Here’s some cheerful news: an analysis of nearly 100 studies involving data on more than 2.88 million men and women found that being a bit overweight doesn’t automatically pose a risk to your life. In fact, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that if you’re overweight with a BMI (body mass index) ranging from 25 to 34.9, you have a 6 percent lower risk of dying than those of normal weight. Earlier studies have yielded similar findings but none are as large or as carefully done as this new one.

The data showing that being overweight may not put you at a higher risk of dying doesn’t apply to the obese with BMIs of 35 or more – here, the risk is 29 percent higher than it is for the merely overweight and those of normal weight.

Of course, those figures may not apply to you personally if you have other risk factors for heart disease such as diabetes or high cholesterol, and some critics appropriately disputed the conclusions, which are based on meta-analysis and not a real clinical trial. However, the analysis suggests that seniors over age 65 were at no higher risk of death than younger subjects even if they are obese (but not if they have diabetes and other risks to health).