Can you be fat and fit?

I am not quite sure what to think about some new research that came out on Monday about the relationship of being fit but still fat. New research challenges the notion that you can be fat and fit, finding that being active can lower but not eliminate heart risks faced by heavy women.

Heart disease risk was 54 percent higher in over active women than for normal- active women.

“It doesn’t take away the risk entirely. Weight still matters,” said Dr. Martha Gulati, a heart specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

It is not definitive if this is the only view. Some people do in fact say taht fit and fat is fine and healthy.

University of South Carolina obesity expert Steven Blair, a leading proponent of the “fit and fat” theory, said the study is limited by relying on women’s self-reporting their activity levels. That method is not as reliable as a more objective fitness evaluation including exercise treadmill tests, Blair said. These tests include heart-rate measures to see how the heart responds to and tolerates exercise.

In Blair’s research, over people deemed “fit” by treadmill tests did not face increased risks of dying from heart disease.
The new study involving nearly 39,000 women helps sort out the combined effects of physical activity and body mass on women’s chances of developing heart disease, said Gulati, who wasn’t involved in the research.

The study by Harvard-affiliated researchers appears in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine.

The only thing that I really care about is fitness. If you are fat or not is more ego based than anything but of course you do want to lose that fat anyway. Added fat is going to slow you down and get in the way for many activities whether or not it is healthy.

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