It’s no secret anymore that overweight and obese people have more health problems than those having a normal weight. Researchers have long highlighted the link between obesity and someone’s risk of developing up to a dozen different types of cancers.

It’s already known that obesity is a major issue worldwide and raises the risk of disease such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. According to the World Health Organization, there are 400 million people classified as obese and 7.6 million people died last year because of cancer, the American Cancer Society reported.

Now a new study published in the Nov. 12 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine says that being overweight is one thing, but where your body fat is stored may make more of a difference to your health. More exactly, the study says that too much fat around your belly can increase the chances of developing major killers like heart disease and cancer. It is not the first time when research makes such an association, but the sheer size of this study gives scientists a far more accurate picture.

“We found that a large waist circumference is related to a higher risk of death even for individuals who have the same BMI [body mass index, a ratio of weight to height]. Therefore, you could say that adipose [fat] accumulation in the abdominal region is even more detrimental than just having an elevated BMI level,” said the study's lead author, Dr. Tobias Pischon, of the German Institute of Human Nutrition.

The study involved almost 360,000 people from nine European countries who were part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). They were an average of 51 years old at the start of the study. During the 10-year follow-up period, slightly less than 15,000 of them had died.

According to the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a body mass index between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight and a BMI over 30 is considered obese. The study showed that those with the lowest risk of death were men with a BMI of 25.3 and women with a BMI of 24.3.

When the researchers looked at the site of where the fat was stored, they noted that normal-weight male participants with waists measuring 102.7 centimeters (about 40 inches) or more were twice as likely to die as those with waists measuring 86 centimeters (34 inches) or less. Women who weighed in the normal BMI range but had waists that were 89 centimeters (35 inches) or more were 79 percent more likely to die than those with waists measuring 70.1 centimeters (28 inches) or less.

The researchers calculated that for about two-inch increase in waist size for patients with any given BMI score, the risk of death increased by 17 percent for men and by 13 percent for women.

Keeping in mind the findings of this study, I guess you’d better think twice the next time when you eat that hamburger or something else on the same “fat” list. Having a healthy diet based on fruits and vegetables and exercising on regular basis would definitely reduce your fat and decrease your risk of dying early. And don’t forget its’ never too late to start such a diet!