BMI, overweight healthier than 'normal'?

[jenk]

People who are overweight but not obese have a lower risk of death than those of normal [or under normal] weight, federal researchers are reporting today. [...] The new study, considered by many independent scientists to be the most rigorous yet on the effects of weight, controlled for factors like smoking, age, race and alcohol consumption in a sophisticated analysis derived from a well-known method that has been used to predict cancer risk. [...T]he new study addressed the risk only of death and not of disability or disease. [...]

The study did not explain why overweight appeared best as far as mortality was concerned. But Dr. Williamson said the reason might be that most people die when they are over 70. Having a bit of extra fat in old age appears to be protective, he said, giving rise to more muscle and more bone. "It's called the obesity paradox," Dr. Williamson said. But, he said, while the paradox is real, the reasons are speculative. "It's raw conjecture," he said.

The new study comes just 13 months after different researchers from the disease control centers published a paper warning that obesity and overweight were causing an extra 400,000 deaths a year and were poised to overtake smoking as the nation's leading preventable cause of premature death. That conclusion caused an uproar, and scientists, particularly those who examine the consequences of smoking, questioned the study's methods. In January, the agency's researchers corrected calculation errors and published a revised estimate of 365,000 deaths. Now the new study says that obesity and extreme obesity are causing about 112,000 extra deaths but that overweight is preventing about 86,000, leaving a net toll of some 26,000 deaths in all three categories combined, compared with the 34.000 extra deaths found in those who are underweight. - From The New York Times

Based on the new calculation, excess weight would drop from the second leading cause of preventable death, after smoking, to seventh. It would fall behind car crashes and guns on the list of killers. - Associated Press

I'm not surprised that the 'normal' BMIs may be too low for overall health - I know several people whose lean body mass alone puts them over the 'normal' BMI. I also realize this still leaves me in the 'high-risk' category (severely obese). That said, I always doubted the 365,000-deaths-a-year figure. I also realize that there are health risks to weight loss.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't lose weight if they feel its the best choice for them. I would hope that the people reading this would do it by exercising more and eating differently, not by laxatives, bulmia (and why isn't Terri Schiavo seen as a warning against bulimia, hm?), illegal drugs, or amputations.

I just think that a lot of what is said and written about weight could just a *few* grains of sanity occasionally. Not too many - wouldn't want to have to lay any of those snake-oil sellers off or anything - but a few wouldn't hurt, now would they?