A new study is circumventing the myth of “health in all sizes”, revealing that it is not possible to be fat and healthy at the same time. The researchers warn that an active lifestyle is simply not enough to mitigate the inherent health risks that come with obesity, at least those related to heart health, putting many people at risk for chronic diseases.
The findings come from the European Society of Cardiology, which found that excess body fat overloads the heart and that exercise does not prevent it. The findings follow previous studies that muddy the waters, with some reporting that fitness can help someone who is overweight or obese to avoid the heart health complications associated with it.
This new study aimed to clarify whether this is the case, analyzing data on more than 527,000 adults in Spain. Of the participants, 32 percent were women; the whole group had an average age of 42 years. Likewise, 42 percent were of normal weight, while 41 percent were classified as overweight and 18 percent were classified as obese.
In addition, the data showed that more than 63% of participants lived an inactive lifestyle, 24.2% practiced regular activities and 12.3% were classified as ‘insufficiently active’. The study continues to present even more numbers, noting that 15% of the participants had high blood pressure, 30% had high cholesterol levels and 3% had a diagnosis of diabetes.
First, the good news: the study found that any level of activity, regardless of a person’s BMI, was associated with a reduced risk of developing these three diseases mentioned. Yet, the study notes that participants who were overweight or obese faced a higher risk of heart health compared to people with normal weight.
This risk was high at all levels of activity, which means that overweight people who were regularly active were still at considerable risk for cardiovascular problems. The study notes that someone who is obese, but active, faces about twice the risk of developing high cholesterol compared to a person who is inactive but has normal weight.
The risk increased thereafter, with active obese adults having four times the likelihood of developing diabetes and five times the risk of hypertension compared to inactive adults of normal weight.
The study’s author, Dr. Alejandro Lucia, said:
You can’t be “fat, but healthy”. This was the first national analysis to show that being regularly active is unlikely to eliminate the damaging health effects of excess body fat. Our results refute the notion that a physically active lifestyle can completely negate the deleterious effects of overweight and obesity.