A long-term health study that followed a group of people who were age 35 in 1950 found that those whose weight increased by approximately half a kilogram or one pound per year after the age of 35 tended, on the whole, to live longer than those who maintained the weight they had at age 35
This finding seems at variance with other studies that have associated weight gain with a host of health problems that tend to lower life expectancy
Smokers, who tend to be leaner than nonsmokers, tend to have shorter life spans than nonsmokers.