At a BMI of 22.6, I need to gain some weight

I need to gain some weight because of a recent meta-analysis (see here) that informs us that folks who are "over weight" (BMI of 25 t0 30) have a lower all cause mortality than folks who are what we used to call ideal or normal weight ( BMI of 20-24.9). It gets even better, Folks who have been derided and labelled as sloths by their health care providers because of their BMI in the range of 30 - 35  have a Hazard ratio of 0.95 ( CI .88-1.01) .At 5 feet 11, I look forward to gain up to 210 from my scrawny 163. One of my new year resolutions is to act immediately on the basis of the very latest meta-analysis since:1) meta-analyses occupy the tip top of the evidence based medicine hierarchy and 2) another meta-analysis may soon appear contradicting the other one and you loose your opportunity to improve your health.

 Since we humans are pattern seeking , story telling animals the authors try and tell a tale of how the results may be explained . One suggestion- overweight people may go to doctors sooner.This is likely as chubby people love to see their doc to be told they need to loose weight.

It was not long ago that another meta-analysis found that being even a "slight amount" of overweight increased one's risk of dying.See here.

So even a little overweight is bad or a little or even a little more overweight is good. Which is it?

The following quote by an economist, FA Hayek, was, I believe, aimed at central planners of the economy but I suggest that maybe we all would be better off if the public health planners might listen as well as they go about telling everyone how to eat and what they should weigh and what size sodas they should be allowed to purchase.


"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."

And to begin the new year with one more of favorite quotes. It is supposedly by an attorney cross examining an expert witness. 'Doctor, were you wrong then or are you wrong now?