Not everyone who is fat is unfit. But to what extend does staying active protect your life when you are losing the battle of the bulge? Research in this area continues to show that carrying extra pounds can lead to health problems, but no matter your BMI, those that exercise will live longer.
A new scientific review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and carried out by researchers at the University of Viginia School of Education and Human Development wanted to find out if exercise provided a significant benefit to people across the full spectrum of Body Mass Indexes. Your BMI is a measurement of your bodyfat level in relation to your height and weight. To calculate your BMI, you square your height in meters and then you take your weight in kilograms, then divide the number of kilograms by your squared height number.
While BMI only acts as a rough guide, but high BMI’s indicate that a person is living with a high level of fat and may be prone to stroke, heart problems, and other ailments such as Type 2 diabetes. A healthy BMI is considered to be somewhere between 18.5 and 24.9 but the average American now has a BMI of more than 29. Still, not all overweight people live the same lifestyle, and some exercise far more than others. So, what does this mean for their overall risk?
Fitness outweighs fatness, according to experts
Siddhartha Angadi, one of the corresponding authors on the study, recently said during a discussion with UVA Today, “Fitness, it turns out, is far more important than fatness when it comes to mortality risk.” The study looked at a wealth of data, including almost 400,00 adults from around the world, to observe how health issues affected people of varying BMI’s. They found that all of these individuals shared a similar risk of all-cause death and cardio vascular disease, no matter what the scales said.
These results follow another recent study that showed how overweight people who exercise tend to develop fat in more healthier places, like under the skin rather than around the organs. These are all very encouraging scientific breakthrough’s because they show that even those who are still far from their goal weight can make a positive impact on their life, and increase their longevity through exercise.
“Exercise is more than just a way to expend calories. It is excellent ‘medicine’ to optimize overall health and can largely reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause death for people of all sizes,” adds Angadi.
Your BMI does NOT determine your health status or potential
“I believe this study will help strengthen the growing body of literature in the ‘fitness vs. fatness’ debate,” says Nathan Weeldryer, a doctoral student in kinesiology at UVA and co-author of the recent scientific review. “As a society, we tend to equate body weight or fatness with health status. Our study, which features the largest and most globally representative sample to date, along with more rigorous statistical analysis compared to previous research, aims to shift perspectives on the relationship between fitness and body fat. While we still have a long way to go in changing the public’s views on health and body weight, I hope that studies like ours can contribute to a shift in attitudes.”
So, there you have it, you may not be the most ripped athlete in the gym, but you might be one of the healthiest, so stay on that fitness journey no matter your current weight.
