Fit people live longer...even if they are fat!

12 year study at the University of South Carolina:
Those at a normal weight but out of shape had higher risk of death

I just recently read an article that stated that when it comes to living longer, fitness may trump fatness. Researchers concluded that men and women who were fit, as judged by a treadmill test, but were overweight or obese had a lower mortality risk than those of normal weight but low fitness levels, this study was published in the American Medical Journal.

Steven Blair (he’s an exercise physiologist with a LOT of additional letters behind his name) of the University of South Carolina and colleagues tracked about 2,600 people age 60 and up, examining how physical fitness and body fat affected their death rates over 12 years.

Those in the lowest fifth in terms of fitness had a death rate four times higher than participants ranked in the top fifth for fitness.

Now most of us would buy into the notion that being lean and fit provides protection against mortality. But in this study, men and women 60 and older, whether normal weight, overweight or obese if fit, had lower mortality rates.

Sedentary lifestyles
These findings are particularly relevant as people in the United States and many other countries live increasingly sedentary lifestyles and obesity rates keep climbing high. "I believe we have an obesity epidemic. It's a bad sign. We should not ignore obesity," Blair said. "But what happens all too often is we focus nearly exclusively on obesity and forget the activity and fitness part."

The researchers assessed the fitness of the participants using a treadmill test, seeing how long they could walk while the treadmill's incline increased. They measured body mass index — calculated from a person's weight and height — as well as waist circumference and body fat percentage.

The study showed that even a modest effort to improve physical activity can provide health benefits. Those in the bottom fifth in terms of fitness were about twice as likely to die as those in the next fifth.

The bottom line…. If you are overweight, obese and have the mindset that it is useless for me to be physically active you could be doing a great disservice to yourself and your family.

It appears that drastic steps may not be needed to improve mortality rate. "If you're overweight or obese and you're sedentary and unfit and you start taking three 10-minute walks a day and you do that at least five days a week, you're not going to lose an enormous amount of weight," Blair said. “You're going to still be heavy. But you're going to be much healthier and probably live longer”.

Who knew!?... maybe Ponce De leon had this all wrong, maybe we can all find the fountain of youth in our gym shoes? Start moving…

Til next time