Hello, we recently published a study that examines how BMI is independently associated with the risk of a work related injury. In the introduction, we describe findings from other studies that have reported associations of increased BMI with mortality and morbidity outcomes. Hope that helps. David

Lombardi DA, Wirtz A, Willets JL, Folkard S. Independent effects of sleep duration and body mass index on the risk of a work-related injury: Evidence from the US National Health Interview Survey (2004-2010). Chronobiol Int, 2012 Jun; 29(5):556-64.

I do not know which book you are referring to, but I need a clarification - when you say excess fat do you mean - fat consumption in food or obesity? becaue it is not the same. the evidence regarding the hazards of obesity and fat accumulation in the bofy (mainly abdominal fat) ais quite strong and conclusive. regarding food composition - there is an ongoing debate (atkins pro/con) and I don't think it will be solved in the near future.

This is an interesting question as all data that I am aware of uses BMI as a proxy for adiposity. This works well for populations as they are closely correlated but also lumps in folks who are very muscular which means you are getting many who are fit. My view of this is that means the real problem may be even greater than we assume from current data. Adiposity is really only measured accurately by undewater weighting and not enough folks are evaluated that way to determine mortality (or even morbidity) statistics. While BIA methodology has been getting more accurate (and can now probably be used predictively) I have not seen any large-scale studies that use it.

There are other parameters like waist/hip ratio and caliper measurements for body adiposity. Two years ago a new adiposity index based on hip circumference was published -BAI, it correlates with adiposity better than BMI which is quite limited. Sometimes DEXA is also a tool for estimating adiposity. In basic research there is a real good evidence regarding abdominal adipose tissue and of course there are biochemical measurements that accompany anthropometric parameters, like leptin and adiponectin levels, HOMA or other insulin resistance indices etc.

Http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/01/16/169540265/whats-wrong-with-calling-obesity-a-medical-problem

I you read french

the second part of this book make a review of scienrific controversies on obesity

Jean Pierre Poulain, 2009, Sociology of obsity, Presses universitaires de France