We all want to be fit and trim. Usually in that order. How many of us remember Twiggy from the 60’s or Kate Moss from the 90’s? Super models who exemplified the meaning of being thin, but realistically, who few women wanted to emulate. No, being trim without being fit is not an attractive goal. So what about being fit without being trim? That’s for more achievable, right? “Yeah, but unless I lose the weight my risk of cardiovascular disease will still be high. Won’t it?”
The Research
Not so fast Sherlock. A recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine discovered a very interesting observation. People who are aerobically fit, i.e. those who perform some sort of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), have a significantly reduced risk of premature death due to cardiovascular disease even if they are obese.
Yep, you read it correctly. Obese people who exercised were just as likely as non-obese people who exercised of dying due to cardiovascular disease. Or, another way to look at it is, thin people, or even people with normal BMI’s who do not exercise, are almost 2-3x more likely of dying due to cardiovascular disease then obese people who do exercise.
“This tells us that it’s much more important, all things considered, to focus on the fitness aspect” of health and longevity, “rather than the fatness aspect,” Siddhartha Angadi, senior author of the study and an exercise physiologist at the University of Virginia, told The Washington Post.
The review pooled data from 20 prior studies involving nearly 400,000 midlife and older adults from multiple countries, about 30% of whom were women.
Participants were grouped based on their aerobic fitness, which was objectively measured through cardiovascular stress tests, and their body mass index (BMI).
The findings were clear:
- People who were fit and overweight or obese had similar risks of death as fit people at a normal weight
- But people who were unfit — no matter their weight — had 2 to 3 times higher risks of dying early from any cause or heart disease
“From a statistical standpoint, fitness largely eliminated the risk” of early death from obesity-related conditions, Angadi said.
And it doesn’t require that much an effort to be considered fit. Even moving slightly higher than the bottom 20% of fitness for someone’s age can offer substantial health benefits. Even going for brisk walks where you can talk but not sing, is enough to boost your fitness accordingly.
Takeaway
So maybe don’t skip that trip to Gino’s Pizzeria (at least on the weekend), but definitely hit the treadmill, stair master, or rowing machine come Monday morning 😊.
Source:
Cardiorespiratory fitness, body mass index and mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis
