It has previously been suggested that some obese people can be healthy. Certainly, many enjoy and active life and appear healthy. But, does overweight and obesity increase the risk of cardiovascular events and death? To study this further, researchers at University of Toronto evaluated 8 studies with a total of 61,386 participants and grouped them into 6 BMI/metabolic status categories: "BMI (normal weight/overweight/obesity) and metabolic status (healthy/unhealthy)." Healthy vs. unhealthy was "defined by the presence or absence of components of the metabolic syndrome by Adult Treatment Panel III or International Diabetes Federation criteria."
Not surprisingly the researchers found the group with lowest risk was the nomal weight were metabolically healthy group. The normal weight metabolically unhealthy, and the overweight, or obese had an "elevated risk all-cause mortality and/or cardiovascular events." The authors concluded:
"Compared with metabolically healthy normal-weight individuals, obese persons are at increased risk for adverse long-term outcomes events in the absence of metabolic abnormalities, suggesting that there is no healthy pattern of increased weight."