Skinny or Fat: It May Not Make a Difference

A recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine has proven that being overweight may have no bearing on your health.

According to the study, being fit is more important to being a certain weight, especially when it comes to health risk factors. Furthermore, being mildly overweight does not increase mortality.

The researchers studied more than 5,400 adults. They found that while cardiac risk factors including high blood glucose and high blood pressure were strongly associated with obesity, about half of the study subjects who were overweight showed no increase in these risk factors. Also, a quarter of the normal-weight subjects did possess the risk factors.

The study shows that regardless of weight, exercise is important. This mirrors previous studies that have found the people with the lowest level of fitness have the highest mortality rate.

This is not to say that one should strive to be overweight, but rather that if you are looking to be healthy, concentrate on being fit. The weight will fall off slowly, but in the meantime, you will be adding years to your life, and really, what's more important!