The answer to the question posed in the title is a resounding yes, but a recent article in the Archives of Internal Medicine was evidently misinterpreted by some people who thought the study suggested that the risk of obesity was not as great as previously thought. I read the article and found the data abundantly clear that the health risks of obesity are very real, and quite substantial. In order to insure that my personal bias was not affecting my interpretation of the article I asked the lead author to talk to us on Fitness Rocks, and she agreed.
Dr. Rachel Wildman from Albert Einstein College of Medicine talks to us about her study looking at the association between body mass index and the risk of developing what are called cardiometabolic risk factors. We define that complicated sounding term in the podcast. The good news is that her study seems to add more weight to the data suggesting that even though obesity poses a huge risk to health, these negative effects may be greatly attenuated by regular exercise even in the absence of weight loss. This is not to say that being obese is OK as long as you exercise, but rather it makes the point that you shouldn’t judge the success of your exercise program solely on the basis of your weight.
Another finding of the study is that the distribution of body fat is important in determining how being overweight or obese affects one’s health.
Listen to Podcast 110 to get the details.
Download Fitness Rocks Podcast 110
References:
Body Mass Index and Risk of Developing Cardiometabolic Risk Factors
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