Fitness Not Fatness Is The Key To Longevity
A study published in the December 5th issue of the Journal of American Medical Association finds that when it comes to longevity, being physically fit is more important than keeping your weight down.
In the study, scientists found people who were overweight, but fit tended to outlive those who were leaner but not in good shape.
The researchers monitored the health of 2,603 adults age 60 or older between 1979 and 2001.
Fitness was tested using a treadmill, and fat was measured by body-mass index, waist size, and percentage of body fat.
Researchers found that regardless of weight, people who were fit were more than 50 percent less likely to die than those who were unfit.
The 450 people who died during the study tended to be older and have more cardiovascular risk factors than survivors. But there was virtually no difference in fat levels between those who lived and those who died.
People in the lowest 20 percent in terms of fitness had a death rate four times higher than those in the top 20 percent.
“Older individuals need to be concerned about their fitness level,” Steven Blair, a professor at the University of South Carolina who led the study, told Health Day News. “There is perhaps too much focus on bodyweight, and fitness is only an afterthought.”
Adding activity, even if it’s only 10 minutes of walking 3 times per day can make a difference. You may still be overweight, but you’ll be healthier.
Making changes in your diet such as adding fruits and vegetables along with avoiding saturated fats helps improve your overall health.
More than 1/3 of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity is a risk factor for diabetes, cardiac disease and certain types of cancer.
More than 1/2 of adults in the U.S. don’t exercise. Regular exercise reduces the chance of dying from coronary heart disease, lowers risk for stroke, decreases the chance of getting colon cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure, according to the CDC.
Although I got a late start, I’ve been a serious runner since 1994. I ran my first marathon in 1995 on my 30th Birthday. It’s been my goal to run the Boston Marathon since then. I missed qualifying by 12 minutes that year. I needed to run 3:40 and ran 3:52. Running in the most prestigious marathon, is the ultimate for most runners. The fact that you have to qualify, only fueled my competitive juices.
Over the next 9 years I ran 6 more marathons. I love running so much that I became a 
4 comments:
Thanks for this great reminder. So many (myself included) get so caught up in thinness and body image that they forget that lean body mass v. fat body mass is absolutely critical. I’ve learned this lesson again & again in the past couple of years, particularly as I’ve encountered a few health scares. The most consistent feedback from all of my health care providers is to keep my lean body mass up and that means exercising and watching my diet. Standing on the scale does little to help me monitor this metric.
Your reminder comes at a great time; I ate something like 5 cookies yesterday. Today its lentils, a long walk and yoga…and maybe zero cookies if I can control myself
This idea of fit vs. fat is something our society is not ready to accept, nor does it want to hear. It has been around for quite some time yet never makes a dent into the psychology of exercise professionals, let alone the general population.
I’d suggest a good book: “The Obesity Myth” by Paul Campo. It was disregarded by many people (such as Walter Willett, PhD) but as research comes out about fit vs. fat (and there is a lot of it) the thesis appears more potent. And it raises the question as to how much good many epidemiology studies on the subject actually provide. (And this is coming from someone with a masters degree in the area and feeling disenfranchised regarding my tuition dollars.)
Not too long ago I was teaching a “community exercise” educational seminar style class. The funds for this class were provided by a large govt. agency (not to be named) and things were going well. Our mission (and the millions of dollars being spent) were to go towards decreasing the amount of our populations overweight and obese prevalence. (Among some other things.)
About the third week, I woke up one morning and turned on the news. The headline was “Overweight people live longer than normal weight people.” Guess who the press release was given by…. yep, the national head of the govt. organization that was paying me to teach people to lose weight and fit into the “normal” category.
Guess what the first question was that night. Right.
That same organization puts out stats like:
“More than 1/3 of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity is a risk factor for diabetes, cardiac disease and certain types of cancer”
oops. guess you know the organization. So the fact that they are saying that “overweight people live longer than normal weight people” makes that statement completely irrelevant. Even according to their own research analysis, long-term study designs and published press releases.
Now if they would say that “x” percentage of people are morbidly obese they could make a better stance within their own programs. But they like to use the 66% stat so they can march on (and justify more grant money for these programs.)
So how does an exercise physiologist interpret their data and programming? What do the statistics actually say about the “causal” factors associated with the data from things like NHANES, etc…
Well. That’s the issue with the interpretation of epidemiological analysis… it shows a relationship, but never a cause and effect. Though they like to suggest those assumptions all the time.
Fit vs. Fat. I say fit if you are concerned about your health. Thin if you concerned about societal pressure and judgment. A very sad, yet often true statement. God bless Richard Simmons!
Too bad we can’t all just focus on health and well being. It’s sad that obesity is becoming such a problem, even at the elementary school level. Thanks for you comments.
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