Can you be fat but fit?

RECENT RESEARCH SHOWS YOU CAN.

By Mike James

You are pounding away the kilometres on a treadmill at the local gym. The sweat is glistening on your muscular torso, you are breathing hard and feeling good. You look at the person on the machine next to you. He is far from svelte, downright chubby in fact, but to your surprise he is running much faster than you.

Fifteen minutes later after you finish your run, cool down, stretch and shower, you find he is still running and is not half as breathless as you were.

Maybe you've trained for months for a local fun run. You've watched your diet and body-fat levels and decked yourself out in the latest trendy sports gear, only to find yourself beaten over the line by a pudgy guy in a baggy sweat-shirt and shorts that barely cover his ample buttocks. To add insult to injury he has abdominals that look like they have consumed numerous six-packs rather than exercised for them.

How can this be? Doesn't a slim body guarantee superior fitness levels? Isn't a large waistline and a lack of muscular definition indicative of a slothful lifestyle and poor fitness level?

Not according to recent research from respected fitness industry experts Dr. Glenn Gaesser, professor of exercise physiology at the University of Virginia, and Dr Stephen Blair, director of research at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas. Dr Gaesser says we have been conditioned to view health and fitness in strictly black and white terms. "We think a fat body cannot possibly be fit and healthy -which implies that "lean" is inherently good and "fat" is inherently bad. This is an overly simplistic view that does not stand up against a substantial amount of medical and scientific evidence."

Various studies have shown that thin people do not necessarily live longer, nor are they necessarily the healthiest. And no measure of body weight or body fat can be related to a particular degree of coronary blood vessel disease.

In 1996, researchers at the National Center for Health Statistics, and Cornell University, analysed dozens of published reports on the impact of body weight on death rates of 350,000 men and 250,000 women. They found that during follow up periods lasting up to 30 years, "moderate obesity" -no more than about 22.5 kilograms in excess of so called ideal body weight -increased the risk of premature death only slightly in men and not at all in women.

Dr Gaesser points out that height/weight charts do not account for heavily muscled individuals even when they categorise them into small, medium and large frames. For example, the recommended range for a 155 centimetre man is 59-79 kilograms. This would exclude nearly all professional Australian rules football players! This type of erroneous information can lead people to fret and worry unnecessarily about numbers on a bathroom scale.

Rather than height/weight tables, obesity is now measured in terms of a person's body mass index (BMI). But this is not infallible either. It is also possible for a healthy, muscular athlete with very low body fat to be classified obese using the BMI formula.

Your BMI is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in metres. A "healthy weight" is considered to be between 20-25, up to 29.9 overweight, and one 30 or above obese.

Dr. Steven Blair agrees that the focus on weight loss is wrong. "Healthy bodies come in all shapes. We need to stop hounding people about their weight and encourage them to eat healthful diets and exercise. There is a misdirected everybody obsession with weight and weight loss. It is fitness that is the key."

So does this mean we should ignore all the warnings and just eat and drink to our hearts' content with no worry about future health consequences? No, well certainly not without regular exercise and healthy diet. "An overweight person who is fit can be just as healthy, and live as long as a lean, fit person," Blair says.

According to Gaesser, the Hollywood fuelled obsession with obtaining a lean body and the desire for weight loss at any Everybody cost, is one of the major reasons people discontinue their exercise program. "Stopping an exercise program due to perceived failure to reach a particular weight loss or body-fat goal, results in all the exercise and fitness benefits being lost as well. Yo-yo fitness is becoming as common as yo-yo dieting, where people's weight fluctuates markedly with potential dire consequences for their metabolism and overall health."

Not everybody agrees. Respected researchers like Dr. June Stevens, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, feel that "Just being slender is not enough and just being fit is not enough. In order to enjoy the best life expectancy you need to be both."

Researchers like Gaesser and Blair are attempting to shift the focus away from unattainable body shapes to overall fitness. Let's face it -not every man has a Mr. Universe skeletal structure with broad muscular shoulders tapering down to a 32-inch waist, nor every woman the long slender legs and perfect curves of a supermodel. Fit is in, whatever your shape or size.

OBESITY RISK

There is a difference between being fat and being obese. Obesity is defined as having a body-mass index (BMI) of 30 or above. The health consequences of obesity range from a number of non-fatal complaints that affect quality of life -such as respiratory difficulties, musculoske letal problems, skin problems and infertility -to complaints that may lead to premature death.

Obesity is known to increase a person's risk of diabetes, stroke , coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, high cho lestero l, and kidney and gallbladder disorders. It may increase the risk for some types of cancer and is also linked to the development of osteoarthritis and sleep apnea. New Dutch research found obesity in adulthood is associated with a decrease in life expectancy of about seven years -similar to that associated with smoking.