"Fat And Fit" Out

Get moving, ladies:

Exercise-heart study casts doubt on 'fit but fat' theory

By  LINDSEY TANNER  –  19 hours ago

CHICAGO (AP) — 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. "It doesn't take away the risk entirely. Weight still matters," said Dr. Martha Gulati, a heart specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Previous research has gone back and forth on whether exercise or weight has a greater influence on heart disease risks.

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

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Women were considered active if they followed government-recommended guidelines and got at least 30 minutes of moderate activity most days of the week, including brisk walking or jogging. Women who got less exercise than that were considered inactive.

Weight was evaluated by body mass index: A BMI between 25 and 29 is considered overweight, while obese is 30 and higher.

Compared with normal-weight active women, the risk for developing heart disease was 54 percent higher in overweight active women and 87 percent higher in obese active women. By contrast, it was 88 percent higher in overweight inactive women; and 2 1/2 times greater in obese inactive women.

About two in five U.S. women at age 50 will eventually develop heart attacks or other cardiovascular problems. Excess weight can raise those odds in many ways, including by increasing blood pressure and risks for diabetes, and by worsening cholesterol. Exercise counteracts all three.

"It is reassuring to see that physical activity really does make an impact," said lead author Dr. Amy Weinstein of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. However, she added, "If you're overweight or obese, you can't really get back to that lower risk entirely with just physical activity alone."

No news for the lads, but we can guess.

Comments

[Forbes]

A study was needed to figure this out?

Much of these studies are just a jobs program for researchers--call it upper-class welfare.

[ParseThis]

John McCain will trim this fat from the budget. Then McDonald's and the Cheesecake Factory can properly fund these kinds of studies and restore control of exercise guidelines to the exercisers themselves.

[ramona]

This is ridiculous. I'm in my 50s, 5'4, weigh 135 pounds, with a BMI of 30 and blood pressure on the low side of normal and good cholesterol. Yet I'm *obese*??

[Thomas Collins]

Is there a study on how BMI correlates with bowling scores? Perhaps B_O needs to bulk up to raise that 37 to, say, a 54.

By the way, I now this is off the topic of TM's public health post, but was B_O really doing ten pins? Never mind the big balls, 37 is a lousy score for candlepins or duckpins.

[Thomas Collins]

Is there a study on how BMI correlates with bowling scores? Perhaps B_O needs to bulk up to raise that 37 to, say, a 54.

By the way, I know this is off the topic of TM's public health post, but was B_O really doing ten pins? Never mind the big balls, 37 is a lousy score for candlepins or duckpins.

[Metzger]

Just a quick blurt about a pet peeve of mine about all these medical stories and increased risk. Telling me that I have a 54% percent higher chance of something without informing me of the baseline risk makes all this information useless. Would it kill these dopes to to let us know or is it in there interest to keep these facts concealed?

[clarice]

Ramona, My mom is 89 and says she's slowing down. She put on some weight though her blood pressure is fine. The doctor at first suggested she lose some weight--harder to do when your physical activities are more restricted--then he looked at her chart and said,"You know, forget what I said. Just keep doing what you're doing."
Ditto to you.
I have serious doubts about those BMI indexes--

[Nom de Blog]

The fact that BMI does not differentiate between women and men is ridiculous. BMI is at best an asinine attempt at PC BS.

If I can weigh 205 at 5'11" (when my body fat is less than 8%) and still be obese, then BMI cannot be useful.

Michael Jordan was overweight according to the BMI. And I'm talking about the Jordan we saw early in his career not the 40 year old version. BMI is worse than useless.

[Nom de Blog]

Enter 6'6" for Jordan's height.
Enter 216 as his listed (rookie) playing weight.

BMI of 25 indicates overweight.

The links give you that information if you follow what I posted above.

[nash]

The BMI **GUIDELINES** were simplified for morons to include just your height and weight measurements. Originally it took into consideration your waist size but most of you probably couldn't figure out how to use a fabric tape measure or do the simple math involved.

[PeterUK]

BMI is just another statistical con job like the Global Warming hockey stick.

[PeterUK]

Hi nash,how's your cranial obesity coming along?

[kim]

BMI is a procrustean bed, just as cholesterol levels are.
=================================

[DrJ]

Ramona,

The BMI calculator from NIH says your BMI is 23.2, which is not obese.

I agree that the measurement is a gross oversimplification. In high school I was a bean pole, and that puts me in the center of the "normal weight" range. It seems to discriminate against shortness-challenged people.

[Porchlight]

BMI is a joke. That is not to say that extreme obesity isn't a problem, just that BMI is an extremely crude tool with which to measure it. Paul Campos has been very good on this subject.

[Nom de Blog]

nash,
So tell me how my waist size (34) matters but my chest size (48) does not. Could some doctors somewhere explain how I'm supposed to make my rib cage smaller? Pretty please?

You can post your arrogant crap all you like, but BMI was bunk on the day it was created.

[sylvia]

Well according to some studies that came out a few months ago, but never got much play, is that contrary to all the scare tactics, people who are in the moderate overweight to slightly obese category live the longest. I'd give you a link but I'd have to google it first. The overweight people do have a slightly greater chance of dying from heart disease, yet have a lesser risk of dying from all other diseases, such as Parkinsons or Alzheimers complications, diseases that in total add up to more deaths than just heart disease.

As a medical buff, I have my own theory as to why this is. Fat is known to be a great repository of stem cells. The body's ability to provide stem cells to combat these diseases diminish as we age, and without generous fat storage, a person has even less of these stem cells available to fight off these diseases. Of course, as with everything, there is a margin of dimishing returns, and too much fat, being excessively obese becomes a problem too.

[Heather]

This study was junk anyway; it relied on self-reportage of "minutes of activity daily" and no actual measures of fitness, like a treadmill test. Who doesn't exaggerate their activity level when asked by an authority figure?

And they didn't control for factors such as family history, smoking, birth control usage pre-menopause, income level, etc. Controls make it harder to validate your original (bigoted) premise.

The fact that the media didn't disclose the rate of heart disease among "normal weight" women but chose to use percentage of "increased risk" tells me the normal weight women aren't doing so hot, either. It's not in the interest of the media--or their advertisers--to start printing stories like "you're gonna die whether you lose weight or not."

[clarice]

Well, just to be sure, I hauled my new 120 lb gyrotonic (exercise machine) up a flight of stairs . I expect I worked harder at that than I will on the machine.

[spinsterwitch]

The study was not even created to study this information, but some of the data from their original data collection was used.

The biggest flaw in the research - the amount of time between measurement of height, weight & activity levels and the follow-up: it was approximately 11 years. You tell me how much has changed in your life in 11 years.

[nash]

"So tell me how my waist size (34) matters but my chest size (48) does not."

Well, chunky butt, most men carry excess fat around their waist, not their chests, unless you have man-tits. What size bra do you wear?

If you take Michael Jordan's waist size into consideration when you calculate BMI, he doesn't come out as overweight.

[Nom de Blog]

nash,
Read above, idiot. I have 8% body fat with a 34" waist and a 48" chest. If you think that makes me chunky then you're just not very bright.