Creeping waistline speeds path to grave, new study finds

A 5-foot-9-inch man whose weight creeps up by 30 pounds to 205 may die three years earlier as a result, according to research that found even a moderate gain can drag down health.

The study, published in the U.K. medical journal The Lancet, found a person weighing 270 pounds at 5-foot-9 may lose a decade of life, with a death risk equal to that of a lifelong smoker.

The report by British scientists reviewed past studies of almost 1 million people and found carrying one-third more pounds than doctors deem ideal raises a person's chance of dying early by 30 percent.

"The takeaway message is that obesity is lethal," said David Katz, founder of Yale University's Prevention Medicine Center, who wasn't involved in the study.

The Lancet study looked at the effect of increasing body- mass index, a common measure of body fat that compares a person's weight and height. The ideal BMI is between 22.5 to 25, or about 154 pounds for a man or woman 5-foot-7-inches tall, the authors said in a statement.

The main way extra pounds turn deadly is by causing heart attacks and strokes, the leading killers worldwide, along with increasing cancer risks, said researcher Richard Peto of the University of Oxford.

"This is the second most important cause of avoidable death in middle age," Peto said. "For people who are not smokers, this is the main thing."

In the U.S., obesity rates doubled among adults between 1980 and 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The agency estimates 30 percent of the population is now obese, meaning their body-mass index is more than 30.

By that standard, the average American man, who stands 5-foot-9, according to the CDC, would weigh about 170 pounds if he had a healthy BMI. At 205 pounds, he'd be obese. Those in between are overweight, the agency says.

A 5-foot, 5-inch woman is considered overweight at 150 pounds and obese at 180 pounds, according to the body-mass index scale.