Research
Energy balance
Cardiovascular disease is the primary cause of death associated with high BMI, accounting for more than two-thirds of high-BMI-related deaths.
Heart disease is the biggest killer linked to high body weight. Keeping your BMI in the 20-25 range is one of the most effective ways to protect your heart.
StrongSupportsVERY_HIGH confidence
More than two-thirds of deaths related to high BMI were due to cardiovascular disease.
Why this rating
Based on the robust GBD dataset.
Source
Health Effects of Overweight and Obesity in 195 Countries over 25 Years
The GBD 2015 Obesity Collaborators · New England Journal of Medicine · 2017
DOI 10.1056/nejmoa1614362
cohort · n=67800000Cited 7,907×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- High body mass index (BMI) is a causal risk factor for a broad spectrum of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, multiple cancers, and musculoskeletal disorders, resulting in significant global mortality and disease burden.Strong
- A significant portion of deaths related to high BMI occur among individuals who are not clinically obese (BMI < 30 kg/m2), indicating that overweight status (BMI 25-29.9) also carries substantial mortality risk.Strong
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