expectancy was 1. years lower. In both sexes, the ‘morbidly’ obese –a BMI of more than 40 – died six years earlier.

The study, published in Jama Cardiology, found obesity raised the risk of heart attacks by 75 per cent and strokes by 28 per cent in women (42 per cent and 20 per cent in men), debunking the ‘obesity paradox’ claim that being overweight can protect your health.