The heart disease and diabetes that often accompany obesity may rob people of almost a decade of life and close to two decades of a healthy life.

The research conducted at Montreal’s McGill University suggests extreme obesity can shorten a life by more than eight years and rob the person of nineteen years of time that could be spent without diabetes and or heart disease.

Lead researcher Dr. Steven Grover says “not only is excess body weight associated with a significant reduction in life expectancy, but with an even greater reduction in healthy life years.”

“While losing weight or exercising regularly is not easy for many of us, the potential benefits are huge,” he explains.

As an example, a modest reduction in weight of about 10 pounds and as little as 30 minutes of daily physical activity most days of the week have been proven to reduce the risk of developing diabetes by as much as 60 percent.

The report is published in the Dec. 5 online edition of The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.