Fat and Fit? - Weight Loss And Fitness Essentials

It seems like some days you take one step forward and two backward. ?I mean I really do try to encourage people to lose fat during their weight loss and ?to become fit in the process. ?Then I come across a headline such as?

Fit Trumps Fat as Health Gauge, Coke-Funded Study Shows

?I wouldn?t tell everyone that it?s all fine,? he said. ?If you?re normal weight or overweight, you should still exercise. If you don?t reduce your weight with exercise, but are fit, you?re at a much lower risk than if you?re unfit.? ?http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-04/fitness-trumps-fat-as-health-gauge-coke-funded-research-shows.html

I could be missing something in my understanding of fitness I suppose, but I generally follow how overall fitness is measured. For example, this is how Medical News Today defines fitness:

?Overall fitness is made up of five main components:

?Cardiorespiratory endurance

?Muscular strength

?Muscular endurance

?Body composition

?Flexibility?

I found it rather daunting that Dr. Ortega considered the subjects in the study as ?metabolically healthy? if?

?they had only one of the following conditions: high?blood pressure, low levels of so-called good cholesterol, high triglyceride levels and high fasting glucose level.??

Now, although each one by itself doesn?t usually kill an individual, I wouldn?t say any of them are healthy. ?And, you have to remember that this particular study was comparing overweight people to other overweight people who were considered ?fit? and those who weren?t.

You have to wonder what the standards were when assessing fitness in the study. Was it British, Swedish, Spanish or American? ?Does it matter? ?Well, I hope it does.

In 2008, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services stated that?

?More than 80 percent of adults do not meet the guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities.? ?http://www.health.gov/PAGuidelines/guidelines/default.aspx

I?m not so certain this study really pointed out anything new. ?It?s been known for quite some time that people can improve their quality of life through fitness. ?So, I was not startled when I read that those in the study who were ?fit? were less likely to have an earlier death.

What alarms me is that the headline sends out the wrong message. ?That it?s okay to carry around excess fat as long as you have some undefined fitness level.

I wonder how these researchers would account for the relatively short lifespan of Sumo wrestlers (who are very fit, but overweight). ?Their longevity is between 60 to 65. ?And if you are in your 20?s you may think that?s old, but it?s not, considering the average is past 75 nowadays.

As for me?I?m going to keep getting off the couch and being physical as I learn to eat healthy. ?I do believe that losing fat through weight loss and being fit is good for your health.

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Source: http://weightlossandme.com/weight-loss-fitness-good-health/

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