Research
Energy balance
The 'Obesity Paradox'—where overweight or mildly obese patients have better prognosis in certain diseases—is likely an artifact of BMI's inability to distinguish between phenotypes and sampling errors, rather than a true protective effect of fat.
Do not rely on the 'obesity paradox' to excuse poor health. If you are overweight, focus on improving your metabolic health and body composition, as BMI alone is an imperfect predictor of risk.
ModerateRefutesMEDIUM confidence
This finding, evident across various medical disciplines, has no definitive explanation although it may stem from sampling errors or from the inherent limitations of BMI, which fails to distinguish between phenotypes at higher or lower cardio-metabolic risk.
Why this rating
The paper states the existence of the paradox but argues against its biological validity based on BMI limitations.
Source
Italian Association of Hospital Cardiologists position paper—obesity in adults: a clinical primer
Stefania Angela Di Fusco et al. · European Heart Journal Supplements · 2024
DOI 10.1093/eurheartjsupp/suae031
clinical_guidelineCited 3×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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- Initial patient engagement by cardiologists must be handled with discretion, sensitivity, and non-judgmental communication to avoid reinforcing stigma and alienation, which negatively impact quality of care.Good
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