Being ‘Fat But Fit’ Won’t Cut Your Risk of Premature Death

In fact, there were virtually no benefits in comparison to normal weight participants. And, for the most obese, even the highest levels of physical fitness couldn’t provide health benefits to offset the risks from obesity. The research analyzed the connection between health and exercising and wanted to see if exercising is more important than a person’s weight.

The study appeared in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

The study also evaluated the concept that “fat but fit is ok”.

Professor Nordstrom goes on to say, “Furthermore, the risk of early death was higher in fit obese individuals than unfit normal weight individuals”, noting that these findings actually contradicted the standing belief that “obese individuals can fully compensate mortality risk by being physically fit”. Another study revealed that it is more important where the fat is concentrated in your body rather than how much you weigh.

A Swedish team of researchers led by Peter Nordström, who works for the Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Geriatric Medicine at Umeå University in Sweden, discovered this finding based on more than 1.3 million cases of males at 18 years old on the average. Finally, they attempted to see if there was a correlation between obesity and early death factors.

The aerobic fitness of the participants was tested by asking them to cycle till they had to stop due to fatigue.

After adjusting for age and conscription year, men with the highest aerobic fitness levels had 51% lower risk for all-cause death (hazard ratio [HR], 0.49; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.47 – 0.51) compared with those with the lowest fitness levels. Alcohol and narcotics had the strongest association with death.

In addition, Harvard University School of Public Health nutrition and health expert, Walter Willett comments, “It’s clear that both fitness and fatness are important”.

Some studies undertaken prior have suggested that fit obese people who undertook regular exercise did not have a greater risk of potentially fatal illness compared with people of normal weight.

With the limitation that the study cohort included only men, and relative early deaths, this data does not support the notion that “fat but fit” is a benign condition.