Can It Really Be A Fat Body But Stay Healthy?

Medical Video: How to Flatten Your Belly in 10 Days

For years experts believe that it is possible for someone to be 'fat but healthy'.

However, now a number of researchers have broken the old idea that "the risk of death from obesity can be overcome by being physically fit" by showing the latest evidence. In essence, if you are overweight, regular and intense exercise will not prevent you from premature death. Obese people who regularly exercise have a tendency to die even faster than people who are thin and not fit, say the researchers.

The researchers claim that for people who are overweight, efforts to lose weight for an ideal healthy body are still far more important than just doing exercise "to stay healthy".

What is the reason?

'Fat but healthy' still doesn't avoid you from heart disease and cancer

The idea that you can be "fat but healthy" is based on the theory that high concentrations of aerobic fitness - how efficiently the heart and lungs can use oxygen - can make up for the complications of obesity.

Reporting from the NHS, this independent study from Umea University, Sweden found that participants who were ranked fifth highest in aerobic fitness levels had a 51% lower risk of death from each cause, than those who were not active at all. But, this effect is lost in groups who are overweight, even if they are in high fitness.

And, lean and active men have a reduced risk of premature death up to 30 percent lower than those who are "fat but healthy".

The study involved more than one million Swedes, with an average age of 18 at the time of recruitment for the armed forces - which required them to undergo a fitness test by cycling when they registered. These participants have also been weighed and measured, which allows researchers to find out if they are obese.

Data was collected based on physical fitness, health conditions, socioeconomic status, and the causes of their deaths after continuing to follow its development for almost 29 years. Within that period, the research team found four causes of general death suffered by nearly 45 thousand participants in the study, including cancer and heart disease.

The above comparisons were also drawn to adjust for unexpected effects of body mass index, cytolic and diastolic blood pressure, 15-year socioeconomic variables after military service pensions, and general diagnosis at the start of study recruitment. Again, people with the highest levels of fitness significantly reduce the risk of death from all causes, including trauma, heart disease or cebrebrovascular disease, suicide, and substance abuse.

The researchers also observed a linear trend for the risk of death from all causes, grouped based on aerobic fitness levels in all BMI categories. When comparing the top half of the aerobic fitness level compared to the bottom, the analysis found that higher aerobic fitness was associated with a significant risk of decreased mortality from each cause in normal weight and overweight individuals. However, the benefits are not significant for obese people with a BMI of 35 or more.

'Fat but healthy' doesn't mean you are free from the threat of diabetes

An Australian study involving more than 30,000 people has found that only physically active individuals will not protect you from developing illness if you already have overweight or obesity.

Reported from The Guardian, observed from the study, a group of obese people - even if they included being physically active (regular exercise) and spending very little time to relax - had a fivefold risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who were healthy, even if these people have lower levels of physical activity and are more often lazy.

People who are overweight, said the study further, have twice the risk of people who are normal and less active.

Thus, another additional study that supports the refutation that "fat but healthy" is possible, and reduces the risk of all diseases it carries - including type 2 diabetes.

Chief researcher Thanh-Binh Nguyen from the University of Sydney said, "If you are overweight, only physically active life cannot help you a lot in preventing type 2 diabetes. That will help to reduce your weight. So, it's important to continue to be physically active and start implementing healthy eating habits. "

Fat cells in overweight people are different from those fat cells are lean people

According to the findings of a study published in Cell Reports taken from Scientific American, fat cells in obese people perform a different activity from fat cells in healthy people.

By looking at gene expression profiles (from the results of fat cell biopsies in three groups of participants: 17 non-obese, 21 obese people who are sensitive to insulin, and 30 obese people who are immune to insulin), researchers found that when they inject participants with insulin, the response cells are almost indistinguishable in two obese groups.

Observations that two different types of obese bodies display very similar responses can provide clues as to why obese participants who are sensitive to display increased morbidity and risk of heart disease, compared to non-obese individuals. These findings are from risk factors independent of cardio-metabolism (metabolic disorders syndrome), and question the idea of "fat but healthy".

Being overweight not only increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and certain types of cancer, but also makes your diabetes more difficult to manage.

'Fat but healthy', you can, as long as ...

You can be "fat but healthy", according to a 1998 National Institutes of Health report from the Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults, reported by WebMD.

They found that overweight people can also be considered healthy, if they meet criteria such as: their waist size is in a healthy circumference (maximum 89 cm for women and 101 cm for men), and if they do not have two or more of the following conditions: high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol levels. Other risk factors, such as smoking, also affect whether a person can be considered healthy.

But wait a minute.

'Fat but healthy' is still no reason

The guidelines also show that overweight and obese people should no longer be able to gain additional weight, and should still lose a few kilograms of existing weight.

Furthermore, there is also conflicting evidence, in which researchers vehemently refute the idea of "fat but healthy. In a 2013 study, researchers from the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Canada found that people who weighed above their BMI recommendations, but did not have normal cholesterol or blood pressure, still had 24% more risk high for heart disease or premature death, compared to individuals who have a healthy metabolism in the range of normal weight.

In conclusion, "motivational" ideas such as "healthy obesity" and "fat but healthy" are considered by many to be too easy for serious health problems to lurk behind, which is still a mystery to experts.

Lastly, the idea of 'fat but healthy' should not be used as a justification for being overweight, just as a reminder that the combination of an active lifestyle and getting used to a healthy diet is a far more important solution to your overall health than the numbers on your scale.