A new report from Oxford University which followed over one million people has found that obesity trims off years of life expectancy (1). People with severe obesity lost as much as 10 years of life expectancy. Researchers found that one of the only other life choices that had this kind of affect on life expectancy was smoking.

What makes this worse is that losing 10 years of life expectancy is equivalent to smoking for your entire life. “This 10 year loss is equal to the effects of lifelong smoking. ” (1).

Sources: http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2009-03-18-moderate-obesity-takes-years-life-expectancy