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Comment by wotmatetherow | Hacker News Reader

Obesity is an independent risk factor, even if otherwise active/healthy. It's worth getting under control for lifespan and healthspan.

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Across the population as a whole, BMI 30 is basically negligible increase in all-cause mortality. For someone otherwise reasonably active I wouldn't stress about the number. Ideal is somewhere around 27.

Where are you getting this number? Over 27% body fat is a health risk. For an active but not muscular individual, 30 BMI is at least 33% body fat, likely higher.

From the multitude of studies, in particular the relatively recent huge multi-study analysis of all-cause mortality vs BMI.

BMI is useful for screening purposes but on an individual basis it's meaningless as a predictor of all-cause mortality. What really matters is body composition, or more specifically amount of visceral fat (subcutaneous fat doesn't matter nearly as much).

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24147-viscera...

BMI over 25 is overweight. Obese is 30 or higher.

bmi doesn't mean much though.

size, body composition, ethnicity will give very different meanings to the same bmi.

Yes, those are the definitions we have assigned to the number. However, independent of the arbitrary labels, the actual impact on health matters more to me.

Sure. I lost 20lbs in the last 12 months. I agree it’s worth working on, but not that it’s worth stressing about.

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