Rational eating: can it lead to overweightness or underweightness?
Although a deviation from the physiologically optimal weight increases the probability of dying, the steady state for an expected lifetime-utility maximiser is a state of overweightness. However, even a small initial deviation from this rationally stationary weight is followed by explosive oscillations. These oscillations might lead to severe and chronic underweightness in a late stage of life. In the presence of socio-cultural norms of appearance, the rationally stationary weight of fat people is lower than otherwise and the rationally stationary weight of lean people is greater than otherwise.
D000204:Activity Cycles; D000855:Anorexia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D001835:Body Weight / Q000208:ethnology / Q000502:physiology*; D002032:Bulimia; D004032:Diet; D004038:Diet, Reducing; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012307:Risk Factors; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015430:Weight Gain / Q000502:physiology; D015431:Weight Loss / Q000502:physiology