Well good news at last! At least for those of us who need a calculator to get our BMI. There was a paper published in the Archives of Internal Medicine that called for a look at the difference in overweight and obese fit people and physically unfit normal weight people. They used a treadmill test and men who could keep up with an increasing grade for 8 minutes and women for 5 and a half minutes live longer than normal weight folks who can’t keep up. Even minimal fitness is a better predictor that weight.
The study suggests about one third of fat folk are metabolically healthy. They have good cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar levels. One in four skinny people have bad numbers in at least two risk factors. It’s better to be thinner and healthy than fat and unhealthy, but it’s still preferable to be healthy and fat than unhealthy and thin.
There were some foreshadowing studies last fall by the CDC and National Cancer Institute that showed heavier people have longer life expectancy than normal weight people. So the great obesity epidemic may not turn out to be all it was feared. And going to the doctor for those tests, and responding to the results, is maybe more important than getting on the scale every day. By the way, my writings last year about gastric surgery holds up in this light- the immediate effects on blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol save more lives than Lindora and Jenny put together. Exercise at least thirty minutes a day, not marathon training, gardening, walking, play the Wii. Have fun and loosen the belt, it’s OK!