Health Tips : Fit And Fat Vs. Out Of Shape And Skinny
It is hard to say when weight or fitness has a greater impact on overall health, so there’s really no clear-cut answer to your question.
Nonetheless, recent research indicates that we should reconsider our beliefs about weight and fitness. Being fat isn’t always a sign of poor health and being thin isn’t always a mark of fitness or good health.
And whatever your size, frequent exercise is beneficial.
A recent published study in published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2008 calls into question accepted beliefs about weight and health.
The research study found that about 25% of participants with typicalweight had health problems such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and low levels of HDL-cholesterol or “good cholesterol.”
On the contrary, about 33 percent of obese participants were healthy in these areas. For this group, weight alone was not always a good estimate of health.
Nonetheless, being very overweight does have its risks. A 2004 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that obese participants with a body-mass index over 30 were more likely to die during the while the research study , regardless of their level of exercise.
Although all the participants were female nurses, researchers have found similar leads to men.
All that being said, fitness is certainly more complex than maintaining a particular weight. the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends regular physical activity that includes moderate exercise 5 or more days a week, for at least 30 minutes each day.
As reported by the CDC, fitness is measured by heart and lung performance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and body composition (ratio of “lean mass” to fat). Fascinatingly, weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) aren’t included.
So it seems that weight does matter, but not always in the way we expect. the bottom line is that “fitness” and “weight” mean different things for different individuals , but hitting the health club or taking a brisk walk several times a week is sure to do a (fat or thin) body good.