You know how everyone knows a lifelong smoker

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who lived to be 90+, does anyone know someone who was obese all (or most of) their life and lived to a ripe old age?

Yup I know quite a few but agree they mostly shrink when they develop health problems in their old age.
Most recent one was my old headmaster who was probably 20 stone plus for the whole of his adult life. He smoked, drank like a fish, ate tonnes of all the young things. He died recently aged 94. He had only slimmed down in his late 80's when he had health problems. He was apervy old bugger as well to add to his sins. Life is very unfair.

I have a friend aged 86, lifetime smoker, still fairly hale and hearty. My obese friend, who was very smug about not smoking, died at 44.

My GM was morbidly obese, a lifelong smoker and drank like a fish. She gave birth to 5 children at home, never saw the inside of a hospital and died age 98 in her favourite chair, drinking a glass of whiskey and watching Countdown.

Don't forget that if you go back fifty/sixty years, maybe half of the population smoked? Not surprising some of them beat the odds.

But how many people were obese? Less than 1 in 20, surely? Maybe 1 in 50?

So the likelihood of knowing someone who's been obese for that long is always going to be lower.

Will see if I can find some stats.

Telegraph:
"In the 1960s only 1 per cent of men and 2 per cent of women in England were classed as obese"

BMJ:In the 1960s, around 75% of men and 50% of women smoked.

In fact, the BMJ article shows that around 20% of over-60s smoked in 2000. So 1 in 5. And they've presumably been smoking all their lives. Therefore hardly surprising you're more likely to know an elderly smoker than an elderly obese person.

I also think you're wrong to say that there's any substantial difference between how much criticism smokers and obese people get. On MN, in real life, or from medical professionals.

And you're conflating overweight (not harmful to health), obesity (may be harmful to health) and morbid obesity (dangerous).

I don't think being l

I don't think being long-lived necessarily has anything to do with quality of life. People can live to old age with horrible debilitating conditions brought on by smoking or obesity.

What Boulevard says.