Fat and fit is better than thin and idle

Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 12 May 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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If you are fat (overweight) and fit you are better off health-wise than if you are thin and idle. According to Professor Chris Riddoch, a UK government advisor on its recent physical activity report, 'There is evidence that fat people who achieve cardiovascular fitness through exercise have better health outcomes than lean people who don't.'

Many people in the UK, USA and several other countries are overweight. Many people think that being fit means being lean. We have to stand this idea on its head and focus on being fit, say the experts.

Riddoch said "As long as people see physical activity primarily as a way of losing weight, they are unlikely to keep it up, either because it doesn't achieve that objective quickly or because they think they have to lose weight before they can take up serious exercise. The benefits can be achieved whatever a person's weight."

He goes on to say that the benefits of being fit are usually greater than those of weight loss.

We have to get away from the idea that exercise is something we can only do when we have lost the weight. In fact, we have to look at what we mean by exercise.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY EXERCISE?

When most of us think of exercise we imagine a cross country runner puffing away, or a muscle man in the gym lifting weights, some of us think of famous sports stars practising their sport. What if we changed that view and thought of 'PHYSICAL ACTIVITY'.

What kind of things could we include in 'physical activity' apart from gyms, athletic tracks and road running? Well, we could include walking, cycling, swimming, more walking down to the shops, using our cars less, gardening, washing the car rather than taking it to the car wash, playing golf without the little electric cart, dancing and houseowork. In fact, if we think of everyday things, most of them involve some form of physical activity.

Now lets take this physical activity to the gym or local sports center and see if there are things fat people could do there without being over self-conscious and embarrassed or worried about not being able to cope. There is swimming, aqua aerobics, static bicycles, rowing machines, beginners exercise classes.

One gadget I bought about a three months ago has completely changed the way I look at physical activity. I bought a Pedometer. It measures how many steps I am taking, adds them up and tells me at the end of the day how many steps I took and how far I walked (more or less). The packet said that if I can take 10,000 steps a day I have done enough physical activity to stay healthy.

I put the pedometer on and carried on as normal. I wanted to see how far I would walk on a normal day. At the end of the first day I sat rather depressed at the end of my bed looking at the reading - I had done a mere 2,800 steps that day. That is just barely one quarter of my target.

The next morning I decided to go and get the newspaper on foot. I usually go by car to a store about one mile away. I did not fancy walking two miles every morning. So, I went to a nearer one that was about 400 yards away. That immediately added about 700 steps the Pedometer. In the evening I took the dog for a walk.

My family noticed I kept looking at this little gadget and asked me what it was. To cut a long story short, we all had a Pedometer within a few days. My wife and I soon took the dog for a walk every evening.

I now walk about 10,000 steps a day. During my lunch break I grab a ten-minute walk. Whenever I am talking on the phone I get up and pace up and down the office floor. I try to walk to all shops and banks, etc. that are less than one mile away.

Basically, all I am doing now is what my parents and grandparents used to do. I am using my legs to get around.

Friends have started using it. It is easy to incorporate ten thousand steps into your everyday life. Most of my friends have managed to maintain their daily targets.
v There is one thing I have notice however, and this may spoil the fat fit versus thin and idle idea. Most of my fat friends who have been using the Pedometer for more than a couple of months have lost a lot of weight. Does this mean that being fat and fit is a bit of a dream - if you are fat and get fit and keep up the exercise, surely you will not stay fat. Opinions welcome.

Anyway, the message is clear - aim for the fitness rather than the slimness if you are aiming for better health.