A new study has concluded something a bit askew of what people are normally impressed of: overweight people tend to live longer than people with ‘ideal‘ weights.

In respect, yes, the 12-year 11,000 subject Canadian study revealed that underweight people tend to live shorter lives than people with ‘ideal’ weights, but the same study also revealed the somewhat surprising results that overweight people tend to live longer.

“It’s not surprising that extreme underweight and extreme obesity increase the risk of dying, but it is surprising that carrying a little extra weight may give people a longevity advantage,” said David Feeny, PhD, one of the study’s authors.

The study showed that those people who fell in the categories of “underweight” and “extremely obese” had significantly greater risks of dying, but those people who fell into “ideal” and “obese” had almost similar risks. The only thing is, the “obese” category had approximately a 17 percent less likely chance of death than those in “ideal”.

“[This research] doesn’t mean that people in the normal weight range should try to put on a few pounds [however],” says Mark Kaplan, another study author from Portland State University.