Lean body shape is linked to lowest mortality, research shows

People who maintain a stable lean body shape throughout their lifetime have the lowest mortality, while those with a heavy body shape from childhood to middle age have the highest, a large study published in The BMJ has found.1

Researchers tracked the evolution of body shape and the associated mortality among two large cohorts. A total of 80 266 women and 36 622 men in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study were asked to recall their body shape at ages 5, 10, 20, 30, and 40. They also provided their body mass index (BMI) at age …