--- title: Study: Obesity May Shorten Life Expectancy by Up to 8 Years description: Young obese people are at most risk for loss of life canonical: https://time.com/3619251/obesity-life-expectancy/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-05T03:27:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:35:56.906Z article:section: Health og:title: Obesity Can Reduce Life by 8 Years og:description: And the younger one becomes obese, the more lives lost og:url: https://time.com/3619251/obesity-life-expectancy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obesity Can Reduce Life by 8 Years twitter:description: And the younger one becomes obese, the more lives lost twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Study: Obesity May Shorten Life Expectancy by Up to 8 Years > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Dec 5, 2014 3:27 AM UTC  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Dec 5, 2014 3:27 AM UTC A [new study](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/obesity.pdf) has found that obesity can shorten one’s life by almost a decade. Researchers at McGill University linked obesity with an increased risk of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes — ailments that dramatically reduce both life expectancy and the number of years spent free of chronic illnesses. Obesity and extreme obesity can reduce life expectancy by up to eight years and deprive people of as many as 19 years of healthy living, the study published Thursday in _The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology_ concludes. Researchers used data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to create a model to estimate the risk of disease based on body weight and then examined how excess weight contributed to years of life lost. The model found that the younger someone becomes obese, the more years he or she ultimately loses. “The pattern is clear,” Dr. Steven Grover, lead author and Professor of Medicine at McGill University, said in the published study. “The more an individual weighs and the younger their age, the greater the effect on their health, as they have many years ahead of them during which the increased health risks associated with obesity can negatively impact their lives.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3619251/obesity-life-expectancy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3619251/obesity-life-expectancy/"},"headline":"Study: Obesity May Shorten Life Expectancy by Up to 8 Years","datePublished":"2014-12-05T03:27:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:35:56.906Z","description":"Young obese people are at most risk","url":"https://time.com/3619251/obesity-life-expectancy/","keywords":["Obesity","Heart Disease","Research","type 2 diabetes"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/obesity/","name":"Obesity"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3619251/obesity-life-expectancy/","name":"Study: Obesity May Shorten Life Expectancy by Up to 8 Years"}}]}] ```