"Fat but fit" still poses health risks.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

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

New research seems to contradict the idea that people might escape the health hazards associated with obesity if they're "fat but fit."

The new study suggests that the health benefits of physical fitness are offset by obesity. No matter their fitness level, normal-weight men had a lower risk of dying during the study than did the most physically fit obese men, the researchers said.

......

To measure aerobic fitness, the men rode an exercise bicycle until they were too tired to continue.

The men in the top 20 percent of aerobic fitness had a 48 percent lower risk of death from any cause during the study period compared with those in the bottom 20 percent, the investigators found.

However, the beneficial effects of physical fitness decreased as obesity increased, the researchers said. And, for the most obese, even the highest levels of physical fitness couldn't provide health benefits to offset the risks from obesity.

The study authors concluded that being "fat but fit" still poses health risks.



https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_156334.html

[Warpy]

1. Please note this study was confined to men

Earlier studies have shown that moderately overweight women outlive their thin and normal weight sisters.

[snooper2]

6. As post number #2 hints at, how often do you see overweight women at the store?

Most all of the older (+70) women I see are usually fairly thin-

If I do come across a woman who looks fairly old, if she is overweight she is riding in the electric chair provided by the store. And those women tend to be no more than 60 or 65-


You have linky for study?

[Warpy]

21. There are plenty of moderately overweight women over 70, over 80, over 90.

Women late in life start to lose the weight as they prepare to die.

Note that I am not talking about morbidly obese women. No one argues that's not a health hazard. I'm talking about moderately overweight women.

Sorry if our bodies offend you.

[spooky3]

23. Google is your friend; here's one of many links.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/why-being-overweight-means-you-live-longer-the-way-scientists-twist-the-facts-10158229.html

It's interesting that the study described in the OP focused only on "obese" men. It apparently didn't include people deemed "overweight but not obese."

[Nye Bevan]

2. How often do you see a very old person who's very fat? (nt)

[Tipperary]

3. Good point.

[Scout]

5. my mother is 89 and very fat.

my father is 90 and not fat.

[whatthehey]

7. You do know aging causes weight loss right?

Not necessary BF% loss however, but the reason you don't see 90yr olds with treetrunk arms and legs very often is not because they all died at 60, but because they started losing mass about then due to normal aging.

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003998.htm

[haele]

11. Great-Grandmother, 5'1, 210 lbs, 102 years - died of pneumonia.

Walked every day, only minor arthritis, which she had developed in her 60's. Cooked and ate the same as she did when she was a youngster in a Missouri farming community, was making quilts on her old 1903 treadle sewing machine (no electricity needed) until 2 weeks before her death when she started getting sick.

That being said, a lot of health and weight loss is genetics. That side of the family must have been part avocado; once they gain weight, it never goes away and all of them are pear shaped by the time they're in their mid 60's, no matter how active or diet conscious they seem to be. In fact, dieting as it was practiced in the 1960's through 2000's (semi-starvation calorie counting/low fat) made them fatter.

Haele

[NickB79]

17. Pear-shaped explains it all

Weight at or below the hips carries FAR less health risk than weight above the hips (the "apple" shape).

[yawnmaster]

12. I've seen many eom

[NickB79]

19. I do see some, and they almost universally look miserable

Mostly confined to motorized scooters, tanks of oxygen at their sides, on so many different prescriptions to keep them alive that they can't even keep track of them all. But thanks to modern medicine, even those with morbid obesity can be kept alive for a very, very long time.

The better question to ask is, how often do you see a fat old person who looks like they are living a life of decent quality? That can enjoy their retirement as they should? Play with their grandchildren, plant a garden, take a walk, sleep without a CPAP mask or go outside without an oxygen hose in their nose?

[Ed Suspicious]

30. I enjoy reading and could do it from the comfort of my own O2 tank.

You need to be careful when you start defining quality of life for others.

[pnwmom]

28. I had a fat great aunt who lived till over 90,

quite an achievement in her generation, especially.

My grandmother, her sister, was slim and died at age 68.

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. I'm not fat and just took a stress test.

I sure didn't last very long. I a m going to start walking as soon as it warms up enough.

It's not just fat people .

[cwydro]

8. Being slim has nothing to do with fitness.

Just means you're not fat.

Exercise keeps you fit.

[NickB79]

20. Anyone at any weight can be unhealthy

But as studies like the one in the OP are now showing, your odds of being healthy go down dramatically the heavier you become.

[hobbit709]

9. Living poses health risks.

"Eat right, stay fit, die anyhow"

[PasadenaTrudy]

14. +1

[whatthehey]

10. Health reporting needs to use real data

As opposed to relative differentials.

I'm sure nobody here will admit to this for themselves, but we all know a huge number of people see numbers like that "48% greater" and think "so if a thin guy has a 2% chance of dying that means a fatty is at 50% - the fatty is fucked!" instead of "if a thin guy has a 0.0100% chance of dying a fat guy has a 0.0148% over the course of the study. In other words the vast majority of both are fine."

