Good news for women but a cautionary fact that men need to toake onboard.
Health on Female First
A fact revealed by researchers shows that overweight men are up to 50 per cent more likely to die before they reach 70, a major study has found.
A team from Cambridge and Oxford discovered that being too fat is far more harmful for men than it was for women.
Their study took in studies involving over 3.5 million adults worldwide and concluded that males who were overweight or obese had a 30 per cent chance of dying before the age of 70. Compared to the average risk of 19 per cent for those with a healthy weight.
The difference for overweight or obese women was only a 15 per cent more likelyhood of dieing before they reach 70 compared to 11 per cent of those who were classified as healthy.
Researchers think that men are more affected by obesity than women and it causes major changes in their liver fat levels and insulin levels.
This means they are at far higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, liver disease and heart conditions later in life.
The study published in the Lancet and also found that overweight people lose an average of one year of their life expectancy rising to three years if they are obese.
Reseacher Dr Emanuele Di Angelantonio from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, the lead author was quoted as saying 'We also found that men who were obese were at much higher risk of premature death than obese women.
'This is consistent with previous observations that obese men have greater insulin resistance, liver fat levels, and diabetes risk than women.'
The Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, which proovided funding for the research, said: 'The results show that being overweight does have a significant impact on your health and strengthen the arguments for public health measures to reduce obesity in our society.'