MSNBC.com wrote:Fit people live longer — even if they’re fat
Study: Those at a normal weight but out of shape had higher risk of death
Reuters
updated 6:09 p.m. CT, Tues., Dec. 4, 2007
WASHINGTON - When it comes to living longer, fitness may trump fatness, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
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, the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed.
Exercise expert Steven Blair 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.
"Being fit provides protection against mortality in these men and women 60 and older, whether they're normal weight, overweight or obese," Blair said in a telephone interview.
Sedentary lifestyles
The findings are particularly relevant as people in the United States and many other countries live increasingly sedentary lifestyles and obesity rates remain high. At the same time, the populations are aging in many nations.
"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, the researchers said. Those in the bottom fifth in terms of fitness were about twice as likely to die than those in the next fifth.
"You shouldn't be scared and think, 'Oh, I'm overweight, I'm obese, it's useless for me to be physically active,"' Dr. Xuemei Sui, another University of South Carolina researcher who worked on the study, said in a telephone interview.
Drastic steps may not be needed, the researchers said.
"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 if you do that," Blair said.
Blair also stressed the importance of a healthful diet including lots of fruit, vegetables and whole grains.
More than a third of U.S. adults are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer and the most common form of diabetes, the CDC said.
The CDC also has found that more than half of adults do not engage in regular physical exercise. Exercise cuts the chances of dying of coronary heart disease, as well as lowering the risk for stroke, colon cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure, the CDC said.
I'm shocked! Shocked!
More seriously, this is pretty cool to hear. Especially since I'm still a bit overweight but well, for example, last week I ran 6 miles and walked 16. Plus my circuit training that I've been doing.
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Here are the following issues with this study, per it's discussion on the Skeptics guide podcast.
1. The study uses BMI which is only useful as a general indicator of body-fat, but is consistently inaccurate on an individual bases.
2. Most athletic people show up as either overweight, on the BMI scale because of the way it's designed.
For example if you did a BMI of your average pro-wrestler or NFL linebacker, nearly all would be registering as overweight.
3. At best this demonstrates that supermodel are headed for an young grave long before the rest of us. But also demonstrated that fat folks are also on the way to the grave for reasons other than the things skinny people die of.
In other words
The BMI categorizes are misleading, very athletic people are much more likely to register as overweight rather than fit. Second if your registering as fat, you simply not dieing of the same causes as underweight or fit people. So less chance to die of disease X simply means more chance to die of disease Y, normally heart disease.
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
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.
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 body mass index — calculated from a person's weight and height — as well as waist circumference and body fat percentage.
I've been through BMI countless times as part of my military service. I've done it back during High School sports. BMI is only a general indicator, if you want actual body fat percentage, nothings going to get you close but a weight pool. And there's no way in heck they could afford that for the class size they indicated. BMI is method of calculating body fat percentage, that makes no difference between the sexes, it's a simple height weight thing.
It's also horrible for shorter people.
For example, to be in the fit range at 5,4 inches, you must weight.... 120 pounds.
Don't take my word for it, use this handy link here, and lets see how many members of the board register in the normal-weight range
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
Interesting, BMI says I'm only 10 pounds overweight. I have trouble believing that, as I was still pretty chunky when I weighed 20 pounds less. I don't think I've grown in height since then...
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Quick note, the taller you are, the better BMI works. If your 5.6 or taller it's much less noticable than if your 4'11-5,5.
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
BMI was meant as a gauge for "normal" people, back in the days when you didn't have to look like the Rock, and didn't have the money and spare time to invest in club memberships, protein supps and god know what shit to bulk up.
For those of you who do register as overweight, just see if you can grab more than an inch of fat around your abs. If you can, it may be time to examine yourself better and start a fitness program.
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