Baby boomers who have started packing on the pounds, listen up. Being overweight during midlife increases your chances of dying early, according to a study to be published Thursday.

Previous research has already established a link between obesity and an increased risk of death.

But there has been more uncertainty over whether a link can be established between being overweight and facing a premature death.

But there has been more uncertainty over whether a link can be established between being overweight and facing a premature death.

So researchers at the National Cancer Institute ran a study that tried to add new data to the debate.

And for all you aging folks who indulge in too many treats, you aren’t going to like what they found.

And for all you aging folks who indulge in too many treats, you aren’t going to like what they found.

For those who are 50 years old and overweight, researchers found that the risk of death increased by 20 to 40 percent. And for those who were obese, mortality risk increased two- to three-fold.

The study, which looked at 527,265 members of the American Association of Retired Persons from 1995 through 2005, will be published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

The New England Journal of Medicine

Earlier studies, like one published last year in The Journal of American Medicine Association, have shown that being overweight is not associated with an increased risk of death.

The Journal of American Medicine Association,

But that study hardly settled the debate. So the National Cancer Institute study put its own set of controls into place to help isolate the impact of being overweight.

To do this, the study focused on folks who had never smoked. According to researchers, this helped untangle the complex relationships between body weight, smoking, existing disease, and risk of death.

Regardless of whether the latest study helps resolve the debate over the number of years that might be lost by being overweight, a few things are certain: excess body fat is known to increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, pulmonary disease, and diabetes.

And another thing we know to be true: expanding waistlines are reaching epidemic proportions in the United States. About 127 million adults in the country are overweight, 60 million are obese, and 9 million have become severely obese, according to the American Obesity Association.

Growing Girth Industry

The high numbers of folks with excess fat has given rise to a growing industry. Therapies like weight loss drugs pulled in $131 million in sales, and surgeries brought in $219.4 million in 2005, according to research firm Medtech Insight (see Bariatric Surgery on the Rise).

Bariatric Surgery on the Rise

Drug and medical device companies are pushing to develop new treatments to help people drop the pounds.

For example, early-stage startup FASgen has been acquiring patents and funds for the development of its weight loss compounds (see Obesity Startup Eats Cash).

Obesity Startup Eats Cash

Among those who recently got a big financial push to bring to market its obesity treatment is EnteroMedics. The company secured $45.2 million in a third round of venture funding in mid-July for its obesity device (see Obesity Fight Gets $45.2M Lift).

Obesity Fight Gets $45.2M Lift

Even companies building wheelchairs and medical imaging devices are revising their designs to account for the extra girth (see Obesity’s Image Problem).

Obesity’s Image Problem

Nevertheless, experts say losing weight will never be as easy as popping a few pills. And the majority of the medical industry’s pound-dropping pipeline is aimed at helping folks who are severely obese, as opposed to those who are overweight.

So whether you are obese or overweight, lifestyle changes such as exercise will still be mandatory to get healthy.

Contact the writer:RBarron@RedHerring.com