BMI, Fitness, and Mortality

I know I've blabbed about this before, but I've been thinking about it again, and learned some new things.

Obesity isn't a significant health risk. People think it is: you keep hearing "lose weight and you'll be healthier". But this doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Turns out, if you look at any actual study (look here, here, here, or here; or do your own search for "BMI fitness mortality"), obesity isn't the problem at all: fitness levels are.

Where does the confusion come from? It's a basic stats error. There is certainly a CORRELATION between a high BMI and mortality rates, but a high BMI doesn't CAUSE health problems.

To put it another way, if you're overweight and fit, you don't have a problem.

I tried and failed, but if somebody could find any study (serious study, with more than a thousand participants) that contradicts this argument, I would LOVE to see it.

This all makes me mad, because this 'overweight=unhealthy' argument is used to justify a lot of social injustices, and it's bullshit.

Nuff said.