Relative risk without baseline risk is lazy sensationalism at best and willful deceit more likely and should be outlawed. There are times when I've bothered going to study raw data (which they rarely make easily accessible, natch) and seen "300% more likely to get X! Breathless panic!!" be literally three decimal places to the right. What does it matter to your life if you are 99.999% likely to be fine compared to 99.997%? Would you do anything different with those odds?

Morbidity data show obesity to be a minor impact especially considering the 35% obesity rate in the population, and it is a condition for which confounding is notoriuously difficult. And yet so many credulous fools are still parrotting the scare headlines the CDC were forced to retract a decade ago.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2005/apr/20/20050420-124451-2201r/?page=all#!

[PasadenaTrudy]

13. Life is a health risk! nt

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Beat Me To It, Trudy

This is a dumb study that sure looks to be an attempt to plot life expectancy risk on a XY relationship with weight or BMI.

It's those other 12 variables and crossed effects that are such pests in this type of thing.

Seems intuitively obvious, until you think about it a bit, and realize it's actually close to valueless.

[underahedgerow]

16. Of course that's correct. Walking around with slabs of globulous layers of fat around your gut, hips

thighs, legs and arms isn't good for anyone's health, at all, anywhere on this planet no matter if you're male or female.

Just to imagine the layers of fat crushing your organs should be enough for anyone to seriously review their dietary intake.

[pnwmom]

31. Research shows that it matters where you have the pounds of fat,

and the type of fat, too.

Pounds of fat on the belly are much more dangerous than the same number of pounds on the hips or thighs.

[NickB79]

18. This isn't the first study to debunk the "fat but fit" theory

A separate study done a year ago:

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/diet-fitness/fat-fit-theory-mainly-flops-long-term-study-n278836

The notion that it's possible to be obese and healthy finally may have been debunked.

While some obese people show no signs of heart disease, a new study suggests it's just a matter of time before the consequences of carrying substantial, excess pounds ultimately take a toll.

British researchers followed more than 2,500 men and women for 20 years, tracking their body mass indices (BMI), cholesterol counts, blood pressures, fasting glucose amounts and insulin resistance levels. Among many of the study subjects who were obese, heart disease risk factors eventually appeared, according to the study, published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

"Based on this the state of healthy obesity should be regarded as a high risk state," said lead author Joshua Bell, a researcher in the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London in England. "Over the long term there is a tendency to progress to unhealthy obesity rather than staying stable or becoming healthy non-obese."

[Le Taz Hot]

22. Oh goodie

Last edited Mon Jan 11, 2016, 08:18 PM - Edit history (1)

Another opportunity for the fat shamers to shine. These never get old.

[madinmaryland]

24. So what are we supposed to say? "being overweight is healthy for you and

increases your life span"???

When most every study indicates exactly the opposite.

[Le Taz Hot]

25. How about it's nobody's fucking business

what anybody weighs. Or why.

[madinmaryland]

32. No where did I ever try and shame someone for being overweight. There

are plenty of other things to blame people for the health conditions (i.e smoking, alchohol, drug addiction), but that's not what anyone is saying.

Some people are of a normal weight have high blood pressure, some have very high cholesterol with low blood pressure, but I nor anyone else is blaming them for their medical condition. But certain medical conditions do shorten your lifespan.

[HERVEPA]

26. So publishing information is bad? Study does not promote shaming. Just shows results of study.

[Le Taz Hot]

27. Oh, don't be stupid.

These threads gives the FAT SHAMERS a chance to do what they love to do. If you're not a FAT SHAMER then this doesn't apply to you.

[melman]

29. No

What's stupid is insisting that anyone that discusses the obvious truth that being fat is unhealthy is a FAT SHAMER.

[Le Taz Hot]

33. Kindly offer me the direct quote.

I'll wait.

[madinmaryland]

36. This...

Oh Goodie... Another opportunity for the fat shamers to shine. These never get old

[Le Taz Hot]

37. Nope.

I specifically referred to Fat Shamers only. Here is your quote: "anyone that discusses the obvious truth that being fat is unhealthy is a FAT SHAMER." My subject: "Fat shamers." Your subject: "anyone that discusses . . ." Not even close to the same thing.

[madinmaryland]

39. Are you responding to the correct person??

Where did I say: "anyone that discusses the obvious truth that being fat is unhealthy is a FAT SHAMER."

[Le Taz Hot]

41. No. I'm tired.

[Ed Suspicious]

34. Ain't that the truth.

[Ed Suspicious]

35. Even the verbiage we use pisses me off. I have muscle,

but I AM fat. It isn't just superfluous tissue surrounding my organs. It is my entire being.

[Le Taz Hot]

38. If someone wants to spend their days eating 4 pieces of lettuce and an olive

and going to the gym 8 hours a day that's fine with me because it's none of my business. If someone wants to enjoy their food and not go to the gym, then that's also none of my business. But for some reason the former (as is true of so many vegans and vegetarians) seem to want to insist that everyone else be just like them. I say we need to accept each other just the way they are.

[madinmaryland]

40. So do you have an issue with people being charged more for health insurance

based on their lifestyle choices? If you smoke, drink, or do not eat well, should you be charged more? It is already happening now.

Or do you have a problem paying more in health insurance due to people smoking and drinking and driving up healthcare costs?