Good news for proud owners of thunder thighs: New research suggests that people who have hips and thighs on the larger side of the spectrum tend to live longer than those who gain and store extra weight in their midsection and have big beer bellies. Hip hip hooray, I guess.
For the study, which was published in the British Medical Journal, researchers from the University of Toronto analyzed data from 72 cohort studies involving over 2.5 million participants. That’s a lot of people! Many studies have a very small pool of participants to determine accurate results from, so this is pretty solid.
Anyway, the research revealed that a higher waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio, and waist-to-thigh ratio were all found to be significantly associated with a higher risk of early death from any cause. In other words, having a fat gut is not a good thing at all.
In fact, the study indicates that each 10 cm (3.94 inches) increase in waist circumference “was associated with an 11 percent higher risk of all cause mortality.” Yikes.
On the other hand, larger hip and thigh circumference were both associated with a lower risk of premature death, a.k.a. thick thighs save lives!
Each 10 cm increase in hip circumference was associated with a 10 percent lower risk of early death, and each 5 cm increase in thigh circumference was associated with an 18 percent lower risk. Not bad!
Speaking of, Rihanna is definitely one of our favorite thick-thighed bombshells:
Here’s another good look at her life-saving thighs:
“Existing evidence suggests that central fatness might be more strongly associated with the risk of mortality than overall obesity,” the researchers explain in the report. You know, because weight gain in specific areas tends to be more telling about health than just overall fatness.
Here’s an example: One of the root causes of weight gain that specifically targets the midsection is stress, and we all know that stress is the mother of most diseases. It all has to do with the stress hormone cortisol, and while cortisol is vital for us to function normally, too much of a good thing is….not good.
Meanwhile, hip and thigh fat reflects “reflects beneficial gluteal fat,” which is why the study suggests being more concerned about the size of your waist rather than only focusing on BMI or weight.
In conclusion, be proud of your earth-shattering thighs, my friends. They’re good for you.
