Fats Harm, Smoking Slims (but kills)

Regardless of what statistical methods are employed or which group of people are studied, one fact remains, cardiovascular disease risk factors especially diabetes are lowest among lean people, higher in the overweight and highest of all in the obese.  Diabetes is more directly linked with overweight and obesity than other risk factors.  Elevated blood pressure and cholesterol come with being obese.  Many studies indicate that excess fat is associated not only with diabetes, stroke, heart disease, joint problems but also with cancer.

In most parts of the body, fat is stored under the skin and over the muscle.  But fat around the middle part of the body also gets deposited under the muscle.  This gut fat is far more active than peripheral fat, releasing inflammatory molecules that are partly responsible for insulin resistance, diabetes and hypertension.  Exercise is a feasible idea but unless fat in the beer belly is eliminated, one is still at risk. 

If your cholesterol or blood sugar is getting high, losing weight would be beneficial.  The onslaughts of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes or heart disease are urgent signals to slim down.  A weight loss of as little as 5% can be vital in lowering the risks from these conditions.

In a long term study of more than a million people, mortality rates for male smokers of normal weight were 61% higher than for nonsmokers of the same weight given that both groups started off the study in apparent good health.  Normal weight smokers had a higher death rate compared to obese non-smokers with a BMI between 30 and 32.  Thus, the more smokers who are included in the long term study, the unhealthier it looks to be underweight because the average smoker is both thinner and sicker than the average nonsmoker.

Health wise, if you smoke, you are at risk regardless of your weight.  Giving up smoking should take precedence.  Even if you gain some pounds after quitting, you have still significantly lowered your risk of dying prematurely.