Atkins: Is a BMI of 26-27 overweight? BMI and mortality

[Guest guest]

> Quoting..

At a height of 6 feet, Dr. Atkins' BMI was 26.4, putting

> him squarely in the normal range for his age. "

> 26.4 is overweight.

--------------------------

Jeff-

I didn't know about the coronary artery disease progression in Atkins.

It would be nice for you to provide the links to such info.

With regard to BMI and " overweight " , this is an interesting question.

You're right, of course, technically, if you go to the CDC website,

for example, and look at their BMI calculator:

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/bmi-means.htm

They will tell you that the upper limit of normal for BMI is 25, with

anything over 30 being considered " obese " , and 25-30 being " overweight " .

However, on their site, they have a nice cartoon of a muscular and a

fat person, side by side, with BMIs of about 28 - one is overweight,

one is not.

Another way to look at this is using " hard outcomes " .

So if I'm selling you life insurance, and your BMI is 26.4 and you're

a man, you're in the optimum " lowest risk " category. Maybe a bit

close to a cutoff of 28- which is where this one study found risk to

go up slightly - I am sure there are a lot of studies with a lot of

different answers. But the bottom line is this: With a BMI of 26 or

so, your survival rate statistically is very near optimal, at least

when looking at US statistical data.

So to use Atkins' BMI of 26.4 at time of death and to claim that this

reflects an unhealthy nature of his diet is, in my mind, not

supportable by any facts.

With regard to coronary artery disease - well that's another issue.

---------------------------

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgicmd=Retrieve & db=PubMed & list_uids=87\

88324 & dopt=Citation

Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1996 Jan;20(1):63-75. Related

Articles, Links

The relationship between body weight and mortality: a quantitative

analysis of combined information from existing studies.

Troiano RP, Frongillo EA Jr, Sobal J, Levitsky DA.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health

Statistics, Hyattsville, MD 20782, USA.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the relationship between body mass index

(BMI, kg/m2) and all-cause mortality with information from the

published scientific literature. DESIGN: Meta-analysis using a

hierarchical, mixed model. The analysis included random effects for

information sources and fixed effects for factors that may modify the

BMI-mortality relationship such as smoking, control for disease, and

country of origin, which allowed combining information from diverse

studies.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Predicted probability of death over a given

duration of follow-up plotted by BMI for sex-age cohorts of white race.

RESULTS: An extensive search identified nineteen prospective cohort

studies that met inclusion criteria. A U-shaped relationship between

BMI and mortality was demonstrated for 50-year-old men followed for 30

years. Mortality risk increased with low and high BMI (< 23 or > 28)

in groups of non-smokers without evidence of disease upon study entry.

Limited information from studies of women indicated that, with 10 year

follow-up, there was little relationship between BMI and mortality for

(1) non-smokers and for (2) mixtures of smokers and non-smokers.

CONCLUSION: This quantitative analysis of existing studies revealed

increased mortality at moderately low BMI for white men comparable to

that observed at extreme overweight, which does not appear to be due

to smoking or existing disease. Attention to the health risks of

underweight is needed, and body weight recommendations for optimum

longevity need to be considered in light of these risks.

-------------------------