The Weight Seesaw For anyone trying to lose weight, and for normal-weight people as they age, exercise helps to preserve metabolically active muscle tissue.

Some obese but healthy people actually are less likely to die of heart problems than normal-weight people who have some medical conditions, the researchers found.

Moderate weight gain, even in normal-weight people, may exacerbate reflux symptoms, according to the study.

In fact, she argues, some recent epidemiological studies show lower death rates for somewhat overweight people than for "so-called normal-weight people" or very thin ones.

Most people with binge eating disorder are obese (more than 20% above a healthy body weight), but normal-weight people also can be affected.

It does seem, however, that normal-weight people know when to stop eating, and fat people simply go on too long.

Overweight people in the general population are at no greater risk for psychiatric illness than normal-weight people.

Among men and women, being overweight raised the risk of death 20 percent to 40 percent compared with normal-weight people, the researchers said.

Obese people had a risk two to three times that of normal-weight people.

Moderate weight gain, even in normal-weight people, may exacerbate reflux symptoms, according to the survey of more than 10,500 people.