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In order to be healthy you have to be both fit and have a normal weight.
A new study done by researchers from the Umea University reveals that the idea of fit but fat is false. They say that the protection of exercising is more reduced for the obese people than for the people who have a normal weight. The research analyzed the connection between health and exercising and wanted to see if exercising is more important than a person’s weight.
The study came as a response to a previous study published in 2012 in the European Heart Journal. The researchers said that obese and overweight people were at no higher risk of dying from cancer or heart disease from the normal weight people, as long as they were metabolically fit. That meant that they didn’t have diabetes, high blood pressure or high levels of cholesterol. The 43,000 volunteers of the study were called fit by these standards. They were then compared to normal weigh people and, the obese people had no higher death risks. Another study revealed that it is more important where the fat is concentrated in your body rather than how much you weigh.
For the new study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, approximately 1 million Swedish men were followed, for an average of 29 years. They used the information to see how fitness influenced their death risk. The researchers asked the subjects to cycle until they were too tired to continue, in order to see their fitness skills. The risk of death was with 48% lower for the men who had the highest scores, than of those with the lowest scores. The men who exercised a lot had lower risks of dying from traumas, suicide, narcotics and abuse of alcohol. Researchers say that genetic factors are important here, the fitness factor being under the control of genes.
The Swedish researchers also wanted to reveal if the myth fat but fit is true or false. It appeared that men who had a normal weight and didn’t exercise were at lower risk of dying than the obese people who had really high scores in the fitness test. That doesn’t mean that the obese people don’t benefit from exercising though. The beneficial effects of fitness are extremely low for the regular obese people, whereas for those extremely obese, there are no benefits at all.
Although the study was limited because it only followed men and early deaths, the controversial idea of fit but fat is false. It is clear that it is important to be fit no matter how much you weigh and that is best to be both slim and fit for the sake of your health.
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