Obesity Leads To Debilitating Conditions
(From InfoAging). This point can never be made too many times: "Obese men and women suffer more commonly from a host of potentially deadly and debilitating conditions than people with more slender builds." Even a little excess weight significantly raises the risk of suffering numerous age-related conditions, but obesity is far worse for your health, finances and life span. "Men [with a body mass index of 35 or higher] were eight times more likely to have diabetes, five times more likely to have high blood pressure or knee replacements, four times more likely to have congestive heart failure and three times more likely to report impotence." If you want to live a longer, healthier life, keeping off the fat has to be fairly high on the priority list.
Link: http://www.infoaging.org/news_article.html?SMContentIndex=1&SMContentSet=0