I get what you're saying, but there are certainly deathfats that live to see their 50's. There isn't a list of all deathfats in the states, but you can see this just by looking at M600PL.
I don't know exactly what we're defining as a deathfat either, but if we're considering peoples in their 400s, than there are plenty of 400 lb 40 and 50 year olds getting WLS.
Again, I get what you're saying and no one is arguing that being super morbidly obese cuts decades off you life, just maybe you fell victim to a bit of hyperbole
The reason you don't see super morbidly obese people over the age of about 50 (unless you're a health care provider) is because virtually all of them are either house-/bedbound, or in a care facility by then. They can't even get out of the house on a scootypuff with a lift-assisted van, they're so far gone. They may not be dead yet, but they're in the waiting room.
And if you see anybody over 65 who is that huge and still living, it's because they didn't get that big until relatively late in life. They had decades of being no more than overweight behind them, and didn't start gaining weight in earnest until their 40s or older.
I can think of one man I knew who only started gaining huge amounts of weight after retiring from farming at around age 65. He'd always been a big eater, but doing farm labor burned most of it off. He was about 6'3", very muscular, and 200-225lbs during his prime working years, but in his 50s started gaining weight as he slowed down. He probably weighed 300lbs when he retired (which was fucking huge, back then).
Once he stopped working, however, he kept eating as he always had, gained weight rapidly, and refused to change his accustomed eating habits even as his health fell apart. He died slowly of heart failure following a massive heart attack at age 78, weighing around 450-500lbs, after being completely housebound for the last five years of his life (this was in the '70s, and bariatric wheelchairs, scootypuffs, and motorized vehicle lifts were nonexistent).
Age 78 is fucking
ancient for a deathfatty, but he only was one for the last 12-15 years of his life (if you can consider the torturous final five years "life"). Had he been hauling around 300+ lbs since his teens or early 20s, he would not have lived anywhere near as long as he did.
Today, we've got a population that is far fatter than their ancestors at a much younger age. Grandma may have let herself go and surpassed 200lbs in her late 40s, as menopause kicked in, but her granddaughter weighed 200lbs by the time she entered high school. Grandma may have developed type 2 diabetes in her mid-60s (which used to be the expected age for it), but her granddaughter will develop it in her 30s--and maybe even earlier. Grandma still has a good chance to live to 80 with both feet intact, even if she doesn't lose weight and relies on insulin to do most of the heavy lifting in controlling her BG, but her granddaughter will be lucky to make it to 55.
And this is despite increased bariatric accommodations/equipment, and increased ability by healthcare providers to shore up fatties' failing health and keep them alive. Getting fat when you're old is bad, but getting fat when you're young (and staying that way) is a fucking disaster.
Chantal has always been fat; there has never been a time in her life when she wasn't (though she was less fat after that teen group home experience, she gained it all right back, and has kept gaining). So she's falling apart right on schedule.
