Brains of Overweight People Look Ten Years Older Than Those of Lean Peers, Says Report (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The brains of people who are obese or overweight appear to have aged an extra 10 years compared to their lean peers from middle age onwards, brain scanning research has revealed. The difference, scientists say, corresponds to a greater shrinkage in the volume of white matter, although they don't know the cause. It might be down to genes causing both brain-shrinking and obesity, or it could be that changes occurring in the brain lead to overeating. Either way, it does not appear to affect cognitive performance. White matter is tissue, composed of nerve fibers, that aids communication between different regions of the brain. The volume of white matter in a human brain increases during youth and then decreases with age for both lean people and those who are overweight or obese. But researchers have discovered that this shrinkage differs depending on a subject's BMI. "The overall message is that brains basically appear to be 10 years older if you are overweight or obese," said Lisa Ronan, first author of the study from the University of Cambridge. Despite a higher BMI being linked to a smaller volume of white matter, it did not appear to have any link to mental prowess, with no difference seen between lean and overweight or obese participants when they were subjected to IQ tests. Scientists from the University of Cambridge and Yale University have published their findings in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

Comments

BMI != obesity

[Oligonicella]

It was never meant to be such. Fit athletes can have a high BMI, it's mass (muscle is heavier than fat) against height.

A high BMI can be an indicator of high body fatness. BMI can be used as a screening tool but is not diagnostic of the body fatness or health of an individual.

Emphasis mine.
From CDC.

Re:BMI != obesity

[serviscope_minor]

When looking at an entire populate, the very muscular athletes are outliers. High BMI almost always indicates obesity.

Except on slashdot. You see on any youth thread we complain about how all the millennials think they are special snowflakes. But on BMI threads, everyone with an obese level BMI is one of the few special snowflakes for whom the prediction is not accurate.

Re:Starving is good?

[gtall]

More aptly, who wants to torture themselves just to get old.

Re:Or...

[DoofusOfDeath]

This. There are several insights I've found useful for keeping my weight down:

(1) Learn to recognize the difference between hunger and craving. When one's body seems to "be trying" to get back to your set-point weight, you'll be hit with all kinds of cravings that are unaccompanied by hunger. It takes less discipline to ignore cravings than to ignore the cravings+hunger.

(2) Keep a mental tally of (approximately) how many calories you've eaten so far in the day, vs. how active you have been / will be. It helps you decide if it's worth eating food ${X} or doing activity ${Y}.

(3) Poor sleep ==> { extra appetite, worse self-control, and less desire to get exercise }. So place a high premium on good sleep.

(4) Carbs seem to be somewhat addictive, in terms of cravings. In my experience, it takes ~ 1-2 months of not eating a lot of carbs in order for the cravings to go away.

(5) If I'm hungry, or even have cravings for fattening foods, it's better to eat something filling (meat, yogurt, etc.) rather than let myself get so hungry / craving that I say "screw it" and make brownies.

(6) For some reason, people who eat a lot of yogurt seem to be skinny. Correlation isn't causation, but it's perhaps a sign of it. So consider eating more yogurt. IMHO the yucky low-fat stuff with aspartame isn't worth it; just get something really yummy like Liberte and accept the calories as a worthwhile investment.