Focus on Fitness
New research brings back message of fitness as more important than fatness.
Fit or fat? The conversation continues. Fit pros know that fitness is important, yet many people focus on weight rather than physical activity. A recent systematic review of 20 studies with a sample size of 398,716 adults published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine adds more evidence to share with clients about the value of their fitness training.
“Fitness, it turns out, is far more important than fatness when it comes to mortality risk. Our study found that obese fit individuals had a risk of death that was similar to that of normal weight fit individuals and close to one-half that of normal weight unfit individuals,” says study author Siddhartha Angadi, associate professor of exercise physiology at University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development. “Exercise is more than just a way to expend calories. It is excellent ‘medicine’ to optimize overall health and can largely reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause death for people of all sizes.”
References
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/59/5/339
https://education.virginia.edu/news-stories/why-weight-researchers-say-its-fitness-matters
https://education.virginia.edu/about/directory/siddhartha-angadi
Shirley Eichenberger-Archer, JD, MA
Shirley Eichenberger-Archer, JD, MA, is an internationally acknowledged integrative health and mindfulness specialist, best-selling author of 16 fitness and wellness books translated into multiple languages and sold worldwide, award-winning health journalist, contributing editor to Fitness Journal, media spokesperson, and IDEA's 2008 Fitness Instructor of the Year. She's a 25-year industry veteran and former health and fitness educator at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who has served on multiple industry committees and co-authored trade books and manuals for ACE, ACSM and YMCA of the USA. She has appeared on TV worldwide and was a featured trainer on America's Next Top Model.
